Dear Members and Supporters,

Shaftesbury Arts Centre is literally bursting at the seams. Each week is packed full of activities and entertainment.

As well as a chance to take part in our four shows a year with our Music and Drama Group, we offer you around 20 different activity groups; some of which are in-house groups and free to members, while others are run by professionals who make their own charges. All these activities, productions and events need space, so the Directors have decided that the time has come for us to begin to realise Phase IV of our development plan; to build our long awaited extension and fly tower. This will give us much needed storage, workshop, rehearsal and meeting space, and will incorporate our essential roof repairs.

We gained full planning permission for our extension in May 2017, and our attention now has turned to  putting the plans into action.

We do not have enough funds to complete the extension in one go, so have decided to break the project into bite sized pieces, starting with raising the sloping roof on the Proctor room. This will both implement the planning permission before it runs out and provide us with a large, stage sized room that will eventually become a dance studio available for use by our dancers and for other travelling dance companies.

Focus on funding

We are now pursuing every avenue in order to raise funds for our exciting extension. We are looking for donations and sponsors for many events and are applying for a number of grants, while at the same time our amazing fundraising team is putting on a fabulous programme of events.

Every penny counts!

We ask you to help by remembering that ‘Every penny counts!’ and we invite you to save your small change to donate to our building fund.

Follow our progress

We’ll keep you posted of our progress on the website and on the board above the ice-cream freezer in the Foyer.

Lastly, thanks to all of you who support the Arts Centre and to all the volunteers who work so hard to make it the exciting place it is.

Jenny Parker, Chairman

Image: PWCR

In support of this appeal, the Arts Centre holds a range of fundraising events which are indicated by this logo on the event page and by a “Funding our Future” indication on the programme ticket.

Should the project not require all the monies collected, the Arts Centre board retain the right to use them for other of the Arts Centre’s charitable purposes.