Newsletter 4, July 2022
Latest updates
The Generator Loughborough CIC and Our Neighbourhood are teamed in a unique partnership between the private and voluntary sectors. We jointly own the OAC (The Old Art College) and the Generator Hall building on Frederick Street/Packe Street and bring our different skills and strengths to its development.
The Generator has achieved funding through the Town Deal, National Lottery Heritage Fund the Architectural Heritage Fund and Arts Council England. We have very nearly achieved our goal and are delighted to be able to go ahead with developments.
The Generator, Bell Foundry and other members of Loughborough Heritage Forum, with Charnwood Borough Council and Leicestershire Promotions, have developed the local Heritage guide ‘Discover Charnwood’.
Our Neighbourhood is well established in The Old Art College, with creative businesses Ohh Dear and Cotton Clara on the upper floors, while the ground floor coffee shop and bread baker, Public, is thriving.
Find out more on social: @ourneighbourhood | @publicandplants
Good News!
The Generator Loughborough CIC has been successful in bids to the Town Deal (£1.6m), National Lottery Heritage Fund (£250K) and Arts Council England (£100K).
Watch the video below (created by Loughborough Town Deal) on this latest funding announcement, filmed inside the Generator Hall, featuring interviews with Dr Jill Vincent (the Generator Project) and Town Deal co-chair, Cllr Jonathan Morgan react to the news. Pictured in the video thumbnail: Dr Jill Vincent, from the Generator project, Cllr Jonathan Morgan and Dr Nik Kotecha OBE, Loughborough Town Deal co-chairs, and Andy Harper and Roger Perrett, from the Generator project.
We are still short of our overall aim and galloping inflation means we must include that plus contingencies in our costings, but our grant from the Architectural Heritage Fund allows us to employ a fund-raiser so we are confident we will get there.
The cost of the works led us to take a phased approach so that we could go ahead and open, although some rooms will not be available. Phase 1 is mainly structural: draining and tanking the basement; repairing and sound-proofing the roof, street-facing wall and windows; installing loo’s and stairs and a second mezzanine (to increase audience and work-space capacity on the mezzanine and make space for a bar and safe fire escape underneath); installing heating, lighting and air circulation to modern standards.
We regret that in Phase 1 only the ground floor will be accessible for visitors with mobility difficulties: we will install the housing for lifts to the basement and the first floor, however the lifts must be in Phase 2.
The architect and team are now completing the detailed designs (RIBA stage 4); specialist teams will be needed in due course to deal with asbestos and lead paint removal. The main contractors will begin work in Spring 2023.
At the same time, there will be a programme of activities to involve local people in the history and heritage of the Generator and associated college buildings from the beginning of the 20th century. This constitutes a microcosm of the industrial, educational and social heritage of the town and will draw on the memories of many Loughborough residents.
View from the mezzanine floor across the hall
Plans
We hoped to make the roof safe and open on an interim basis without heating or lighting so that we could work with local groups and individuals who are keen to be in the Generator after this long wait. Unfortunately, we have not been able to achieve that. The costs are too high and the period available is too short to justify them; also the specialist teams have to carry out preliminary work. We hate disappointing people and are so sorry.
We are planning to become a Charity, specifically a CIO (Charitable Incorporated Organisation), because we feel that better fits our vision, aims and objectives, and our status.
This will give us the opportunity to increase our Board membership and find ways to engage with the wider constituency of people who will come to the Generator.
We believe that many local individuals and businesses are keen to be associated with us and support us, so we will see how best to encourage and enable that.
The Generator Hall will become the multimedia arts venue that the community of Loughborough and the wider area needs. It will be the cultural hub that that delivers performances, exhibitions, gigs, workshops, lectures and debates, festivals and heritage events, school visits and community
engagement. We envisage a dynamic and multifunctional space and meeting place, serving all Loughborough communities.
With the help of our fund-raiser, we will develop our offer to potential supporters, arrange events so that we can meet, publicise our plans and show what we have achieved to date. We will place the Generator at the heart of Loughborough life. We expect to be crowd funding too.
Send your stories of working, studying or exhibiting at the Old Art College or the Generator:
With thanks to
As we are able, at last, to say that we are going ahead, we want to remember and thank the many people who helped us get here.
‘We’ are the Directors of The Generator Loughborough CIC: David Pagett-Wright, Jill Vincent, Roger Perrett and Andy Harper, with Jonathan Hale as Company Secretary. Jonathan, Roger and Jill have been with the project since the earliest meetings in 2014, David joined us in 2015 and Andy in 2021. The CIC was formalised in June 2015.
Many others committed time and energy for the love of the project:
Firstly, we celebrate Kev Ryan, Founder & CEO of Charnwood Arts, a participatory, community arts organisation that he led from its beginnings as a small, local forum into a pioneering, nationally and internationally recognised body. Kev was a major inspiration behind this project, which embodied his belief in the power of the arts to enhance and transform the lives of individuals and communities. He was actively involved with it until he died, far too young, in 2020.
Early supporters and enthusiasts were Megan Powell - Vreeswijk (Director of The Studio, which supported creative industries entrepreneurs at Loughborough University), Catherine Rogers and Fred Brookes (both Creative Leicestershire, providing support for the creative economy), Dave Hankin and Sylvia Wright (Charnwood Borough Council), Mike Hughes. (Twenty Twenty), Jon Walker (Loughborough University) and John Leney.
They left for new jobs and new lives but continued in spirit and can always be consulted.
More thanks
Love Loughborough BID sent their Chairs as representatives; they stayed because they loved the project.
Many other individuals have engaged with us over the years and given help and support. They came from Kev’s family, Charnwood Arts (since Kev), Loughborough University (Enterprise, Library and Archive, Estates, Fine Art, LUArts, Architecture), LLEP, Arts Council England, National Lottery Funds, Counciller Jenny Boker and others from Charnwood Borough Council, Loughborough Town Deal, ex-Art College/LUSAD staff and students, Loughborough College, ArtSpace, Loughborough Library Local Studies Volunteer Group, Charnwood Heritage Forum.
We are grateful to Christopher Hill, architect and leader of the Design Team along with Feona Man Shan Cheng from Linedota Architects and the members of the design Team, many of whom make a contribution that goes above and beyond mere employment.
Also we thank our commercial partners, Raff Russo and Sonya Watson, who are notable for their dynamism and support.
Finally, we thank the many individuals, groups and organisations whose generous support and help has brought us to this success. As they say, “It takes a village…”
More information
Read the full announcement from Loughborough Town Deal on their website here:
Loughborough Town Deal confirms £1.6m grant for arts and culture hub
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