Monday 31 October 2011

Lighthouse - Poole's Centre For The Arts


Lighthouse, Poole’s Centre for the Arts started life as a big ambition to inject culture into the Poole community. 32 years later our big ambitions are still going strong. And we’re just getting started.
Opened in 1978 as Poole Arts Centre, we were born as a response to a lack of cultural facilities in the South East Dorset.  Conceived, designed and delivered by an ambitious local authority keen to invest in cultural provision for its community the Centre was unrivalled in the region for the opportunities it presented to experience such breadth and such quality all under one roof.

Poole Arts Trust was set up as a company limited by guarantee and registered as a charity with a board of voluntary directors to operate and manage the venue. The trust was and still is linked to the Borough of Poole through the provision of financial support, in the form of generous grant to assist with the operation of such an ambitious undertaking.

In 1998 Lighthouse attracted its first revenue funding from Arts Council England and first started undertaking education work in order to increase its impact and value it added to the community. 
Having celebrated its 21st year of operation in 1999 the venue underwent a £9.5 million transformation to bring the  facilities up to date technically and to upgrade the public areas. Re-opened in October 2002, the centre was reborn as Lighthouse, Poole’s Centre for the Arts.

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