Alastair Upton, Chief Executive at the Bluecoat.I’m writing this from the new office. The builders have worked like crazy to get the space ready and then Sam, Sue and Dani from our office worked miracles over the weekend to get everything moved over. Its freezing cold as there is no heating but I’m warmed by the excitement of the move.

Even better than this was the sight of the new wing. The scaffolding came down over the weekend and it’s a beauty. The scaffolding was moved from the inside as well and you get the full impact of the three storey ‘vida’ and the wide, high walk way down past the galleries. You can look at the plans as much as you like but you can’t imagine its shear physicality.

Even Hans our architect was overcome when he saw the new wing revealed. He declared the building a mighty boy - ‘It is a male one you know!’, as if he couldn’t have sexed the building before it was built.

Anne Michaels the Canadian poet and novelist once inscribed a book to me with ‘May you truly inhabit where ever you live’, making the point that it is not enough just to live somewhere, you should try to be part of the building and allow it to be a part of you. We are now looking for those people who really want to be ‘part’ of the Bluecoat.

Our campaign for tenants has been hugely successful so we now have more artists and creative industries than we have space. The shops are more difficult. The whole vision for the building is a space where everything is part of the process of creativity ‘from production to consumption’. The consumption could be visiting an exhibition or buying tickets for a show but as importantly it could be buying goods from a retailer who is selling the product of creativity or even the means of its production.

This very particular hunt leads most obviously to independent retailers. Almost by definition they are the hardest to find as they don’t have a chain of stores running from Brighton to Bolton. Our agents Sutton Kersh are searching hard but we could do with ideas and introductions.

If you know anyone who could fully inhabit the Bluecoat let me know.

Alastair Upton, Chief Executive at the Bluecoat.