Kirkgate Quarter Chronicle May 2024

It’s a month of celebration at Kirkgate Arts & Heritage! We are delighted to announce that we have been successful in a significant funding application to Arts Council England to improve our facilities at the centre.

This ambitious project came about with two aims in mind- to reduce our environmental impact and to improve the experience of customers, performers and visitors to the centre.

We are replacing all our old outdated lighting around the building, for energy efficient and modern fittings.

We are refurbishing our dear old workhorse of a lift! More on that later…

We are installing a heat exchange ventilation system in the auditorium to give us a more consistent ambient temperature (if you’ve been to a busy gig in the summer, or a quiet film in the depths of winter, you’ll definitely appreciate the need for this!).

We are modernising our stage lighting rig and stage lights, this will not only improve the look of performances on stage but will vastly reduce our energy consumption. Modern LED stage lighting and an improved layout of the lights, plus a new control desk, will make a huge difference to volunteers, performers and our electricity bills. It will also enhance the customer experience… Imagine- lights changing colour at the touch of a button!

“Our funding is helping both to create new venues and to adapt existing ones to make them more accessible, helping to deliver the Government’s plan to make sure that everyone, no matter where they live or what their background, has access to excellent, life-changing cultural opportunities.” 

Alongside the funding from Arts Council England we were successful in securing funding from the Shared Prosperity Fund, which will go a long way towards meeting our match funding goal.

So there’s lots to do… We will be getting stuck in with the detailed planning and scheduling in the next few weeks and months, and we will keep you updated as to how those plans are progressing.

Exciting times for Kirkgate Arts & Heritage!

@HOME@KIRKGATE

Part of our work at Kirkgate Arts involves supporting artists with their work in development. We’re delighted to have a Fringe comedy show in the making coming to the stage this month!

Here’s local comedian Stephanie Bradshaw to tell us more about herself, and her show ‘Big Fish’…

Big Fish is my debut 45 min stand-up show, inspired by my life so-far as a 30-something, attention-seeking (anxious, delicate, shy) mega diva, who’s lived pretty much her whole life in small rural towns and the hilarity that ensued whilst I tried to make a stage out of any pub-corner, village hall or raised stile that became available! After moving away for a moment to pursue a short stint at drama school, a break up and 5 sparkling minutes in the spotlight after entering a comedy competition sponsored by Only Fans, I returned to my home-land as a triumphant big fish in a small pond… and I bl**dy loved it!

Big Fish explores themes of community, small-town life, battling with imposter syndrome and finding your way as ‘the funny one’. My style of comedy has been described as anxiously optimistic, ‘endearing’ ‘very likeable’ ‘hilarious’ and ‘engaging’. The show is ‘work in progress’ so fully formed punchlines are not guaranteed but it’s absolutely my intention to make you giggle whilst I work my material and attempt to build my first show for the Edinburgh Fringe before your very eyes. I’m very grateful for the support as always from my local community, a huge thanks to the Kirkgate Centre for hosting me and a big thanks in advance to anyone who is forced to come by my Mum…

You can book a ticket to Steph’s show here. It’s free to book then pay-what-you-feel on the night.

UPCOMING HIGHLIGHTS

National Theatre Live returns to our big screen, on Sunday 12th May, with an encore screening of Nye. Starring Michael Sheen as Nye Bevan in a surreal and spectacular journey through the life and legacy of the man who transformed Britain’s welfare state and created the NHS. You can watch director (Rufus Norris) and Michael in conversation here. Book now by clicking here.

There’s some great music this merry month of May, starting with the award-winning Anglo-Scottish duo, Janice Burns and Jon Doran on Saturday 11th May as part of their spring tour. If you’re a fan of traditional music, and beautiful harmonies, you will love them! Get your tickets here.

Continuing the traditional music theme, but with a twist, the weekend after (18th & 19th May) we have Malin Lewis coming to Cockermouth, and Kirksanton Village Hall (with Kirkgate Arts Out West). Malin not only produces beautiful new takes on traditional folk music, but has created their very own set of bagpipes to play them on! Have a listen here. Book for Malin at the Kirkgate Centre, or Kirksanton Village Hall.

Jazz@Kirkgate this month features Mike Hall’s ‘Boplicity’ on Sunday 26th May. Boplicity is an 8 piece band (we hope we can squeeze them on the stage!!). Click here for a flavour of what they do and book your tickets here.

Not strictly in May (but we didn’t want you to miss this!), we’ve got a full day in the company of Howlin’ Mat, songwriter, guitar maker and blues troubadour. He’ll be teaching us how to create our own cigar box guitar, in his Cigar Box Social on Saturday 1st June, then in the evening he’ll be performing on the Kirkgate Centre stage. Find out more on the workshop, or book for the gig by clicking on the links.

A DAY IN THE LIFT

That isn’t a typo! This month our operations manager wanted to share her joy over the impending work on the lift.

“Is the lift working?” has so often been the cry from the Round Table when it’s close to beer festival time… or from our sound engineers as they prepare for big gigs involving those extra mahoosive subwoofers.

I’m happy to say that it is mostly (touch wood) in good working order, but it’s one of those things that you really don’t want to go wrong! There have been occassions, not least our general manager Emma being momentarily trapped during one of our busy Cockfrock events. That’s always a weekend of heavy use! Dresses going up, shoes coming down, rails and boxes and cases… constant abuse for the set up, and a lot of use during the sale. It’s no wonder that the poor old thing needed a little break. Sadly it chose Emma to hold hostage while protesting it’s exhaustion! However there was little sympathy from the other volunteers ‘why did you go in?’…

The lift improvements that we can now complete, thanks to Arts Council England, and the Shared Prosperity Fund, will not only improve the function of the lift but also the appearance. It has been a fair few years (decades in fact!) since any real attention was paid to the interior, the control buttons have been replaced as needed but the clunky old doors and scratched interior are looking very tired. There will be a fully refurbished car, more reliable new doors and control buttons. I wont bore you with details of tank blocks and motors, but rest assured the work is on the nuts and bolts as well as the shiny exterior.

So soon we can finally put to bed the unfair bias against our trusty lift, and feel confident that there will be no more hostage situations!

KIRKGATE QUARTER

Another major piece of work going on at the moment is the asbestos removal and demolition of the former Derwent Athletics Club building. This work is essential to keep the site safe, as recent weather has not helped the decaying structure. This month, for our featured business, we wanted to say a big thank you to the team sorting out that mess!

Kyle Barlow from West Lakes Demolition has helped us enormously with the complicated permissions and necessary surveys, offering advice along the way. Our operations manager has learned a lot over the last few weeks, and the support from Kyle and the company has been a huge help.

“Westlakes Demolition is based in Maryport and covers the whole of Cumbria, South Scotland, Barrow, Lancaster and Preston. Ever since we opened for business, we’ve taken a comprehensive approach to project management, providing our clients with a wide range of services to cover their needs. Get in touch today to learn more about what we can offer you and to receive your free estimate.

Kyle and the team are also keen supporters of local charities and community organisations, with West Lakes Demolition being a sponsor of Salterbeck based Tapout Knockout mixed martial arts and jujitsu club. “The club provides training for kids (from the age of 5 upwards) and adults in martial arts, this disciplined sport gives local kids a great work ethic as well as helping them make new friends and build confidence.”

They’ve worked hard to clear the building of asbestos over the last week, and as soon as we can start on demolition the team will be back on the job.

KIRKGATE HISTORY AND HERITAGE

We also have more funding news. We are in the process of putting an application together for funding to redevelop the site across the car park from the Kirkgate. Our aim is to create a place for everyone to explore our local heritage collection. This ambitious project needs carefully considered and creative planning, to ensure that we can provide a facility that will flourish and thrive well into the future.

Kirkgate Arts is home to Cockermouth Heritage Group and their collection of local historical artefacts and documents, including many photographs of the area. We spoke to Gloria from the heritage group about her thoughts on the developing plans.

“The Cockermouth Heritage Group passionately believe this new building should be a community heritage resource, with access for people to be able to look at files/records that we hold and somewhere to house a ‘rolling’ display of some of the objects in the collection.

There is a real need for a place where queries about local history could be brought, and help given to research. It could also be a valuable resource for local schools/residential homes for sets of objects that we hold and a place where people could have old photographs copied/deposited.

A dedicated space for local history talks and workshops, perhaps on subjects such as researching family history, with a collection of oral history recordings available to be listened to, and where people could have their own stories recorded.

Hopefully, all that would help local people realise the value of local history (including their own stories).”

What are your thoughts? We will certainly be seeking out your ideas and opinions as we move forward with this important step in our development as an arts & heritage organisation.

GENERAL MANAGER’S LETTER

We are all, of course, over the moon with our funding successes. It is so encouraging to have the support of Arts Council England, and the Shared Prosperity Fund, as it gives us that added confidence that we are absolutely on the right track. For such significant investment in a project funders need to not only support the ethos of an organisation, but also believe that the projects they are funding will make a real difference and will keep organisations such as ours growing and surviving well into the future.

It’s great to know that our hard work, and our ambitions to keep improving, have been rewarded in this way. Kirkgate Arts and Heritage is the only organisation in Cumberland to have been successful in this year’s funding, which is an incredible achievement in itself! With so many organisations in need of financial investment it really does mean a lot.

This funding announcement comes on a very special day for the organisation, as two of our volunteers are spending the day at Buckingham Palace! We hope the weather is as pleasant down in London for the Kings Award Garden Party. We will bring you more about that in next month’s Chronicle.

You will all have seen the news about the former Derwent Athletics Club building, and hopefully nobody will be too sad to see it go! It’s difficult to believe that it was a school classroom, riddled with asbestos building materials. How times have changed. We’re grateful to West Lakes Demolition for dealing with the asbestos so swiftly and efficiently, and we look forward to saying goodbye to the building as soon as possible.

So what next for the site? This is where we want to engage with our customers, and anyone who has an interest in heritage in the area. We will be hosting a heritage exhibition over the summer, as part of our In My Shoes project. If you have an interest in heritage and would like to get more involved, pop in and have a chat while you explore the exhibition, or visit our website.

Emma Heys
General Manager