After the success of the Inaugural Horsham Community festival last year Martin Jeremiah promised to keep us all informed of futures events and the ongoing campaign regarding the future of the Old Town Hall.
Martin has kindly sent me the following article to update forum members on the current situation:
As Business Consultant to the Blue Flash Music Trust and Horsham Community Festival Director, many people have asked me about the future of the Old Town Hall and the possibility of a 2007 repeat festival. I’m sorry for the delay in responding to these questions, but I am not sure that until today, I knew the answers.
Firstly, let me say that whilst we have been critical of the Council’s behaviour with respect to Horsham’s Old Town Hall in the last year, the Blue Flash Music Trust has no political affiliations. Indeed, as a local arts charity, we would be unwise to do so. In addition, neither I, nor any of the current trustees are members of any political party. We therefore welcome Deputy Leader Christian Mitchell’s comments in the West Sussex County Times this week.
Our intentions for the Old Town Hall have remained constant throughout. We wish to fully utilise the Old Town Hall and take advantage of Horsham’s artistic talents. We wish to supplement clubs and societies anticipated use with centre promoted events under a professional arts management team. We want clubs and societies to benefit from this dedicated management support, with economies of scale in such things as publicity and licensing. Indeed, the Blue Flash Music Trust already helps out some societies in these areas through our block insurance arrangements and Public Performance License. We want to use our local knowledge, and arts knowledge, to avoid unpleasant clashes between lower and upper floor bookings. We want to implement an affordable, flexible pricing structure as part of one comprehensive financial plan. In this respect and others, we feel that the decision of the Advisory Group to outsource the management of the Old Town Hall was a correct one. We also want to provide additional facilities that will enhance the experience of all users. The advice of our professional fundraiser is that we are highly likely to be able to achieve this through grant funding at no expense to the local taxpayer.
However, we do not want to stop there. The threat to the viability of the town centre has become obvious in recent times. It is a threat that is also identified in the Council’s ‘Tourism Strategy for Horsham District’ document. This report identifies the need to attract tourism locally, regionally and nationally with a unique proposition. What does Horsham have that others do not? We have identified one thing only so far. That is Horsham’s unique connection to folk history, famous folk personalities like Lucy Broadwood, Henry Burstow and Michael Turner; and our folk connections to Sussex rural tradition. Hence the Community & Folk Arts Centre combined plan. Lucy Broadwood was arguably, every much as influential as Cecil Sharp. Cecil Sharp House generally attracts 50,000 visitors a year from all over the globe. Arts Council research also suggests that these are exactly the kind of customers that are targeted by Horsham’s major local businesses (Impact of Festivals report).
The Blue Flash Music Trust does not limit itself to folk music of course and all kinds of music will be represented, just as it was at the Horsham Community Festival in 2006. This was true also, with respect to the other forms of dance that we incorporated. However, in drawing up the business plan we had to recognise the specific opportunities that English folk music and dance affords us as we approach the Olympic Games in 2012. The costumes, dance steps and songs are our English heritage. It is what our international visitors are longing to see, but are so often unable to identify. As part of the feasibility study on the Old Town Hall, I conducted research for Liverpool University in this field. Over ninety per cent of the Horsham random sample, across all age groups, agreed with the statement “It is important to preserve our folk music and dance heritage”. It did not matter whether they had any contact with folk music or not.
Horsham has one of the strongest folk representations in the country. Seven dance sides and a Horsham Folk Club that is nationally recognised as being one of the most successful clubs in the country. There is no doubt that we will be able to “walk the talk” on our tourist potential. Horsham also hosts regular ‘Ceilidh’ dances. Ceilidh is the Gaelic word for welcome. We look forward to welcoming regional, national and even international visitors to Horsham’s Old Town Hall and persuading them to spend their money in Horsham town. On the major rail network, just an hour from London - what a perfect location? Using our affiliations to organisations such as the South East Folk Arts Network, Folk Arts England and the English Folk Dance and Song Society we will be able to reach this target audience easily and cheaply. The marketing budget is likely to be a fraction of any Council’s normal tourism budget.
But it does not just stop at music. When we were first told by the Advisory Group that we were to manage the Old Town Hall in February 2006, we set about extending our aims and objects accordingly. We were keen to embrace local artists particularly. We believe that we ably demonstrated the potential synergy in the Old Town Hall during the Horsham Community Festival, when we exhibited works by individual local artists, the Horsham Painting Group and 2 by 4.
The above is our vision, backed by a sound business plan, drawn up and reviewed by professionals. It was a plan that subsequently survived major scrutiny at the OTH Advisory Group and a years worth of debate in the press. The positive column inches for the Community & Folk Arts Centre plan outnumbered those against by four to one.
There is no doubt that we have felt very frustrated in the last year at the delay to implementing the plan that we were originally due to have completed by now. However we have remained positive and have a number of events planned for this year. The Blue Flash Music Trust will be working this year with the Council to host a Forum stage on Saturday 23rd June as part of the Horsham Music Week. We will also be holding fundraising events in attempt to stage the second Horsham Community Festival in September.
The Tourism Strategy for Horsham District document also talks about the need to stage regular arts events in the town in order to enhance the shopping experience. This need has been echoed by traders in the town, particularly those around the Forum. We believe that we have proven expertise in this field and could fulfil the desired frequency if we were able to use the Old Town Hall as an administrative base.
We in the Blue Flash Music Trust simply want to get on with the job. We believe that Horsham does not have time or the money for the new OTH Committee formed in November to repeat all the work that we did for the Advisory Group. The clock is ticking, particularly on grant applications. This was another thing that was highlighted in the tourism strategy document – the need for Horsham to attract grant funding.
We in the Blue Flash Music Trust simply want to put the past behind us and get on with the job. If on the back of Christian Mitchell’s comments we can rapidly meet with a representative of the Council, or a body that can act with some authority on their behalf; and quickly secure some form of commitment, then we will be able to save the local taxpayer £300,000 at a stroke. After that we look forward to working closely with the Council to create a nationally, and even internationally recognised asset for Horsham – one that will boost the town centre’s economy accordingly.
Martin Jeremiah
Business Consultant to the Blue Flash Music Trust
Director of Horsham Community Festival.
To put the above article in context Martin has also prepared a document outlining the history of the Old Town Hall campaign so far. I have attached this document below.