 St. Mary's Stoke Newington |
For Immediate Release 23 July 2008 ST MARY’S OLD CHURCH, STOKE NEWINGTON Plans for a new community arts venue and performance space to build bridges within the local community St Mary’s Church announces its plans to renovate and refurbish St Mary’s Old Church, Stoke Newington, allowing it to function as a community arts venue that will host a range of arts-based activities and helping to build bridges between the different parts of the local community. This builds on the current use of the Old Church as a venue for occasional concerts but aims to make it a place that is used and appreciated by all kinds of people, regardless or age, background or religion. The centre will particularly aim to include activities for people who are seen as less well provided for in our local are, including young people and the elderly, and it will aim to hold a number of free or low-cost activities so nobody is excluded by price. “The local area is highly polarised between a prosperous minority that uses existing cultural venues and a majority that in general does not,” said Jonathan Clark Rector of Stoke Newington. “This project will actively work across boundaries to improve the life of the whole local population.” At present the use of the church is severely limited by its condition – it has inadequate heating, no toilets, inflexible seating arrangements and poor access for the disabled. The church is next to Clissold Park, which is applying for significant redevelopment funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund’s Parks for People programme. The Rector of St Mary’s is on the steering group for this bid and is working hard to ensure that plans for the Old Church fit in with the regeneration of the whole local area. The bid for Clissold Park allows for new access to the church from the park and the two teams are working to ensure complementary activities will take place to appeal to users of both. The project has been awarded a £25,000 planning grant from the Big Lottery to help them develop a stage two application for £500,000, due in September. The rest of the £2 million needs to be raised by September 2009 in order for the building work to commence in January 2010 and the venue to open in January 2011. The steering committee for this project currently includes Stoke Newington School, Common Air Theatre and Renkart, and input from other parts of the community into the development of the plans is very much welcomed. Common Air Theatre will be the resident theatre company in St Mary’s arts centre. As well as professional productions, it does educational work with young people in East London boroughs, using creativity to help them explore issues such as addiction or bullying. Matthew Hahn, director of the company, explains: “We aim to give all young people the chance of a positive future by helping them to learn in ways that motivate and stretch them and enable them to achieve; engage in positive developmental activities; make informed choices about their lives and benefit from high-quality, targeted support before problems escalate. The new space at St Mary’s will help us to reach out to even more young people in the local community.” Over the last five years Stoke Newington School: Media Arts & Science College has developed a national reputation for the quality, scale and ambition of its arts and creative projects. Helen Wood, Director of Specialism, states, “We have just initiated our largest community project ever involving over 300 children, young people and families from six local schools, culminating in the carnival parade that opened StokeFest. “The school wants to share their expertise with our wider community using the creative arts to make connections - cutting across the age, gender, class and cultural divides by providing new experiences for everyone through communal creative activities for children, families and our students. With the creation of St Mary's Art Centre as both venue and partner, we will be able to turn this into an ongoing project.” “I fully support this initiative to see a rare and valuable historic church building not just preserved, but used and appreciated by a wide range of people” declares Rt Rev Richard Chartres, Bishop of London. “In its fabric St Mary’s Old Church embodies the history of the city, from its origins as a traditional village church, through 18th and 19th Century additions, and partial destruction in the Second World War. These latest improvements will see the building meet the current needs of Stoke Newington’s diverse population, as it is used for worship, music and other artistic pursuits that enrich our lives as individuals and bring us together as a community.” Notes to Editors For fuller details about the proposals, please see separate Fact Sheet, Frequently Asked Questions and Photo sheet. For more information, please contact Rev Jonathan Clark on rectorofstokey@btinternet.com or 07968 845698. |