Corn Exchange Newbury Launches Campaign to Repurpose Old Library Into Dedicated Arts Spaces 

The campaign for the Corn Exchange Newbury’s Old Library project, which will see the unused historic Newbury building transformed into a new arts hub, has entered the public phase after a successful private fundraising phase. The Corn Exchange (Newbury) Trust, which comprises of the Corn Exchange, 101 Outdoor Arts and the Learning Centre, and which also manages The Base Greenham, will restore this beloved building, creating a permanent home for their creative participation work to engage locals with the arts, providing a long-term creative space and community hub. 

The amount of £2.6 million is required to fulfil the Corn Exchange’s plans to open the Old Library in late 2024, £1 million of which has been funded by Greenham Trust, for the acquisition of the building, repairs, and conservation. Support has also been provided by Backstage Trust, Foyle Foundation, Garfield Weston Foundation and Syder Foundation. Now, a public fundraising campaign is being launched to repurpose the interior space, and complete plans to meet the creative wellbeing needs of the Newbury community. 

Corn Exchange’s creative initiatives focus on improving access to high quality cultural experiences, particularly to improve mental health, and to support our older communities and young people. These activities seek to address issues of social isolation, health inequality, and deprivation in West Berkshire, and dismantle the financial barriers that historically prevented people from pursuing the arts. With their current work taking place in a temporary facility, this spectacular new venue will ensure a permanent space for their engagement with members of the local community and opens up more creative opportunities to all. 

Key projects which will find their home at the Old Library include Ageing Creatively, addressing social isolation of older communities with regular classes with 5,000 engagements annually, and Links to Thrive, a pioneering ‘arts on prescription’ project bringing free creative opportunities to people with a range of mental health conditions. Careers in the Arts (run jointly with the Watermill Theatre) will also operate from the new venue; this programme works with local schools and young people to raise aspiration and awareness of the career opportunities within the creative industries and to develop transferable skills through creative engagement, advice, mentoring and fully funded placements. This area of the company’s work is flourishing, with 27,000 attendees across these programmes in 2022/23. Through their dedication to equality of access to creative opportunities, Corn Exchange will support the most vulnerable in society, through an expanded programme of workshops at this new venue.

Jessica Jhundoo-Evans, Director of Corn Exchange Newbury & 101 Outdoor Arts, comments ‘We are asking you and everyone we know to help us raise the money to transform the Old Library into a new community space and a permanent home for our creative participation activity. This area of our work provides a wide range of inclusive opportunities with specific projects for young people, schools, under-5s and new parents, over-55s, and a thriving youth theatre. It provides a lifeline to many local people and is more vital now than ever before: reducing social isolation and loneliness within our community; improving mental health locally; and supporting young people in building confidence and self-esteem.  

The Old Library is the perfect new space and we are asking for your support to help open up this historic, much-loved Newbury building for our community. With dedicated engagement spaces, a small café/bar and a place to gather and connect with others, the possibilities for our communities are really exciting.’

For further information and further updates on the campaign, and to donate, please visit cornexchangenew.com/oldlibrary. 

 

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