Built in 1860, the Category B Listed Darlington Church has held pride of place to the gateway of Ayr Town Centre, with its riverside location serving the residents of Ayr North for decades. Many Ayr North residents have used the Darlington Church for weddings, christenings and a place for the community to gather.

The Darlington Church then became the home of the Borderline Theatre Co. in the 1980s, with renowned actors such as Robbie Coltrane, Elaine C Smith and Alan Cumming treading the boards for Ayrshire audiences. Sadly, the venue was to become a casualty of a change in landscape in terms of arts funding and closed its doors in 2009, where it lay dormant until we ran a community consultation and shared our plans to bring the building back to life again. These plans were championed by our communities and after a long period of working hard during the pandemic, the sale of the building to The Iris Arts Ayr CIC was completed in September 2022. Since then we have been making massive improvements to the structure and interior of the building, preparing to open our doors to audiences once again.
 

Our communities deserve a quality, accessible arts venue that attracts a high calibre of arts and entertainment to the region, but at an affordable price. They deserve to have their voices represented, whether that is in how the space operates, or their thoughts, experiences, challenges and ideas shown on stage and screen. They deserve a space to be creative, uninhibited and relaxed, a home for good things to happen.

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This building has the community embedded in the bricks. We have gathered here, expressed our love here, brought our children here. We have said goodbye here; we have laughed, shared our views and changed lives here. It's time to bring this building back to life and bring our past into a bright new future.