Worcester’s new arts centre, Scala in Angel Street, is set to bring people together to make the city a more creative and inspiring place to live, so that people’s lives are enriched.
The aim is set out in a draft business plan drawn up by Worcester City Council officers and a ‘Creative Consortium’ of local arts, cultural and creative organisations.
The business plan, which will be considered by the City Council’s Policy and Resources Committee on 30 July, describes how Scala will be
a space for anyone who wants to inspire, or be inspired by, creativity. The new arts centre will host live events alongside independent film, visual arts, and a wide range of participation-based creative activities, as well as a programme of educational outreach and talent development.
Alongside these cultural elements Scala – which will be created in the former Scala cinema and Corn Exchange buildings in Angel Street – will be supported by two commercial activities, serving food and drink, and hiring of the new venue to third parties.
The Creative Consortium that has helped create the draft business plan
includes some of Worcester’s leading arts, cultural and creative organisations – Dancefest, Severn Arts, C&T, The Kiln, Mobilise Arts and Vestan. Their skills embrace a wide range of art forms and creative practices, alongside extensive knowledge of Worcester, and most of them are expected to be closely associated with Scala when it opens.
Councillor Lynn Denham, Leader of the City Council and Chair of the Policy and Resources Committee, said: “I am very proud that we have taken a collaborative approach in developing the draft business plan for Scala. Thanks to the hard work, talents and expertise of the Creative Consortium, we now have a strategy for creating a successful, lasting new arts centre that will bring something new to Worcester, not compete with the entertainment offer that we already have in our city.”
The conversion of the two Angel Street buildings is being made possible by a share of the £17.9m that Worcester City Council secured from the previous Government’s Future High Street Fund.
The City Council is not permitted to use that funding to support running costs once Scala is open, so one of the main principles of the draft business plan is to create a sustainable operating model for the new arts centre.
When it meets on Tuesday 30 July, the Policy and Resources Committee will be asked to approve the business plan and also to set up a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO) to run the arts centre once it opens.
Planning permission for the conversion work to the former Scala cinema and Corn Exchange buildings was approved in March this year. The City Council is currently in the process of appointing a contractor to carry out the work, with a decision expected to be made in September.
