The Aberdeen Arts Centre Association or 'AACA' began its life in the early 1950s as a pressure group set up to lobby for an Arts Centre in Aberdeen which would provide a venue both for the city's thriving amateur societies and for visiting professional artists. Its persistence paid off in the early sixties when the Corporation of the City of Aberdeen bought and converted the North & Trinity Church which had recently closed. After the opening in 1963 the Association took an active role in promoting use of the new facilities by organizing poetry readings, art exhibitions, concerts and performances by small scale professional touring companies. It continued doing this over the years until, in 1998, the Aberdeen City Council decided to cease funding the venue - when once again the AACA took on a lobbying role and acted as co-ordinator of all the groups concerned in the fight to save the venue for the people of Aberdeen - performers, visual artists, audiences and, in particular, the young people who have gained so much through involvement in the activities of the Arts Centre.