Theatre to be rebuilt with government funding

A community-run theatre in Cornwall has been awarded £300,000 in government funding to construct a new venue, after its existing structure was condemned and demolished earlier this year.

Sterts Arts and Environmental Centre, which is located on the edge of Bodmin Moor, was housed in an innovative outdoor structure with a canopy roof, which was damaged by extreme heat last summer and later suffered further damage from strong winds.

The money awarded from the government’s Community Ownership Fund will be used to construct a new “futuristic” building that is more climate resilient, the theatre’s Chair of Trustees Nick Hart told Arts Professional.

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The arts centre had started fundraising to replace the canopy in November 2022, with a total target of £500,000. After the structure was deemed unsafe this spring, the theatre was forced to close. Hart said the "paltry" inurance payout was not sufficient to rebuild, but allowed the theatre the opportunity to potentially match fund a grant.

In the absence of a venue, the theatre organised a touring show with performances staged at local venues this summer.

"We made a very strong case [in the funding application to government] that we were an incredibly well supported theatre but we physically now had no theatre,” he said. 

“Our application focused very much on the strength of the volunteer community and the sheer number of people who participate in the events, both as performers and audience, and it would appear that we made a powerful case.”

He said the theatre community was “cock-a-hoop” to have been selected as one of 45 institutions granted combined funding of £12.3m in the lastest round of the scheme.

Jacob Young, Minister for Levelling Up, said the money will “help save community assets at risk of loss and empower communities to shape the things that matter most to them”.

A resilient design

The new purpose-built theatre building, designed by a local architect, will be “quite radically different” from the previous design, Hart said.

Intended to be an all-weather, year-round venue, combining “state-of-the-art materials with exceptional environmental credentials”, the new venue will be “more in keeping with Sterts’ rural setting”.

“The design that we had before was something like the Millenium Dome shrunk to a 400-seat theatre, so it was amazingly iconic,” Hart said. 

“We’re going to do something that still will enable people to have that indoor-outdoor experience, still have the Sterts experience, but be a much more resilient building.”

A return to professional leadership

The government funding, combined with the theatre’s existing funds from donations and the insurance payout, will enable the charity to employ a full-time manager to realise the ambitions outlined in a new five-year business plan.

“What we’re intending to do is to put the funding that’s come from the government – which is £250,000 for building, plus £50,000 for professional fees, project management, architects, things like that – towards the building and then we’ve got our own fund,” Hart said.

“We were asked to match fund at 20% but we’ve done quite a bit better than that.”

Launched in the 1980s, the theatre has “nearly always” had varying levels of professional leadership and administration, he said. 

“For the last nine months we’ve been entirely volunteer-led. Our ambition going through this now is that we will be able to move back toward a professional administration,” he said, adding that the theatre will remain a community-driven initiative with a measure of professional oversight.

The Community Ownership Fund will also benefit the not-for-profit Margate School in Kent. 

In January, the school announced that it was under threat of imminent closure after several funding bids failed the materialise. It successfully raised £41,000, forestalling closure, but Founder and Director Uwe Derkson estimated it would need to raise £150,000 to eliminate the risk altogether.

The art school has now been granted £400,000 to undertake essential repairs that will secure its long-term future.