Local authorities

Plans to upgrade Somerset’s Octagon Theatre are set to move forward this month, after councillors agreed to begin the tendering process.

The upgrade of the arts venue in Yeovil is projected to cost £29m and will include expanding and enhancing the building to create capacity for bigger shows and attract higher-profile acts.

South Somerset District Council announced the project in December 2020. The tender process will begin later this month, subject to the decision being ratified by the full council.

Building contractors will formally bid to carry out the proposed upgrades, which include increasing seating capacity in the main auditorium from 622 to 900 and creating two new smaller spaces to host film screenings and live performances, along with a dance studio, a community studio in which to hold classes and rehearsals and the consutction of a fly tower, which can be used for flying scenery.

The redesign is also intended to create improved front-of-house and customer facilities, an upgraded café and bar area, greater backstage accessibility and toilet facilities for those with additional needs.

“We see the redevelopment of this flagship arts venue as not only about the redevelopment of a building, but also being able to reach out into the community to improve access to the arts,” said Councillor Mike Best, Portfolio Holder for Health and Well-being.

The venue is set to close its doors in April 2023 for redevelopment to begin.

Proposed cuts to council funding for Derby’s museums could result in reduced hours or closures, leaders of the charitable trust running them have warned.

Derby City Council told Derby Museums, which runs several of the city’s museums, that its grant is set to decrease from £710,000 to £639,000 from April this year.

“Due to a perfect storm of rising costs and inflation, the council has to make an unprecedented level of savings to balance its budget”, a council spokesperson said, adding that all services were being asked to reduce their budgets by 10%.

In an open letter, Derby Museums' Executive Director Tony Butler warned that the proposed cuts could have a “devastating effect” at a time when museums’ own costs were spiralling.

The trust currently runs the city's museum and art gallery in The Strand, as well as the Museum of Making, and Pickford's House.

“The proposed cuts will be compounded by the challenging financial climate,” he said.

“High inflation has increased our costs. We currently spend £160,000 a year on gas and electricity and that could double… The current financial model leaves little headroom and as things stand, I fear we may run out of road.”

He added that the cuts could force museums to take measures including site closures, reductions in opening hours and staffing and the introduction of admissions charges.
    
 

Selby District Council (SDC) has approved a plan to increase public art in the area.

The Public Art Plan, which covers the North Yorkshire areas of Selby, Sherburn and Tadcaster, will seek to increase quantity and quality of public art in a bid to add joy to the local community and boost tourism to the area.

SDC’s Executive approved the plan in a meeting last week.

In the same meeting, the Executive also approved a Heritage Interpretation Masterplan which will promote Selby’s heritage offer to “increase civic pride, revitalise communities and bring new audiences to the area”, according to a project report.

Selby, which features in Arts Council England's (ACE) list of priorty places for investment, will also be represented in ACE's national portfolio for the first first time when the funder's new portfolio begins in spring, with visual arts organisation Mediale set to receive £196,000 a year.

Plans for a multi-million pound transformation of one Sunderland’s main cultural attractions have moved forward after funding was secured from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens has secured £299,425, which will be matched by the City Council, to further develop proposals for a major revamp of the venue. This will include moving the museum’s main entrance, and a redesign of  the ground floor to include a central atrium, new galleries and a learning and engagement zone.

Meanwhile, programming will be adapted towards more family-focused activities and exhibitions, including a programme complementing the Winter Gardens with a focus on the natural world, biodiversity and climate change. 

Sunderland City Council says it is aiming to apply for a full National Heritage Lottery grant of £5m in 2024 to carry out the work..

“This is all about transforming, re-energising and rejuvenating Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens in line with what our residents and visitors have told us they want to see,” said Linda Williams, Cabinet Member for Vibrant City at Sunderland City Council.

“We want to make sure that the whole museum is a modern, accessible, bright and innovative space that shows off our rich and vibrant stories to everyone near and far.”

She added that a major part of the project will involve updating the story of Sunderland to “better reflect our communities, who we are, and where we come from”.

Rebecca Ball, Chief Executive of Sunderland Culture, said the work “will help ensure the museum is able to continue to develop new and innovative ways to both safeguard and share the city's stories for all our communities”.

Westminster City Council has announced it will set aside £1.8m for arts and culture funding over the next four years.

The council said the money will help fund a range of projects to make culture more accessible to residents and visitors.

It added that it hopes to break down social and economic barriers by extending free cultural opportunities to those facing financial hardship, young people, over-65s, ethnic minority groups, people with disabilities and those experiencing social isolation.

Within the budget is a new annual Culture and Community Grants Programme, which invites local organisations and schools to bid for up to £10,000 of funding to help deliver community-based projects. 

Tim Roca, Deputy Leader at Westminster Council and Cabinet Member for Young People, Learning and Leisure, said: “I’m very excited to announce this new cultural budget that will fund a range of projects across Westminster. 

"This new funding will bring culture directly into our communities and provide a boost for Westminster’s thriving arts scene which attracts so many visitors each year."

Plans for a major new creative centre in Northampton have been unveiled as part of efforts to create vibrant space for culture in the town.

The Northampton Chronicle reports that the £4.7m project will see a five-storey redundant heritage building in the centre of the town transformed into a space featuring a contemporary art gallery, affordable creative studios and public spaces.

Daniel Lister, Cabinet Member for Economic Development, Town Centre Regeneration and Growth at West Northamptonshire Council, said: “We are delighted to be entering our second phase of work to deliver this ambitious project.

“Once open, it will offer a unique cultural hub in the heart of the Cultural Quarter, complementing the ongoing redevelopment of this part of town.

“We have all combined our vision to regenerate this central building and offer a space for artists and entrepreneurs across our county and beyond.”

The 2,000 square metre space, sited close to Royal & Derngate theatre and the newly refurbished Museum and Art Gallery, is due to open late next year or early 2024

A historic arts venue in Hastings is closing to the public due to the “devastating effects of the pandemic”.

St Mary in the Castle, a 200-year-old building on the seafront, had been under the care of the St Mary in the Castle Charitable Trust since 2013.

The trust, which was established to ensure the building’s maintenance and preservation, said it has been unable to renew its lease with Hastings Borough Council after it expired at the end of October.

“Unfortunately, the trust is unable to recover from the devastating effects of the pandemic without further financial subsidy to allow St Mary in the Castle to return to pre-pandemic operations,” it said in a statement.

“We projected this would not be until Spring 2023.”

The trust said pandemic led to fewer venue hires and lower audience numbers, leaving the venue unable to cover its costs. 

A spokesperson for Hastings Borough Council told Sussex Live that the council “simply does not have the resources available to support St Mary in the Castle,” despite efforts to save the venue.

“We met them on a number of occasions and gave them £18,000 last summer,” the spokesperson said.

“However even this, a grant of just over £50,000 from Arts Council England and over £87,000 for Covid recovery from the government through Hastings Borough Council appears not to have been enough, given the ever-increasing costs of running venues.”

Plans to demolish part of the Barbican Estate to make way for two new office blocks are based on misleading data, a residents group has claimed.

The proposal by architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Sheppard Robson to demolish the current home of the Museum of London and Bastion House office block met fierce resistance from Barbican residents when it was first announced last year.

In May the City of London, which owns the Barbican Estate and is leading redevelopment plans, published a whole-life carbon assessment for the development which concluded 'that retaining the existing buildings is not appropriate in this instance’.

It added that the new buildings ‘would perform 10% better’ in terms of CO2 emmissions per square metre per year.

However, independent structural and whole-life carbon reports commissioned by Barbican Quarter Action claim the City of London’s assessment ‘used misleading data’ to ‘wrongly dismiss options to retain and retrofit existing structures’.

The residents group report also questions the original report's concerns about the structural challenges of retrofitting Bastion House.

A planning application has yet to be submitted for the new office blocks proposal.