FOXLOWE ARTS CENTRE
D
espite being closed on and off for the most of the past year, there s been lots going on behind the scenes at the Foxlowe Arts Centre in Leek. The community-owned and run venue has been running as an arts centre since 2011 when the then newly formed Foxlowe Arts Centre Trust took on a lease with the then owners of the Georgian building. Over the next decade, the trust took on a private mortgage with the owners, before setting up the Foxlowe Loan Scheme this year which has enabled members of the community to help purchase the building outright for the town. The Foxlowe Arts Centre has gone from strength to strength since first opening with a gallery exhibition in 2011 followed swiftly by the opening of its community cafe. The building is now almost accept for it s cellar space used to it s full capacity with: The Drawing Room Cafe, Bromfield Function Room, bar area, cafe and corridor galleries, first floor main gallery, meeting
rooms, creative workshop space, as well as the top floor Creative Hub which is home to many local independent creative businesses. Plus the Fox & Crow Gallery has it s base in the ground floor Cruso Room. And then there are the glorious gardens and patio area to the back of the Foxlowe, as well as the Gateway Shed project. Pre-Covid, the team at the Foxlowe Arts Centre, which is mainly volunteers with a small number of paid dedicated members of staff, had helped to build the centre up into a thriving venue, with a well-used cafe, ever changing gallery exhibitions, as well an extensive programme of music, comedy, film, talks, and theatre events, and all that s not including all the private functions, such as weddings and other family events, which have taken place at the venue. The Drawing Cafe re-opened in May, and entertainment is now finally making a comeback at the Foxlowe. Already, the Foxlowe team has successfully hosted two social-distanced
comedy nights and a number of music gigs, and the programme of events is building back up once more. Most of the events take place in the now named Bromfield Function Room which has had a refurbishment during the past 12 months, with many socialdistanced volunteer hours being put into redecorate and reconfigure the room to be able to seat more audience members, once restrictions allow. Refurbishment works have also seen the completion of the Heritage Lottery Funded new roof project, revamp of the lobby and stairs which are used to get to the Creative Hub, as well as much-needed maintenance work and redecoration of the front door and pillars the latter two projects being carried out purely by volunteers. Now the team at the Foxlowe is aiming, as the lifting of Government restrictions allow, to get the venue back up to a thriving arts centre once more. To find out more about the Foxlowe Arts Centre, go online to: www.foxloweartscentre.org.uk.
See our What s On feature on pages 20 and 21 for what s coming up at the Foxlowe Arts Centre
