LET'S GET DOWNSTAIRS
The Acorn is a well-loved hub for the creative arts in the centre of Penzance and has long played an important part in our communities in West Penwith. We prioritise high-quality performances along with creative engagement within the local community through workshops and clubs. Our programme cuts across all genres, including live music nights, international tours, book launches, work by local talent and comedy nights. Our two theatre spaces allow us to host both intimate performances and packed standing gigs. We showcase and invest in emerging, local talent through our Get Involved programme and by providing a platform and environment for new events to thrive.
We are committed to deepening our understanding of equality, diversity and inclusion, to ensure that we provide a respectful and diverse place for everyone. Our performances and classes are open and accessible to all. We want our local community to discover and love the arts, whether that’s through watching, doing or helping.
The Acorn is a flexible venue with a 170-seat main theatre and a smaller basement bar and theatre space with an 80 seat capacity.
Our building is a converted chapel which opened in 1889 and we now need to raise £20,000 to realise our project aim.
Our downstairs theatre, bar and toilets are accessed by a single person-width staircase that can only safely accommodate one person at a time either going up or down. We need to find a viable and sensible solution because although our current stairs are compliant you can see they are far from ideal.
The staircase originally accessed the chapel's Sunday School and its main users were young children. It is clearly not designed for its current purpose as an access to the theatre, bar and toilets. It was never intended or designed for adult use by a theatre audience during a theatre interval. (all theatre areas are fully disabled access, we have a lift between floors and clear, level external access).
Our vision is to create a new, purpose-built, modern, compliant staircase leading from the entrance foyer directly into the theatre, bar and toilet areas.
Can you imagine how frustrating it is for our audiences and user groups to negotiate our current staircase?
Our vision is to enable greater access, enhance our audiences' safety and truly help people get downstairs!
We have researched and consulted our audiences and have commissioned architectural plans. Our project will fund its construction and make our venue a safer and more welcoming and accessible community space and increase safety for our visitors as they make their way between the bar and shows.
Thank you for helping our project - your support will make a difference!
Let's get downstairs!