For little over 30 years. Registered charity Light House Wolverhampton located in the historic Chubb Buildings, has been the creative heartbeat of the city. On Thursday 3rd November. Due to financial issues exacerbated by a 16-month Covid shutdown beyond our control. Alongside great difficulty in securing large-scale funding, to ease such pressures and build capacity for a brighter future. Our wonderful venue was forced to shut its doors, devastating members of staff like myself and the ever-loyal customer base that supports us.

Here's just a taster of what the venue has hosted. The bi-annual Deaffest, a longstanding film festival celebrating the deaf community. Heats of the BBC New Comedy Awards in 2021. The first-ever Wolverhampton Film Festival. The Chubb Cobbles Market. Sculptor Willard Wigan's Homecoming exhibition. MUSOS Open Mic nights, giving local talent a chance to showcase themselves in our courtyard through music and spoken word. Vinyl nights put on by the All Hands On Decks gang and once even hosted by The Smiths' Mike Joyce. Wolverhampton Literature Festival with a recent In Conversation with The Repair Shop's Jay Blades. An LGBTQ+ film season in collaboration with Peccadillo Pictures and Bohemia Media, alongside local organisation Wolverhampton LGBT+. 

And that's without factoring in the sheer range of community groups we've taken great pleasure, in having at Light House. The various language cafes, giving people a chance to learn French, Spanish, German and Italian. Regenerated Teenagers, who've played bingo every Thursday lunchtime. Singing For Lung Health as we head into a Wednesday matinee.

To me personally as a staff member for seven and a half years, with the last four months transitioning to marketing. Every day, i have considered it a labour of love to fight tirelessly for this place. It has been more home than my actual home. Especially in an 18-month period where i lost my dear Mom and Nan in quick succession. This was my safe space to grieve, to be comforted and eventually draw positivity out of an exceptionally bleak time in my life. That is testament to the brilliant staff i've been fortunate enough to work with and the wonderful customers who we've grown sweet relationships with over time. That is what the power of the arts can do to you. 

The arts demonstrated at the peak of COVID how versatile and cathartic they can be. In our darkest days mentally, they could be the single bit of escapism that helped us cling on. But this feeling isn't just confined to a pandemic. We've seen and heard consistently how vital Light House Wolverhampton is to so many people. For that person, we could genuinely be the only people they properly engage with them on a weekly basis. Now look at the timing of this. We're talking about a warm space agenda in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, which is maddening in modern Britain to merely type. Think of the older generation especially. To not be that space for them. To not make them feel part of a community. It's heart-breaking.

We're not the only independent arts venue to be going through such a challenging time. We stand in solidarity with all our dearest creative friends up and down the country, who keep fighting endlessly to ensure the arts have a real place in their respective communities and cities. This is not just a local picture. But a NATIONAL picture.

To those in government and who can lobby. We cannot keep taking these significant cultural hits. The enrichment to just one life. Never mind the  influence of the arts on a wider society continues to be under-estimated. It simply cannot go on.

For now. It's time to demonstrate proper people power.

Let's get the lights back on. Let's resuscitate the creative heartbeat of our city. Let's save Light House Wolverhampton!

Thank you. x

Darryl Griffiths

Marketing Manager

Light House Wolverhampton