A PIONEERING arts organisation has ambitious plans for the future after being handed the keys to its new city centre home.
It will take a massive fund raising effort but the seeds have already been sown and business and strategic director
Christina Wigmore is hoping local firms will add their support.
She says: “In terms of buying and refurbishing the building, it’s a £1 million project. But it’s our dream building and it’s great to have the keys after a five-year search and the trials and tribulations of raising the finance needed to buy the property.”
Soft Touch has been based in Clarendon Park since 1995.
The participatory arts charity helps more than 1,000 young people a year via innovative creative projects that give them a new focus; getting them involved in things such as performance, music, film and literature.
The main age group is 13 to 19 and Soft Touch’s projects engage young people and help them to tackle issues that affect them and their communities.
But the organisation has long felt that a base in the city centre would enable it to reach more youngsters as well as expand on the activities it can offer. Eventually, a move to what was the Val Jones Centre – the city council’s old workplace nursery on New Walk – seemed the best bet.
Christina says: “In 2011 we went to visit 50 New Walk which had been empty for five or so years.
“We knew immediately it was the place to realise our vision of creating an amazing, buzzing new arts and heritage centre for young people – a place where young people who lack opportunities to participate in arts, culture and heritage can develop their creative potential, broaden their horizons and be part of the cultural life of the city.
“Clarendon Park has never been ideal as it is outside the centre and difficult for young people from different parts of the city to reach.We call it the Tardis and we certainly get good use out of it but it sits on a terraced street and the range of activities and numbers of young people we can work with is very limited, even though the demand is high.
“Young people love coming to Soft Touch, many say it’s like a family and they can do creative things they can’t do anywhere else. We offer great creative projects, activities and equipment and our staff are experienced at bringing out the talents and confidence in young people.”
Christina admits that there’s still plenty of work to be done to turn the dream into a reality and a lot more cash to find. But Soft Touch has got off to a great start.
She says: “It’s a very ambitious project for a small charity but we are confident we’re going to make it a great success.
“We’ve recently had some great news in getting through the first round of the Arts Council Capital Scheme.
“We have some development funding to work with, an architect and now have to raise the match funding of £200,000 we need to make our second stage bid a success.”
The building has massive potential for Soft Touch. There’s room for an exhibition hall, for studios and offices and space to create music and art.
The location will put Soft Touch close to the heart of cultural life in the city.
Soft Touch co-director Helen Pearson says: “We can forge greater links with Curve and Phoenix cinema. We will be a lot more visible.”
But Christina admits that the building is “currently in very poor condition”.
“We have a big 12-month fundraising campaign ahead to refurbish and turn it into the place we and the young people we work with would like,” she says.
“The location brings all kinds of opportunities for public and business engagement and support.
“We have exciting plans for outdoor art and performances on New Walk, working with the museum, inter-generational heritage activities and using the building for pop-up exhibitions, a healthy eating café, performances, art auctions and craft sales and digital projection artwork using the forecourt.
“We also plan to launch a number of new creative programmes to offer longer-term involvement in projects and the opportunity to develop creative enterprise skills.”
In order to win the support of the business community, Soft Touch organised a special business reception last month to introduce themselves to potential backers.
The work on bringing the building back to life has already begun.
Christina adds: “We had 33 volunteers from New Parks helping us get the building ready for the business event.
“We are running a five-year Big Lottery-funded creative community development project in New Parks and young people and parents have given up their time to help because they feel the work is making such a difference.”
Helen says: “The building will give us more revenue streams and make us more sustainable in the long term.These are exciting times for Soft Touch.”
