Project Outline
Our Mission:
To provide a community-friendly, multi-use venue, managed by passionate and invested people.
To have a varied offering of community, performance and art activities, where all will feel inspired, welcome and engaged.
Our Aims:
To restore the Armstrong Hall complex to compliant use as an Arts and Community venue
To establish a social enterprise which will take over the management and day-to-day running of the AH on a financially sustainable basis
To provide options for the longer-term future of the facility.
So how do we go about that?
Project Objectives
Providing the performance space of the size required for local groups in the shortest possible time,
Providing a venue at the lowest cost that can prove the new management organisation and test the new programme of events, for the first time promoting events itself,
Demonstrating a viable business with good community involvement and support in the town.
Phases
The proposal is to renovate the venue in three phases. Phases I and II are reopening the Cossham and Armstrong Halls as soon as possible, as above. We don’t know the timescales for reopening yet.
After about three years of operation, decisions can be made to invest further and develop the site to its full potential, Phase III, with an improved refurbishment or partial rebuild:
Facilities enhancement, generally within the existing buildings, apart from possibly adding to the changing room facilities
OR those changes, plus an overhaul of the Venue, e.g. revised Foyer, improvements to the fabric of the Armstrong Hall and enclosure of the courtyard between the Museum and the Cossham Hall. All with minimum shutdown closures to parts of the venue.