On 20 March Crediton Arts Centre shut its doors along with venues across the country. Overnight the Centre lost its main source of income from hiring its two studio spaces and selling tickets for events. But, as Administrator Jack Robson reports, the building may be closed, but much is going on behind the scenes to keep this busy community space alive and ready to reopen once lockdown is lifted.
Many of you will know Crediton Arts Centre, sitting at the bottom end of town opposite the church, in part of the old Victorian school building next to Hayward’s School. We have been in existence in various forms for over 30 years, becoming a charity in 1992 and changing our name from the Drama Centre to the Arts Centre in 2004. Many classes in fine art, fitness, Tot’s Play, ballet, karate, jewellery making, Youth Theatre and more take place regularly in the building, alongside live theatre, music and dance events, films and talks. We also run events off site and around the town and surrounding villages, including the annual Busk It!, outdoor productions, book clubs and involvement in such events as Christmas in Crediton, CredFest and the Diversity Festival. We have an active membership of Friends and a strong commitment to the community.
The strangeness of this weird and unwonderful time has been difficult to adapt to, but adapt we have to. The Arts Centre is usually such a busy, buzzy kind of place, with masses of things going on throughout the days and weeks. People coming and going for art classes, rooms full of toddlers and babies, our elder citizens doing their fitness classes with Emma, rehearsals for the latest production, Youth Theatre kids and ballet dancers spreading through the building… and all the noise and wonderful chaos that ensues. Since mid-March, when classes began to be pulled, it rapidly became quieter and quieter, until the doors were closed completely.
The building still stands, and has to be looked after, which has been done by staff and trustees on a voluntary basis since the closure and furloughing. A level of cleanliness has to be maintained, especially in the kitchen and loos; hot water has to be run regularly to prevent legionella; ant invasions have to be repelled; plants to be watered; emails and phone messages answered. The trustees have been working hard to secure funding to keep us going through a time when we have no first-line income from box office, bar and room hire, and this has largely been successful. Our wonderful Friends carry on paying their subscriptions, and this vital stream is a lifeline for us.
Most of all, we carry on planning for a day when we can resume what we love doing, and the Arts Centre can once again be home to our splendid artistic and cultural community. All the planned events of the summer term have now been postponed, with new dates being sought as soon as we have a clear idea of what can happen and when. We are confident that we can.
