Friends of Bridport Arts Centre has provided £4,000 of match funding
Come Together for Bridport's Arts Centre
Bridport, Dorset, United Kingdom
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Aim
We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to bring Bridport Arts Centre back into community ownership.
Help bring Bridport Arts Centre home
For more than 50 years, Bridport Arts Centre has been a place for theatre, music, film, art, comedy, ideas, new talent and the occasional slightly chaotic night out.
Now we have a rare chance to secure its future.
We have until 18th December to raise £400,000 and bring the Arts Centre building back into community ownership.
Your donation can help unlock more
The overall goal has not changed. We still need to raise £400,000 by 18 December.
And donations made here have a big impact because of matched funding. Money donated through this Crowdfunder unlocks additional funding into the campaign too. A donation here can work harder than it would on its own.
From 21st September, thanks to the generosity of some early benefactors, the next £17,000 donated here will be matched £1 for £1. If you were already thinking about supporting Bridport Arts Centre at some point, this is a particularly good moment to do it.
Keep an eye on this page too. We'll be adding more match funding as the campaign continues.
September Matched Funding Donors:
£8k Peter Brown
£5k Andy and Jane Littler Consultancy Ltd
£4k Anonymous Donor
What is Bridport Arts Centre?
Bridport Arts Centre is a multi-arts venue presenting a year-round programme of music, film, theatre, dance, comedy, spoken word and art exhibitions. We also host the Bridport Prize, one of the most prestigious awards in the literary world. We facilitate and run the nationally renowned From Page to Screen film festival which focuses on films adapted from literature. We have our in-house Youth Theatre called BACStage which meets weekly to rehearse new shows and performances, kickstarting the next generation of local creatives.
We bring people together through culture and creativity, but also the through the brilliant F.east Cafe and Restaurant which is situated at the rear of our venue run by Head Chef, Claire Wellman.
A small town with a big cultural life
Bridport has always punched above its weight creatively. For generations, people have walked through the doors of the Arts Centre to see something, make something, perform something, discover an artist, meet somebody or simply be part of what was going on. Some live five minutes away. Others come from across Dorset and much further afield. Artists, writers, musicians and performers have passed through here. Children have stood on a stage for the first time. New work has been shown. Friendships have started. People have found confidence, inspiration and somewhere they felt they belonged. Places like this matter. And increasingly, they need protecting.
Why are we raising £400,000?
In 1973, local people came together to buy the building and create an Arts Centre for Bridport.
More than half a century later, we have the opportunity to bring it back into community ownership.
Owning the building would give Bridport Arts Centre security and the confidence to plan properly for the future. It would also allow us to invest in the building and open up funding opportunities that are much harder to access while we remain tenants.
The £400,000 Come Together campaign will help us buy the freehold, undertake priority repair and restoration work and cover the costs associated with the purchase.
This Crowdfunder is one important part of that bigger effort.
This goes beyond Bridport
Bridport Arts Centre is rooted in this town, but the case for protecting places like it goes much wider.
“Arts centres play a vital role in the life of rural and coastal towns across the country. Bridport Arts Centre is an outstanding example: a place where people of all ages come together to experience excellence in the arts and culture, and where the creativity of the town, the wider region and the next generation is nurtured and celebrated. It is essential that the building should be brought into community ownership to protect its future and ensure that the Centre can continue to enrich the cultural, social and economic life of Bridport and West Dorset for generations to come.”
- Nicholas Serota, Chair, Arts Council England 2017–26; Director, Tate 1988–2017
If you believe independent arts spaces should have a future, wherever they are, you can be part of this one.
Can you help us?
Donate whatever feels possible. A few pounds genuinely matters, particularly when lots of people do it.
And while matched funding is available, every pound donated here can unlock another pound for the campaign.
If you cannot donate, sharing this page is enormously useful. Send it to someone who loves Bridport, someone who has been to the Arts Centre, someone who cares about the arts or simply someone who thinks communities should be able to protect the places that matter to them.
We have until 18 December.
Let’s bring Bridport Arts Centre home.
Our Arts Centre. Our Future.
Can I make a larger gift or discuss another form of support?
Yes. To discuss a major gift, business support, a fundraising partnership such as matched funding or another way of helping, please contact:
Claire Tudge, Director | [email protected]
See what our Community have to say:
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Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 14th December 2026 at 6:00pm