Dear Sir,
The decision to close Greenfield Arts seems to have been taken without any regard whatsoever to the significance of the facility for the benefit of both the school and wider community of Newton Aycliffe.
The significant achievements of Greenfield Arts have been summarised elsewhere, although the international achievements have been overlooked. In addition what we (community groups) find particularly distasteful is the way that the Academy Trust has simply ejected established arts groups that have used the facility that was funded by the Arts Council via the National Lottery rather than from any central capital funds. A whole swathe of community arts and cultural activities have been lost to Newton Aycliffe in a devastating stroke. This will impact on the future ‘ethos’ of the school. The decision taken is morally indefensible, but clearly it looks like a complete change of direction with provision for the school and community arts relegated to oblivion after 23 years of success.
The whole operation by the Academy Trust appears to have been conducted by stealth with plans to convert the Arts Centre to a new main entrance and the gallery an extension of the dining space. Clearly the new HT and the Trust will be operating without any conscience regarding there ‘theft of the building’ for their own purposes. A new main entrance was constructed in 2002 at the side of the school, but apparently this must have suddenly become inadequate for their new needs.
If the future ‘running costs’ were becoming a problem then a solution should have been found by way of external grants or via Government initiatives (levelling up?) to support such projects. Strategic forward planning usually overcomes such anticipated financial problems, they don’t just suddenly appear.
Levelling up is an interesting solution. Looking at the arts and cultural provision in Darlington, Barnard Castle, Bishop Auckland, Spennymoor, and Shildon (Locomotion), the future loss of Greenfield Arts will leave Newton Aycliffe looking like ‘the poor relations’.
Mike Thornton