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. 

The annual Sudbury Town meeting takes place in the Town Hall at 6:30 on Friday 22nd March with doors opening at 6 pm. This year, Dave Jackson, chief executive of the Bridge Project who now manage Sudbury Arts Centre, will give a presentation on their operations there. This will be your opportunity to hear what he/the Bridge Project, have to say on this really significant development for the town and to raise any issues or concerns you have about Sudbury Arts Centre.

More details here.

There has been quite a lot of letters in the local press about the new name for the activities inside St Peter’s. Clearly not everyone is convinced that calling it an Arts Centre will attract a a more diverse range of people. Would be interesting to know what the Quay Theatre folk think about the new name as they will also be looking for a more diverse range of people to welcome to their venue. Anyone who has ever had to fill in a grant application form for their club or charity will know that the key to many grants is to be able to show you are actively looking to increase the diversity of your participants/members/audience.

Time will tell if the new name is a factor in the future success of St Peter’s but clearly it is only one factor among very many. Are the events put on their attractive to people, are they well marketed. Are young people at school in Sudbury introduced to St Peter’s with interesting and stimulating events so that going there is a natural activity just like going to any other entertainment venue.

So, we sent our two pennorth to the Suffolk Free Press abou the new name and a copy of our diplomatic letter is here. We do think that the new management in St Peter’s needs to be patient with the community as to when it will adopt the new name. The community will adopt the new name when the venue has proved to be an Arts Centre. We have been calling it St Peter’s for 700 years, it will take more than 7 months to change it.  

The contractors finally left St Peter’s in mid October 2023 and the community launch event was held on 28 October 2023. That left precious little time for the Bridge Project team to get into the building properly and get everything unpacked, working and people trained up in operating the many new items in the building. 

But the people of Sudbury were determined to see the newly refurbished building and come they did in their thousands.  Inside people could see the new gallery, the new kitchen and the fully operational toilets. The sun shone, the newly painted walls looked bright and inviting and the recently cleaned windows glittered – the building looked wonderful. 

Of course not everything was ready in time but that is the nature of construction projects in very old buildings. There is always more to do and it always takes longer than it should. 

We just need to be patient and understand that in an ideal world the building probably would not have re-opened until early 2024 when everything was bedded down, people recruited, trained up etc etc.  

Back in March 2023 we were asked by the Churches Conservation Trust to fund equipment purchases for St Peter’s. This equipment included tables for St Peter’s, catering equipment for the kitchen, audio equipment, portable lighting and sundry other items. After lengthy discussions and emails with the Churches Conservation Trust it was finally agreed that yes we would fund the equipment with the condition that all the equipment would be owned by the Churches Conservation Trust, would only be used in St Peter’s and if it was not needed there then it would be offered to local charities. We donated nearly £32,000 for the equipment in August 2023 and are pleased to see it most of the equipment has now been bought and is now being used in St Peter’s.

Mackman Group, the Churches Conservation Trust and the Bridge Project put their heads together to look at the branding of the new St Peter’s and all its planned activities. The aim was to make the new St Peter’s attractive to people who had never thought that anything inside St Peter’s was relevant to them and so they never entered the building. Considerable time and effort was made to find out why people, even those who had been born in Sudbury and lived here all their life, had never gone into St Peter’s – what was stopping them? 

Was it lack of curiousity, was it fear there might be something inside they did not feel comfortable with, was it peer pressure? Was the building seen as something that “other people” did but not them? Was the building just a boring throwback to another age that people did not connect with. Maybe their life was already full and they just did not need St Peter’s. Were there so few events on in St Peter’s that it was just not considered as an interesting venue.

So those are some of the reasons for the name change. A new name will never please everyone. Of course, names are not everything, its what goes on in the building that counts. It would though have been nice if the Friends had been consulted on the new name or if the Local Advisory Group had been asked for their views before the new name was adopted. But it was not to be.

My personal view – the building is St Peter’s. What goes on inside maybe call it Sudbury Arts Centre in St Peter’s. Getting more and different people into St Peter’s is what counts. 

I promised you all a summary of the Bridge Project presentation at the Friends of St Peter’s AGM and I know that was nearly six weeks ago.  So to keep it current and useful, I have added in later news updates.

Report on the works in St Peter’s – this report was given by Alli Burke, formerly of the Churches Conservation Trust and now operations manager for St Peter’s employed by the Bridge Project.  Alli summarised the works carried out to date, all of which is on time and within budget.  The roof works are now complete and most of the external scaffolding taken down.  Internally the kitchen, toilets and gallery areas are nearing completion.   Much of the internal repair works in the chancel area have been completed.  Additions to the original project include a new heating system and redecoration of most of the walls  – much of this work has now been completed as well.  

Alli also set out the work she has been doing with schools and others to get the interpretation displays and opening events all up to speed.  If you want to view her latest project newsletter and sign up for future ones, do please click here.

Future vision for St Peter’s  – this report was given by Dave Jackson of the Bridge Project.  Dave talked through the many opportunities that St Peter’s will give the Bridge Project to enhance the lives of the people of Sudbury, particularly people who are disadvantaged in some way and/or were seeking help.  The café did feature strongly in the Bridge Project vision for St Peter’s.  Clearly though some of the issues of marrying this vision up with running an event venue were not yet settled and we will have to wait to see how this will work out in practice.  In the meantime hirers who want to express an interest in booking St Peter’s should contact Alli Burke on alli.burke@thebridgeproject.co.uk.  You might also want to keep an eye out for the St Peter’s twitter feed (@StPeterSudbury) and the instagram account (@stpetersudbury) which often have more up to date information.  There is also the St Peter’s website for information.

Role of the Friends going forward – this is a really interesting discussion point and one that is evolving.  For now we have a number of roles, the main one being to provide funding for new equipment in St Peter’s and maintaining the organ and bells.  This we will do either through fundraising or from existing funds.  As part of this we received a request recently from the Churches Conservation Trust to fund the purchase of £30,000 of new equipment for St Peter’s and we have in principle agreed to this request, we are just negotiating on the terms of the funding as we would like to ensure that all equipment funded by us remains in Sudbury (so, not transferred out of the area if it is no longer required in St Peter’s) and we would like to ensure that all equipment funded by us is made available to community users of St Peter’s and for no charge in the case of lower value items and for only a modest charge in the case of higher value items.   

Initially we also see that we have a role in helping out and publicising volunteering opportunities in St Peter’s during the early phase when the soon to be recruited Engagement Officer is not yet fully up to speed. 

As you know the Bridge Project will be running St Peter’s in the future and the Churches Conservation Trust will continue to be responsible for maintaining the fabric of the building.  Funding for the Bridge Project management of St Peter’s is provided by the Lottery Fund in the short term – what happens after the end of this funding period will be a test for the Bridge Project.  This test is likely to be in 2024/25 and the Friends see they may well have a very positive contribution to make at this time to help secure the long term future of St Peter’s.  

AGM  formal business – all the formal resolutions were passed so there are no changes to the Trustees and management committee.  We are still a merry band consisting of myself (trustee and chairman), Roger Green (trustee and president), Phil Ivins (trustee and treasurer), Paul Lincoln (trustee and secretary), Peter Gray (trustee and vice chairman) and Graham Hall (management committee member).   

Conclusion – I know this summary leaves a number of key questions unanswered, and I know some hirers are feeling frustrated about the lack of certainty in the likely hiring arrangements.  I don’t think that the Bridge Project themselves know how things will work out in practice and it may take many months before things settle down but we do know that Alli, as operations manager for St Peter’s, will be doing her best for St Peter’s and we will support her strongly in this. 

For now though we are looking forward with huge anticipation and excitement to the re-opening of St Peter’s in September as this building plays such a key role in the community life of Sudbury.