The owner of one of Scotland's leading cultural venues has outlined plans to transform Edinburgh's old 'Sick Kids' Hospital into a museum and gallery.
Robert McDowell, the owner of Summerhall, the former vet school which is now a leading cultural and festival venue, said he would like to turn the Royal Hospital for Sick Children building, in south Edinburgh near The Meadows, into a gallery and museum.
He has submitted a bid document to NHS Lothian, which outlines a plan to use the building as a gallery for children's art as well as a museum of the Edinburgh Festival, a plan he has long mooted.
In his plan, Mr McDowell said paintings and sculptures in the new gallery would be made by young people.
The building, founded in 1860, is to change use after the move of the hospital service to the Little France area of the city, close to the new Royal Infirmary.
The second proposed museum on the site would be the home for a museum of the Festivals in the city.
He said: "I had been looking for a place to establish a museum of the Festival because Edinburgh has needed that for decades.
"We have all the materials already, and it would be lovely to announce that this year, during the 70th anniversary."
He said, if he was successful with his bid for the building, that it would be like Summerhall but "more and different" and could support 600 jobs.
He said: "I would also like something in the ambience of the place, that keeps a sense of the history of the place as a hospital for almost 150 years.
"We believe in adapting the arts to the building, not the building to the art.
"This is something transformational. Imagine Summerhall and the hospital together: just imagine how much that would inform, enhance and grow the creative industries and cultural activities."
A short list of potential developers for the site is expected to be drawn up in the coming month.
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