'This arts centre has served Shrewsbury for 40 years - but now it's falling apart and we need help to save it'

A Shrewsbury arts centre that has been a creative, cultural and learning hub to countless local artists and community groups for 40 years is urgently appealing for new trustees to champion a campaign to save the building and secure its future.

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The English Bridge Studios, on Abbey Foregate, plays a key role in Shrewsbury’s arts scene by offering affordable art studio, workshop and event space and is the last remaining venue of its kind in the area.

But the 19th-century building, formerly a school and art school, is in such a poor state of repair that large parts of it cannot be used due to safety reasons.

Now the community interest group that runs the centre is looking to work with a new charitable board of trustees to champion a campaign to raise funds for a staged programme of urgent building repairs and much-needed improvements.

The new board of trustees would replace the current trustees, of the English Bridge Workshop charity, who are due to retire. It is hoped the new trustees would serve for at least five years.

Almost the entire first floor of the building is currently closed due to the partial collapse of a ceiling. The centre’s only disabled access cannot be used due to the risk of rotting windows above falling out, and there are no toilets with disability access anywhere in the building.

The roof needs replacing, all the windows on the south side urgently need replacing and additional work is needed to provide downstairs toilets, a proper kitchen area and upgrades to improve heating and the environmental sustainability of the centre.

The building currently supports 17 artists and creatives – who are crammed into five rooms between them – and a downstairs hall provides workshop, art class, performance, exhibition and event space to dozens of arts-based, music and community groups. English Bridge Studios has also recently begun an initiative with Shrewsbury College, offering work experience to students.

Jancis Vaughan, studio manager and art director of MakeSpace CIC which runs the venue, said local artists and arts groups were desperate for affordable studio and workshop space, but the long-term future of the centre was at risk.

He said: “For decades it’s been an incubator for local talent. We desperately need to get the building fixed so that Shrewsbury will always have a vibrant grassroots arts centre,” she said.

“There used to be one person in each of the five studios. Now there are 17 people in these rooms. We can’t use two rooms upstairs, including a large hall, because it’s unsafe. That makes it difficult to offer the kind of hall space we’d like to. We could get at least eight artists up there plus a gallery, enabling us to have a bigger more flexible space downstairs.

“We need a board of trustees who are passionate about keeping the place going as an arts venue. There isn’t anywhere else like this in the town or for miles around, so there’s a lot of support for it to continue.

“We’re looking for dynamic local individuals who are passionate about the arts and nurturing emerging talent; people who are willing to champion the building and fight for it; professional people who can share their knowledge, experience and contacts.

“It’s not a complicated building. The building is fundamentally sound, but things are cracked, things are falling off and things are rotting. It isn’t a listed building. If it wasn’t being used as an arts venue it would probably be demolished.”

While MakeSpace CIC administers the centre activities, the charity is focussed on the building. Rents and hire fees cover the day-to-day operations of the building, including the part-time wages of four people who all put in extra unpaid hours on top to keep the place going.

“But the building needs capital funding and we just don’t have the capacity to take that on ourselves,” said Jancis.

The Shropshire Council-owned building originally opened in 1867 as a school and then operated as part of the Shrewsbury College of Art from 1957 to 1980. The English Bridge Workshop charity was founded in 1985, continuing the educational and artistic role that it retains today.

Many different groups hire the centre for various creative, educational, wellbeing, leisure and recreational uses. Among these are art classes, creative workshops, band rehearsals and performances as well as food, drink and music events.

Groups using the space range from a popular weekly NHS-funded wellbeing art class which has run for 10 years to a punk band showcase that brings musicians from as far as Berlin. Last year 6,000 people used the space, ranging from art classes to events.

“It’s really quite a special thing. It’s like a village hall in a town centre, but the difference is that we have artists working here as well,” added Jancis. “We need community engagement at trustee level to ensure its future.”

English Bridge Studios is at the heart of a designated ‘Arts Quarter’ in Shrewsbury’s Big Town Plan. The artists and makers take part in public events as a collective each year, as well as individually, from the Belle Vue Arts Festival to SY Open Studios. The annual EBS Showcase is an exhibition currently running at The Gateway Arts Centre until May 27.

Anyone interested in a trustee role should contact Aidan Hart, of the English Bridge Workshop charity, by emailing [email protected].