Dundee High School has launched its ambitious plan to build a new multi-million-pound centre for arts in the city.
Hundreds of school children gathered at the opening of the fundraising campaign to turn the city’s former head post office into a new state-of-the-art facility.
Parents and former pupils joined in the ceremony, which included a pipe band performance and a torch-lit procession.
Tours of the vacant building, which Dundee High School purchased two years ago, were also offered.
The institution hopes to convert the Meadowside building into learning and teaching facilities for art, drama, music and culinary arts.
Speaking at the ceremony, Dundee High School rector Dr John Halliday said it was fantastic to launch the project in a “rousing” fashion.
He added: “It is wonderful to open the campaign in such a striking way.
“It is fantastic to be celebrating this opportunity and occasion together.”
He told the gathering that the new building would provide an emphasis on creativity which is “at the heart of a great school”.
The renovation of the building is expected to be done in stages and to take several years, with the fundraising campaign due to run until 2020.
The work will also deliver a main auditorium, a dining hall and further administrative and social spaces for pupils and staff.
Dundee High School has yet to name the new building, which One Foot in the Grave star Richard Wilson backed in June at a gala dinner in the Palace of Westminster.
Architects Page/Park is the firm behind the designs for the building.
A spokesman for the company said: “The acquisition by the school of the former post office building adjacent to the main school complex has initiated a remarkable vision for an arts complex second to none in an academic context in the United Kingdom.”
Built in 1898 in the French Renaissance style, the city’s historic former Head Post Office had lain unused prior to its purchase by the school.