[Gayle]

I’ve taken so long to reply to this for a few reasons.

1. I wasn’t sure that anything I said would be believed or accepted as it’s very easy for some people to take a negative stance.
2. It’s very hard to express yourself on a forum like this, if I phrase something slightly ambiguously or confusing, I know it will be picked up and picked apart by some people.
3. Finally, I knew it wouldn’t be a short reply and I didn’t want to blaze into it and miss something out so that I could be accused of ‘hiding’ or ‘omitting important facts’.

So, here goes

Originally Posted by Acrylic-Bob

Oh I see, the bid failed and we don't qualify for "great art for all". Why does that not surprise me.

We didn’t get the £1.6m but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t have ‘great art for all’. This is the flaw with publicising a funding bid too early. The media made a big deal about it and yes, it was nice for the council to say that they were going for the bid but ultimately we only ever had a ‘decent’ chance of getting it. (Same applied with the bid for Rhyddings Park that was a bid to a heritage pot). There were £540m worth of bids submitted for the pot and the lottery only had £190m to hand out. We went into it knowing that the application we were submitting was shoehorned to fit the funding pot and not a perfect match. So, instead being given credit for giving it a shot in the outside chance we might get it we have a ‘failed’ bid on our hands.

The funding pot was not aimed at the arts, it was aimed at community centres. Whilst the Civic will be come a Arts Centre for the community, it was still a bit like trying to fit a round peg in a square hole.

But that’s what happens with lottery bids and if you look at the statistics up and down the county, only about 25% actually get the funding. We were going for £1.6m but in fact the lottery really wanted to support bigger, more impressive bids i.e. the £5m that it gave to the new facility in Blackburn. There again you have another possible reason we didn’t get it – why give us £1.6m when they’re ploughing £5m into a nearby town especially when they needed to spread the £190m throughout the country?

Originally Posted by Acrylic-Bob

Run for profit. I can't criticise the hope but I do think that it is a pretty forlorn one. the words HBC, Business and Profit do not naturally follow one another in anything like logical association.

I’ve been working on this for two years. If truth be known I’ve actually been working on it for over 8 years. I first lobbied the council to do this when I was pregnant with Zack and he turned 8 this January. Over the last two years we’ve done our sums, we’ve written many reports, we’ve looked at it from all angles and we believe it is a viable project.

I guess the only way that I can convince you that I have confidence that this will work is to go into my CV. Before I worked in the Arts I worked for a pharmaceutical company. When I took up my last job in that industry I inherited a department that was making £7m turnover, when I left a few years later it was making a £17m turnover.

I am leading on the Arts Centre project and I have every faith that my figures are robust. Actually, just one correction to what I said before, it will be a ‘not for profit’ organisation. However, that doesn’t mean that it will make a loss, it has to make a profit to be ploughed back into it.

I have spoken to 100s of people who believe in what we’re trying to do. I have spoken to the police, to schools, to local people, to members of community groups, to young people and to many more to find out whether there is the belief that this centre will work. And people are inspired and enthused by the idea.

Originally Posted by Gayle

Whilst I agree that you could give a talentless oik a video camera and you will not create Ingmar Bergman, the opposite also applies that if you give someone with talent a camera there is the outside possibility that you might create the next Danny Boyle.

Originally Posted by Acrylic-Bob

I would have thought that the odds are better in playing the Lottery.

I have to completely disagree with you on this. There are a lot of talented people in the area who don’t have the outlets for their talent or sometimes the tools that they need to fulfil their destiny. Yes, there will be a lot of people who use the centre purely as a diversionary tactic i.e. something to do with your mates instead of hanging around the streets or watching tv, but equally there will be a lot of the talent channelled so that people can begin to believe that there is a future in this field for them.

We’re suffering in this area from a brain drain, with people going away to college and not returning because there aren’t the interesting jobs in this area for them. This is an opportunity to bring something to the area that might inspire young people.

Originally Posted by Acrylic-Bob

Are you offering Vocational Qualifications?

Not immediately but within a couple of years. We are currently offering Arts Awards which allow young people to get the equivalent of a GCSE. We will also be taking on one modern apprentice who will get their qualifications at Accrington and Rossendale College.

Originally Posted by Acrylic-Bob

How do you think Local Drama have managed to put shows on for the last century without passing on stage management and production skills? Of course it is every bit the same old, same old. except with a bit of new equipment

Local drama groups are great and provide a creative outlet for lots of people. However, if you look at most local drama groups, the average age is usually in the mid 40s, if you’re lucky. This is about getting young people into the centre and helping them to develop their careers in the arts. It’s about training, mentoring, passing down of skills and learning whilst having fun at the same time. It’s not just about performing arts. One of the first things that we’re doing is a photography project. We’re starting some of these projects now so that when the centre opens it will open with a core group established in some of the activities, it’s an old cliché but we want to ‘hit the ground running’. The photography project involves 14 young people working with a professional photographer over two days during the Easter holidays. These 14 and 15 year olds will be learning new skills, being occupied over the holidays and working with professionals in a field that they may wish to take up professionally themselves in a few years time.

Originally Posted by Acrylic-Bob

Call it what you like and tie yourself up in knots over wehther it is correctly inclusive enough, but it won't change what it is. Short changed again.

I’m not tying myself up in knots about the name. It’s a centre for the whole of Hyndburn so therefore, the name has had Oswaldtwistle taken out of it. How can I answer your accusation that you’re being ‘short changed’? Clearly you don’t have faith in the project, well that’s fine, but a lot of people do. You’re welcome to come to the next meeting which is on 27th April at 7pm at Hippings Vale Community Centre, to join the board. I think it would be good if you did come along because if you believe that it will fail in its present format then we need people to tell us early on where we’re going wrong so that we can adjust the business plans so that it is a success. No one is going into this for it to fail, so we need to be clear about where you believe it will fail so that we can avoid that happening.

Originally Posted by Garinda

What's the current situation with the proposed new carpark on the old Peel Court site? Surely it'll be much needed with the increased footfall because of the arts centre.

Have the plans been passed?

At this moment in time, I’m not exactly sure what the situation is. It keeps going on the agenda and then being taken off. From what I understand, the Government put some funding in the budget for the Pennine Reach Transport scheme. If that scheme goes ahead then I assume the car park will go ahead as well. At the moment the land is still privately owned. As far as I know, County were looking at buying the land back. I don’t know what the status is so you’d have to ask someone else that question. Having said that, as soon as I find out more I’ll let you know.

On another thread it was asked how much I get paid. I can’t find the post to copy and paste it. My contract is for £23k per annum. This is for three specific things – developing the Arts Centre, developing Arts in the area in general and organising outdoor events. Whilst you might look at that amount and think it’s a lot, I have to justify that I have brought three times that amount of funding (from the lottery and other sources) into the area in the last year. With £25k raised already this year. In the next few weeks we’ll also find out if more funding that I’ve applied for on behalf of the park has been awarded. I more than pay for myself.

As an example. I went to a funding seminar a few weeks ago for a funding pot called Young Roots. It’s a lottery funding pot, for getting young people involved in projects looking at heritage and the history of the area they live in. Since the funding pot was launched, Hyndburn has received nothing from that pot – not one single bean. The reason is not because the groups in Hyndburn that are eligible are being turned back but because they’re not submitting the bids in the first place. Since the seminar I’ve got through phase 1 of the application process and the hope is that within three or four months the Arts Centre will be awarded £20,000 for heritage projects. That’s bringing money into the area and helping support local businesses, local services and local people. That £20,000 will buy the Arts Centre some video cameras, it will pay for professional video trainers to work with young people and it will pay for the production of professional films by young people.


Just as a final addendum to this missive, as it’s already four pages long. Although the focus of the Arts Centre will be young people, it is not solely for young people. It will be offering choirs, creative writing course, book clubs, bollywood aerobics, back to acting training and much more. It will cater for people of all ages. In fact, at the last meeting I had a group of pensioners who want to be heavily involved.


I’m not sure I can convince you of its viability but I hope I can convince you of my passion for it and my belief that this Arts Centre is long overdue in arriving and much needed.