PACE Theatre Company raises the curtain on new home with £300,000 investment
01 Oct 2026
- Glasgow and Strathclyde
- Arts
- Investment
A leading youth arts charity has secured a £300,000 loan from responsible finance provider Social Investment Scotland (SIS) to help purchase a new permanent home in Paisley.
PACE Theatre Company, one of the UK's largest youth theatre organisations, has relocated to The Kiln Creative Learning Hub in Paisley town centre which will enable the charity to expand its reach, improve accessibility and create new opportunities for young people across Renfrewshire and beyond.
Established in 1988, PACE works with more than 1,000 young people every week through its youth theatre programme and welcomes nearly 800 more to its school holiday activities each summer. Alongside its community programmes, the charity produces professional theatre shows, including the annual pantomime at Paisley Arts Centre, and early years productions for children under five.
Before moving to its new home, PACE operated from two separate buildings in Paisley - an old church and a former department store. Running both had become increasingly costly, with rising heating bills, ongoing maintenance and increasing security costs draining vital funds that could have been spent on the charity’s young participants.
The Kiln brings PACE's staff, volunteers and activities together for the first time in years.
The building offers accessible creative spaces, lift access, dedicated parking and outdoor areas for young people to use, helping remove practical barriers that can prevent some families from taking part in activities. The consolidation of activities under one roof is expected to result in lower running costs for the charity, freeing up more funding for programmes and opportunities for young people.
PACE also plans to work with local artists, community groups, charities and small businesses that might otherwise struggle to find affordable space to meet, work or develop new projects.
For those interested in a career in the arts, PACE has also provided an early platform for a number of successful performers. Former members include James McAvoy, Richard Madden and, most recently, Lucy Halliday, who appears in Hula’s dystopian TV show, The Testaments.
This move would not have been possible without the support of Social Investment Scotland. As a charity, we don't have large reserves and accessing traditional finance would have been extremely difficult. Some young people join PACE because they love theatre and others arrive knowing very little about it at all. What matters to us is that they have somewhere to come each week, be themselves, meet new people and benefit from a varied programme of high quality arts experiences. Having a permanent home means we can build on that work and create even more opportunities for young people across Scotland.”
Grant Mason
CEO at PACE Theatre Company
Annie Howie, Investment Manager at Social Investment Scotland, said: "PACE has always found creative ways to make the most of what it has, so it's great to see them find a home that matches their ambition. Structuring the loan with a mortgage holiday meant they could focus on getting the building right first, rather than rushing repayments before the doors even opened.
“Just as importantly, the building will become a resource for the wider community, creating opportunities for local artists, charities and community groups to make use of the space. Accessing finance to buy a building isn't straightforward for many charities, even when they have a proven track record of positive social impact."