Stamford Arts Centre is a well loved and attended venue with a diverse programme of events, workshops and services. It is a real community hub with not only a loyal audience for events but also a high footfall of visitors for Tourist Information, Art Gallery visitors, Cafe customers and attendees for meetings, workshops and events as part of the centre’s room hire. Other local venues and promoters also make use of the venue’s booking system due to the high level of customer service and experience.

An independent Arts, Culture and Events service review has been carried out whilst the venue has been closed and the impact of decisions made by South Kesteven District Council as a result of this could have a dramatic impact on both staff and services. Whilst we are aware that there is no immediate risk of closure, there are significant changes proposed based upon information that is not entirely accurate. 

The review also claims that SAC runs their live programme at a loss and is unable to receive funding, however, it fails to take into account significant funding that it does have (Arts Council, Orchestras Live and Jazzpacc) as well as room hire income and commission from box office sales for external companies that put the programme at break even or in profit.

Please take the time to sign this petition to let SKDC know how important Stamford Arts Centre is to the town and to not make any potentially devastating decisions that were proposed whilst the venue was non-operational and therefore unable to see first hand how valuable each team member is and what suggestions such as reduced opening hours really means to it’s daily users.

If your signing is successful you will receive an email from change.org, if you do not receive this please do try again as not all signings are registering properly.

Many thanks,

Phil Norton