As a writer I sometimes get asked to become involved in various arts issues. I was asked to make a presentation to a full session of Bournemouth Borough Council about the imminent destruction of the Boscombe Community Arts Centre. It might seem a bit parochial to my readers in other parts of the world but it is a piece of work as carefully crafted and thought out as any other and we must all do what we can to protect the arts in this age of miserable utilitarianism.
July 30th 2013
Deputation to Bournemouth Full Council
On behalf of Bournemouth Creatives.
I am Peter John Cooper theatre
professional and writer. I have run companies
in Oxford and North Wales and other part of the UK. Born in Hampshire when Bournemouth and
Boscombe were part of that County. Spent
twenty years in Dorset where I have been chair of a number of County wide arts
organisations. Resident of the Borough
for three years. Speaking on behalf of Bournemouth Creatives and other arts organisations.
A building is only a roof with some walls to hold it up. What is significant is what goes on inside
that building. But once the roof is
smashed in and the walls bulldozed nothing can be done and its heritage is lost. I am speaking of the Boscombe Centre for
Community Arts. You will have seen the
superb business plan for the building and one, you will agree, where the
numbers are real and certainly stack up and which answers every probing
question that you and others have asked of it.
The research it contains is much more persuasive than that presented by
the officers here which states that Boscombe has adequate community provision because
of its wealth of nightclubs. Would you take
your child to a painting session in a pole dance club?. You know the historical
significance of this building as one of the very first Drama Centres in the UK
and its groundbreaking work in education and disability. You have seen the
deputations from the hundreds of residents and dozens of businesses and
enterprises that desperately need the work of the centre to carry on. It’s all
in here. You know how persuasive all the evidence is and you know how important
the work that could be achieved under this roof within these walls again
because you have already had the foresight to realise how the arts can begin
the regeneration of a run down area.
Over the weekend I was delighted to be invited to a number
of events in North and East London. Here
there are acres of derelict warehouses and factories among run down estates. I saw was an extraordinary transformation in
the lives of many of the residents through innovative uses of buildings and
spaces as live in workshops, arts centres, galleries, start up business
units. All making a huge difference in
the general air of optimism. I saw
children and young people using spaces in a myriad of inventive ways some of
them not entirely expected and intended.
We have two Universities with
the name Bournemouth in them. Too many
of their Alumni, flee our conurbation to places like these in Hackney taking
their skills away with them. What is missing is that vital community hub where
we can exploit their knowledge and energy, where children can go and get messy
with paint and clay and where pensioners can dance or excerise. Where people can come together and explore
their differences and give them back some pride in their lives. That child experimenting with that pile of
clay may be on a path that leads to experiments that give us new hope in health
care. Those people learning dance steps
may be helping to get over stroke or other disability. That kid painting on the wall might one day
be the graphic designer that delivers the new branding to the Borough.
We don’t have the run down
warehouses of Tower Hamlets, so where do we place that centre of ideas,
creativity, research and development, enterprise, wealth? Certainly two small
historical school rooms are not in any way sufficient. Neither do all the pubs and nightclubs and
church halls mentioned in the council’s research. Should we ask you to raise
the millions necessary to build a new new palace of glass and stainless steel? A
new Imax for the Arts? Of course not. That vital piece of infrastructure is already in place. There is some minimal remediation
work necessary, mostly the restoration of what was removed in the process of
closing it down. This Business Plan demonstrates
real community engagment and knowledge and genuinely demonstrates that the place
can be viable.
So to that real poser.
How do we choose between housing and a community centre? The answer is that we mustn’t. You
know there are other, better housing options.
But this is the only Community Arts centre we have in the whole conurbation.
At this last hour please don’t let the bulldozers roll. Don’t knock the heart
out of the community. Please reconsider the importance of this project. And
don’t rubberstamp the end of hope for so many people.
