We're still collecting donations
On the 11th October 2023 we'd raised £20,531 with 260 supporters in 42 days. But as every pound matters, we're continuing to collect donations from supporters.
Help us revive and restore the old Ingrams building to host a vibrant town market, venue, studios and makers space in the heart of Ventnor.
by Ventnor Exchange in Ventnor, Isle of Wight, United Kingdom
On the 11th October 2023 we'd raised £20,531 with 260 supporters in 42 days. But as every pound matters, we're continuing to collect donations from supporters.
Wow! You folks are absolutely incredible, helping us reach our target in just over a week. We really can't believe it! Our Crowdfunder remains open so you can still support our campaign to create Ingrams Yard. The full renovations will be very costly so any support we can raise will make a huge difference in helping us to move faster with urgent repairs and will help in our applications to attract grant funding for the project by showing the level of demand and interest there is from the community. The more we can raise, the more funding we can attract to the project and to the town.
Help us kickstart an exciting new project to bring a unique space in the heart of Ventnor back to life! Ingrams Yard will house events, makers studios, rehearsal rooms and a youth space alongside a home for the re-introduction of a regular market in the town. All on a not for profit basis, led by the award winning team at Ventnor Exchange
Following the closure of Henry Ingrams Builders, who have occupied the site since 1840, Ventnor Exchange has agreed to take on this historic town centre site, with a vision to restore it and bring it back to use as a vibrant creative and community space.
At the centre of the site is an outdoor yard which we would like to open to the public with a regular market, providing a much needed new area of public space in the town centre, and a location where local artisans and makers can try out their ideas in a vibrant and affordable setting, accompanied by street food, vintage clothes, books and entertainment.
The buildings will house rehearsal and backstage facilities where Ventnor Exchange will develop new shows for a touring tented venue we hope to introduce to the Island in 2025. It will also provide a number of studio spaces for artists and creative startups to be housed under one roof. With both messy and movement space there is also the scope to offer different types of workshops to the public which we currently cannot accommodate in Church Street, like yoga and dance.
During Ventnor Fringe Ingrams Yard provides the potential for a key new theatre and performance space in the heart of the town.
This is a big undertaking that will take many years to achieve, but we are looking for your help to get this project off the ground. With your support we can make some urgent repairs to the building to get certain parts open straight away, as well as launch the first regular markets in Ventnor for many years! This is your chance to help make a fantastic new space a reality.
A bit of background on Ventnor Exchange
Back in 2010 as a group of local teenagers we felt left out from opportunities that many other places take for granted, and worried about the future of our hometown, which felt like a place in terminal decline. There was no theatre, cinema, leisure centre or gig venue. Pubs and shops were disappearing, the old Winter Gardens was in it's final season before closing down and being sold off, followed by the youth centre shortly after. As young people we were told to succeed you had to leave the Island to find education and work.
Stubborn and naive, we defied convention and set up a festival. Inspired by the famous Edinburgh festival, Ventnor Fringe is an arts event that anyone can take part in, amateur or professional. Over the past 14 years it's grown into the Island's largest arts festival, welcoming more than 12,000 people to over 100 different shows this summer.
In 2014 the festival opened a 'pop up' venue in the town's old Post Office in Church Street and it hasn't looked back since, evolving into a vibrant creative space hosting workshops, performances, exhibitions and events all year round. We also pioneered the first new record store on the Island in decades and it's first dedicated craft/specialist beer bar. The venue now employs 7 people.
In 2020, worried about the impact of COVID and deteriorating situation for young people in the area we launched Brave Island, a digital platform that provides mentoring, training, trips and opportunities every week for 14-25 year olds interested in the creative industries. The platform now has nearly 400 young people signed up!
We've never had big investors or backers, and even when we've secured funding, it's always been our loyal supporters and community who have kicked started each stage of the project, showing the need and demand is here for activity on the Isle of Wight!
Now an exciting opportunity has arisen to bring another empty building in the town to life and continue the next stage of this exciting journey. We think it has the potential to be transformative for the area but we need your help to kickstart it. Will you join us?
We ask project owners to honour their rewards wherever possible but please note that all pledges are donations and there is no guarantee that you will receive any rewards from the project owner. Please see Crowdfunder's Terms of Use for more information regarding rewards for pledges.
This project offered rewards