Meeting with the City of Malmö August 29

The announced meeting between Lund University and The city of Malmö took place in Lund as planned. The city of Malmö was represented by Mayor Jan-Inge Alfridh and Planning Director Christer Larsson. The meeting covered both the Faculty of Fine and Performing Arts shared premises project, which apply to all institutions and entities, as well as the issue of the Art Academy’s premises.

The meeting lasted over two hours and discussed different aspects of location, design, procurement requirements and costs. The city of Malmö submitted site proposals in short and long term. This means that the city to some extent has tried to link the issue of Malmö Art Academy’s premises with the long-term plan of shared premises for the entire faculty.

The city’s starting point was that the Art Academy’s tenancies contract would be terminated in September, more specifically by the municipal decision on September 7. Removals will take place in conjunction with the contracts termination June 30, 2017 or upon agreement by December 2017. The date will be set due to the construction plan regarding ready for use premises as a secondary school year 2019

The university Vice-Chancellor emphasized that Lund University has an understanding of the tight situation the city of Malmö is in with accompanying requirements to take care of the increasing number of pupils. The city of Malmö cannot meet the requirements LU has raised to get more planning time to solve the acute location situation arising from the removal in 2017. When the city announced the removal orally at the meeting in spring 2015, the ambition at the same time was to arrange adequate replacement facilities. This is, however, no obligation for the city of Malmö – the tenancy contract contains no such clause, and the city has not taken any rent for the premises.                   

The proposed premises for short and long term that the city of Malmö presented are not possible to implement without procurement from Lund University and the proposals contain a number of uncertainties. The long-term relocation requires careful preparation and procurement of the lessor. As for the solution of the Academy of Art premises in the short term, it was clear that a so-called stopover becomes necessary for a number of years before the shared premises project is completed.

Lund University are now to work quickly with how to resolve the Malmö Art Academy’s premises. During the next few weeks the procurement work will be prepared and the location program work will be completed and rental options investigated. Hopefully the result of this work will clarify what the short term solution might look like.

We will get back as soon as we have more information.

Solfrid Söderlind

Dean