A museum has been awarded a grant to create an artistic space in a historic setting.

The Museum and Art Gallery Project has been awarded £50,000 by the Arts Gallery England to help them transform the town hall into a national centre for culture.

The money will be put towards renovating the Assembly Room into a large space that can be home to a wide range of events including art exhibitions, theatre, music and dance.

This is part of the ongoing £7.75 million scheme to convert the Town Hall in St Peter’s Street, a Grade II* Listed building constructed in 1831, into a museum space which is due to be open next year.

The room on the first floor was originally designed to be a ballroom with high ceilings, decorative cornices and a balcony will be used for the City’s film, literary and other cultural festivals.

The project to raise £1.7 million has been led by St Albans City and District Council is still £400,000 short of its target.

The scheme helped by groups including the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Wolfson Foundation, the John Apthorp Charity, the Garfield Weston Foundation and owners of the Maltings shopping precinct Boultbee LDN.

Councillor Annie Brewster said: “I am thrilled that Arts Council England is supporting our inspiring project and has provided this grant.

“The Arts Council has been a wonderful supporter of our Museum Service for many years and they are fully behind St Albans creating something very special in the heart of our historic City. We want to make the double height Assembly Room a spectacular feature of the project.

“It means we have now raised £1.3 million and are in sight of achieving our ambitious target of £1.7 million. I urge anyone who wants to donate to this great project to get in touch; there are many exciting opportunities for individuals and organisations to get involved.”

Arts Council England’s South East Director Hedley Swain said: “We’re really pleased to be able to support St Albans Museum and Art Gallery with National Lottery funding as it creates a space dedicated to arts activity. It is really important that more people have access to wide variety of great arts and culture and this project is a great way to achieve that.”

For information on the project visit http://www.stalbansmuseumsandgalleriestrust.org.uk/ or for more on the Arts Council visit http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/.