Statement adopted by Riverside Development Trust Board August 2004

THE FUTURE OF BEAUFOY INSTITUTE

The Beaufoy Institute, Black Prince Rd

1.Regeneration

  • RCDT is the successor body charged with helping the continuation of regeneration in the area following the end of Single Regeneration Budget funding on 31 March 2004.

  • A high level of local persistent unemployment and low skills attainment level are keys problems that need to be tackled in the regeneration process.

  • The development of a variety of new jobs requiring practical skills for local people is an important aim for regeneration.

  • The Beaufoy Institute buildings and site are strategic assets to an area in need of regeneration.

  • It could be a powerhouse of activity which leads regeneration, increase aspirations and quality of life in the RCDT area and wider.

  • RCDT will assess all proposals for their contribution to regeneration for the benefit of local people, especially those living on the estates.

2.Arts & Education

  • Arts and crafts were a major industry in the local area from the 19th Century through to at least the 1950s. Local people were able to benefit from training at the Beaufoy and obtain work in local factories, such as Doultons.

  • Possibilities for careers in arts and crafts have lessened over the past 30 years because of the increasing demand for academic qualifications for art schools.

  • The difference, for example, between a woodworker and a furniture designer, is having an idea and making a drawing.

  • Arts/crafts/media should be as accessible to all as they were in the 1950s when some of the UK’s greatest designers and practitioners were training.

  • RCDT will assess all proposals for the future of the Beaufoy buildings and site in the light of whether they help foster training in arts/crafts/media equipping local people for jobs in these industries as well as fostering an appetite for life-long learning.

3.Beaufoy Covenant

  • The arts/education charitable covenant that affects the Beaufoy could be fulfilled on the site by imaginative proposals which could include:

    • the creation of studio-teaching spaces in which local and international practitioners – designers, artists, musicians, writers, etc – share their skills and show their work.

    • encouraging lifelong learning from small children to pensioners

    • practical training facilities for local unemployed people and local people wishing to re-train

    • the running of workshops for all outside school hours

    • organising master classes by internationally renowned practitioners

    • the building of live/work spaces

  • RCDT will assess all proposals for the future of the Beaufoy buildings and site in the light of whether they present a creative and imaginative package which conform to the charitable covenant.

  • RCDT considers that the proposal that currently best meets the terms of the charitable covenant, and the regeneration needs of the local area, is the Artisan School project developed by Lady Margaret Hall Settlement.

  • RCDT and the Settlement would wish to take on the responsibility for ensuring the long-term development of the Beaufoy.

4.Short-Term Use

  • RCDT recognises that the costs involved in refurbishing the buildings and building new buildings on the site will be large and take time to raise.

  • RCDT therefore expects that short-term remedial works be carried out to the buildings to make them useable for two to three years.

  • RCDT envisages that this short-term use could be on a partnership basis involving other local organisations, and organisations that wish to provide activities and services for local people

  • RCDT believes that the development of short-term use will build local community support for the future of the building and the site, and build the base for support of the long-term functions linked to arts/crafts/media training.

  • RCDT and Lady Margaret Hall Settlement wish to jointly take on responsibility for interim management and development of partnership activities.

  • RCDT and Lady Margaret Hall Settlement would want to explore partnership use in the short-term with organisations such as Lighthouse Education (after-school club), Cinema Museum, Suzy Lamplugh Trust, London College of Communications, City & Guilds Arts School and Morley College, in so far as their proposed uses meet the terms of the charitable covenant.

Statement adopted by Riverside Development Trust Board 3 August 2004