The Letchworth Arts Centre will reopen as the Broadway Gallery after it is refurbished in a bid to combine the town’s cultural gems.

Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation’s plans to raise the town on a plinth as a hub for the arts is taking shape, with the arts centre set to emerge under a new guise in December after three months of refurbishment works – which start on Tuesday, September 1.

The centre’s development goes hand in hand with plans to build a new theatre at the Broadway Cinema next year, with work beginning in February to convert Screen One into a live performance venue suitable for plays, comedy and music.

The Broadway Gallery – which will also feature a Broadway Studio – will be used primarily as an exhibition space for artworks, under the direction of a yet-to-be-appointed visual arts curator.

Foundation chief executive John Lewis said: “This is an exciting time for Letchworth as we bring together these two venues under one banner and invest in a stronger arts offer, which will broaden our audience beyond Letchworth.

“We are appointing an arts and cultural team to manage our venues, develop the gallery space and to work with local arts groups, schools and colleges to run a range of activities.

“This refurbishment, along with the new theatre being built at Broadway Cinema in 2016, is central to our plans to make Letchworth a hub for the arts.

“Broadway Cinema is widely known and loved and the name is well established, so bringing our venues all under the Broadway banner makes sense.

“We’re at a very early stage in terms of how that might develop, but we look forward to sharing our plans and new branding with the community in the coming months.”

The Foundation is also committed to using the unit in The Arcade – now left vacant after the outgoing Herts at War exhibition – as a community museum, with St Christopher School set to move in next month.