Coniston Institute and Ruskin Museum lead Village SOS application The BIG Lottery Fund and the BBC launched the Village SOS initiative to inspire a UK rural revival. The challenge was laid down to villages across the UK to come up with ideas for enterprises that will revive their communities, create new jobs and improve the quality of life of local people. Coniston Institute and The Ruskin Museum Trust’s Coniston Institute Transformation Scheme submitted an application to transform the interior of Coniston Institute into a series of attractive inter-‐connecting multi-‐use rooms. The Coniston Institute and Ruskin Museum already share a common governing body. Together they provide a valuable and popular resource not only for 250,000 tourists who visit the village each year but also to the village community. They play a vital role in developing a sense of place and re-‐invigorating their communities and local economies. However, some of the current facilities were seen to be outdated and not meeting their needs. The plan was to develop the buildings so that they can act as a social and educational hub for the village community. The development would enable the buildings to host a programme of seminars, conferences and lectures capitalising on Coniston’s literary, cultural and geological heritage. Furthermore film screenings, drama, music, art & craft exhibitions, book fairs and farmers' markets could take place. It was essential that the new facility was able to support and re-‐invigorate its community, so the use of this much-‐loved venue would be offered to community groups free of change or at a peppercorn let. As Vicky Slowe, Museum Manager says, “I think that we are lucky to be operating in a small community, where individual initiatives can make a huge difference. Coniston is fairly isolated, away from the main artery of the A591, which links the Lake District's 'honey-‐pot' destinations. Coniston has always shown an independent spirit. Ruskin saw this and fostered it. Coniston has been running its own version of The Big Society for well over a century!”. It was recognized that the new facility had to be financially sustainable and so needed to attract business in to it. The enterprise also had the potential to re-‐invigorate the economy of the village. The rooms would be promoted as a venue for weddings and events. These would not only bring money into the institute but would also grow the market for local food suppliers and accommodation. The bid initially met with success. The BIG Lottery Fund assigned the project a ‘Village Champion’: an experienced professional who helped them to develop their initial business ideas into a viable and robust business proposal. However, despite this success the project did not make the final list of projects that had their ideas funded.
Despite this knock-‐back, The Coniston Institute and Ruskin Museum still intend to carry elements of their scheme forward by approaching HLF, The Big Lottery and Arts Funding bodies. For more information on this project, visit The BIG Lottery Scheme pages http://tinyurl.com/2vujzan and http://tinyurl.com/37xrlnk More details on the ‘Village SOS’ initiative can be found at http://www.villagesos.org.uk/ Ruskin Museum Curator, Vicky Slowe info@ruskinmuseum.org.uk