Press Release

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Inspire official opening

Monday 27 October 2003

The Archbishop of Canterbury is to dedicate a south London crypt with state of the art IT and wide-ranging facilities for arts and drama on Sunday 2 November.

InSpire is in the Crypt of St. Peter's Church, Walworth, a Grade 1 listed building designed by Sir John Soane near the Elephant and Castle. The Crypt will include a digital arts and media centre, an IT suite, crèche, conference and performance spaces, a café and meeting rooms. It will be officially opened by the Right Hon Harriet Harman MP on Friday 31 October.

The £1 million conversion of the crypt was funded by Southwark Council, The Single Regeneration Budget, The Aylesbury New Deal for Communities, The Community Fund and over 30 other grant making trusts.

InSpire will offer a chance for young people and older people to develop their talents.

We will provide expert instruction at workstations equipped with state of the-art software for visual and sound arts production, including film and video. We will have our own recording studio. InSpire will be open to anyone who wants to discover and build on their music, drama, arts and creative skills.

Walworth has high long-term unemployment and scores highly on indices of deprivation. There are hardly any community resources and unusually large numbers of younger people.

InSpire is working with SureStart, Aylesbury NDC, Toucan and UKonline to offer basic skills training, IT introductory sessions, parenting support and language, literacy and numeracy support.

We will work especially with people aged 16 - 25 from the local area which has a 67% ethnic minority population, mostly Afro/Caribbean. We will also reach out to people over 55, especially isolated and vulnerable older people. We will encourage experimentation and development. Experience and proven ability will not be necessary; enthusiasm and commitment will.

There will be regular exhibitions and performances of dance, drama and music. InSpire will be a resource for local people in an area of high deprivation and great need. It will be a place residents can be proud of, which will offer a chance for life-changing experience and new skills.

We are planning links with the London College of Printing, Camberwell Arts College and the University of Westminster. Users of InSpire will be encouraged to do further study or move on into paid work in the creative arts and media. The total cost of the scheme is £1.6m of which £1.2m is development costs and the rest is to fund the running of InSpire for the first three years. We have raised £1.5m so far.

The centre will be holding regular activities including Youth Club, Bingo Nights, Yoga Classes, Salsa Lessons, Computer Training, ESOL courses and Art Exhibitions.

For further information contact: Rev Giles Goddard: giles.goddard@virgin.net
020 7703 3139: The Rectory, Liverpool Grove, London SE17 2HH

For further information about the launch event please contact Charlotte Benstead - Centre Manager 020 7703 3139 or charlotte@in-spire.org.uk