This event took place on 18th March in Sudbury Arts Centre. Below is an extract of the chairman’ report to the meeting:

Last AGM and the re-opening of St Peter’s as Sudbury Arts Centre

It is now nearly 5 months since Sudbury Arts Centre opened.  Now we have a light airy building with good heating, comfortable seating, toilets and a bar.  All things to be welcomed and a huge improvement on what we had before.  For us it has been an interesting period to watch the venue grow and develop from its opening events back in late October last year.  There are lots more people visiting the venue and early reports from community hirers are that while the initial booking process is not yet fully bedded down the number of attendees for events, and generally therefore revenue, is up on expectations.  If this trend continues then this is all very much a positive and to be encouraged and supported. 

The name of the building

The name Sudbury Arts Centre has caused a frisson of excitement throughout the community.  This name relates to the activities held in the building, the name of the building itself is still St Peter’s however it is a shame that all signage to this effect has been removed from the building as far as we can tell.  We rather feel that being the Friends of St Peter’s now is rather like being Friends of a Building with no Name. 

The Bridge Project is of course perfectly entitled to call their St Peter’s branch Sudbury Arts Centre.  The consultation which has been attached to the name change was in fact in relation to barriers to entry, i.e. why don’t young people come into the building.  Many of them did not feel comfortable with going into what they perceived to be a religious building and so a non-religious name was chosen for the venue.  Which is all perfectly reasonable but maybe it should be made clearer to the community that the new name itself was not specifically consulted on.

How the new building is different to the old one

Sitting in this building now it is difficult to remember how dingy it used to look and how uncomfortable it could be sitting on those plastic chairs from the 1970s in a cold and badly lit building.  Now everything has changed.  The building, to quote the managing director of the main contractors for the renovation works, is now a technical building.  It is not a building that a volunteer or hirer with 15 minutes of training can walk into and then be responsible for as was the case before the renovation works.  That means the building has to be staffed by people who are trained in running it – and that means expensive.  Similarly it is great to have toilets but they need to be cleaned – and that means expensive.  And its lovely sitting in a warm building  – and that means expensive.  So we now have a lovely but expensive building and the issue then becomes whether Sudbury with its population of not much more than 20,000 can generate the income the cover these costs and that any grants given to cover these costs are not at the expense of other local venues. 

A new relationship between the community and Sudbury Arts Centre

When the Churches Conservation Trust was planning and implementing the St Peter’s renovation project much was made of community involvement in the project and local accountability.  Where we are now is that the Churches Conservation Trust has signed a long year lease with the Bridge Project to run Sudbury Arts Centre and as you would expect the lease requires the Bridge Project to report to the Churches Conservation Trust on various matters but does not place any requirement on the Bridge Project to report to the community.  This is despite the community having funded a very substantial part of the renovation works.  Somehow this does not seem right and we would welcome a regular annual presentation by the Bridge Project to the town on Sudbury Arts Centre.  The town though should treat the Bridge Project with respect, there will always be areas of difference between the many different parties involved but we do all need to see the bigger picture.  And the bigger picture is that we have a lovely new venue run by a dedicated team. 

The bells

Bell ringing is now a popular sport in Sudbury, sort of.  On most Thursday and Saturday afternoons you can pop in and have a go at ringing the bells.  We know the Suffolk Guild of Bell Ringers is very keen that all 10 bells can be rung from the new gallery level and we will support them in this project. 

The organ

Its not good news on the organ.  Repairs are needed to it and for that we need to get the attention of the Churches Conservation Trust which is not so easy now that they have moved on to other projects.  We will be looking for grants to cover the cost of these repairs but the other issue is if the repairs themselves are likely to interfere with the operation of the Arts Centre.  If this is the case we will need to see if there is an alternate way of completing the repairs without interfering with the day to day operations of the Arts Centre – which will mean additional costs.  It would though be a real shame if the organ repairs cannot be made and this fine instrument sits, unplayable, for the rest of its life.

Our constitution

At our last AGM I talked about the need to update our constitution to clarify certain aspects, to reduce the minimum size of the management committee plus a number of administrative changes to reflect our changed role.  There is no immediate need to do this but is still on our action list. 

What will the Friends be doing in the Future

We can provide additional equipment to St Peter’s as required.  We can help repair, maintain and develop the organ and bells.  We can commission local groups to put on fundraising events in Sudbury Arts Centre to support the venue.  Over and above that we need to see how the venue develops over the new few years to see what else we can do to support the venue and make sure it is the centre of the community for the town.