The new management team at Dundee’s Keiller Centre say they are preparing ‘big changes’ for the shopping centre.
Donna Holford-Lovell and Kathryn Rattray officially took over management of the centre at the start of May and they are already making waves.
The pair have secured the lease of their largest unit at the back of the centre, which used to be a cafe.
It will reopen as a games cafe, called Cake or Dice, and will offer teas and coffees, cake, hoards of board games and a place to spend time with friends.
Donna said: “It’s based around offering a safe space to meet with friends and play board games.
“It will also have a learning programme, a sensory programme, and people can sit and play board games all day while having tea and cake – people love tea and cake.
“It will be a good place for young people to come together but it will be a multi-generational space and a safe place to share gaming ideas with other generations.”
Angus mums Laura Stevenson and Emma Barry had originally planned to open Cake of Dice on Murraygate but they will now be based at the Keiller Centre instead.
Aim to merge shopping and culture
The games cafe is part of Donna and Kathryn’s shared vision to create a dynamic living space within the centre where shopping and culture merge together.
They recently introduced The Federation art gallery in one of the units, which director Kathryn says has become a ‘destination’ for visitors and art-lovers.
Currently hosting ‘Journeys on the 28 Bus’ by artist Kirsty Lockhart, the gallery has increased both footfall and the amount of time visitors spend inside the centre.
Kathryn said: “Footfall has gone up exponentially since we opened The Federation gallery, it’s become a destination.
“People come here to meet and have a coffee or their lunch. We’ve seen more young people and families who come to have a juice and hang out.
“We’re proud of where it sits in Dundee representing under-recognised artists and bringing art to people who might not seek out that experience.”
Art space on metal shutters
Kathryn and Donna also plan to turn the metal shop shutters – most of which are permanently down at the moment due to the number of vacant units – into pieces of art.
Five of the shutters are to be taken over by Dundee City Council’s Sustainable Dundee, a project aimed at reducing the city’s impact on the environment and making it more sustainable.
These shutters will be used to highlight the challenges Dundee faces, possibly with interactive QR codes on them, and the remaining shutters will be offered to artists in the community.
It’s about bringing the Keiller Centre back to life again.”
Donna Holford-Lovell
Donna said: “The idea is to create a community feeling within the building so we all work together – retail, food, learning, opportunities to try new art ideas, business ideas and creative ideas.
“Shops are shutting everywhere. We want to look at fair economics, circular economics, so we all support each other.
“Where people come for the art and buy food or visit a shop on their way out. Or they come for the shops and stumble across the art and think ‘what’s this?’
“It’s about bringing the Keiller Centre back to life again and showing what the high street could be.”
The pair are keen to experiment with new ideas until they find the best way of achieving that, having explored live music options, community workshops and business events.
And the venue will be one of more than ten hosts at Art Night Dundee, an art festival which will see installations including film, live events and performances across the city, on June 24.
As part of the festival Donna, who is also director of NEoN Digital Arts, and Kathryn will run digital workshops where people can experiment with sound, make things from waste materials and learn about programming and coding.
In the longer term the management team hope to be able to purchase the building in a community buy out, but they say they need ‘public support’ first before that can be considered.
They remain open to suggestions from the community as to how they can make the Keiller Centre “great again”.
Conversation