THE groundswell of community support for Trowbridge Town Hall, after the Trustees’ shock announcement that they face having to close the doors this summer if they cannot find at least £35,000, has strengthened their resolve to make the campaign a success.

The campaign has now received its first pledge, a £10,000 gift from a philanthropic family trust. Since the news broke last week, the Hall’s Facebook page has had over 11,00 views and hundreds of comments messages from people saying what the Hall means to them, and urging the Trustees to continue to so all they can to save it.

The Hall needs a minimum of £35,000 to stay open for a further year, after it was unsuccessful in obtaining further Arts Council England funding. Although it does receive some financial support from both Wiltshire Council and Trowbridge Town Council, plus other bodies, and last year earned £75,000 from ticket sales, rental income etc, the £35,000 is needed to balance the books.

£35,000 to Survive, £60,000 to Thrive is the rallying cry, and the aim is to secure enough pledges of finance from local firms, plus LocalGiving support from individuals, to ensure three more years in operation, by which time they Hall hopes to have boosted its earned income still further.

“We can see from the letters which have come in to us that the people of Trowbridge are right behind the Town Hall and our campaign to keep it open,” said Times editor Pete Gavan.

“We know times are hard, and authorities like the council have tough spending decisions to make. Appealing to local businesses who have an interest in keeping the High Street strong has to be the way forward.”

The news has come particularly hard to the hall’s community user groups. “We are 100% behind keeping the Town Hall open,” said Joe Coles, team leader for The Prince’s Trust courses run from there. “It’s ideal for our purposes in so many ways: the room is great, we have facilities like a kitchen to do cooking in, the staff are incredibly accommodating, and it’s right in the town centre so there is public transport for our course members.”

The Princes Trust, which runs training courses for people aged 16-25, aiming to help them build self-confidence and get jobs or return to education, has already had to move twice in the five years since it began in Trowbridge, after both Court Mills youth centre and Bridge House closed. It has an enviable success rate: in the last 18 months 86% of its attendees have found work or resumed education/training.

“I don’t know where we would run in Trowbridge if we did not have the Town Hall,” Mr Coles said. “It is really the ideal location for our courses. We also do the Arts Award as part of our course: we have taken people to shows there and these are young people who have never seen live theatre before, only watched films or TV.

“Being in the town hall, where there are two exhibitions during each course we run, opens their eyes to forms of art and makes them realise it’s not all about pictures in galleries.

Recent Princes Trust course members wanted to give something back to the hall, and raised £400 for a project to create a History Room, working with Trowbridge Museum and volunteers to learn about the Hall’s history and then decorating the room and painting a Timeline on its wall.

Another set of young people who would be hard hit by the hall’s closure are the members of the Trowbridge and District Youth Band, which like many groups faces the problem not only of finding a rehearsal but also storage space.

“The band has rented rooms in the Town Hall for the last 18 months. The venue has proved to be a huge help as not only does the Town Hall give access to rehearsal rooms, but also provides us with storage space to keep our music library and spare instruments. Finding venues which offer storage is very difficult and if the Town Hall closes there is a strong possibility that the band would cease to exist. Being a part of a thriving arts hub in the centre of Trowbridge just seems the right place to be,” said chairman Sarah Morris.

“The band has been contributing to the community for over 30 years providing children aged 8 and up the opportunity to learn a brass instrument, read music and, most importantly play together as a team. The band provides all this at a minimal cost, to make music accessible for all families.

“Considering that such opportunities are increasingly hard to find in schools, it would be a huge loss to families in Trowbridge and the surrounding district if the band was forced to close due to lack of a suitable venue.”

The £10,000 pledge, announced to Trustees on Monday, has come from the Garfield Weston Foundation, a family-run trust which gives grants to groups which work to promote the arts, community, education, youth and heritage – all the Trowbridge Town Hall Trust’s key aims.

The Trust had applied for the money earlier this year, as part of its ongoing funding plans. “The support we’ve received has been great’” said Town Hall Arts director Tracy Sullivan. “We have however noticed that some of the figures we put out last week didn’t really give a true picture of how many people use the Town Hall.

“For the year 2017/18 we have welcomed over 500 people a week into the building. Here are some of the amazing statistics: 8,627 audience members, 5000-plus visitors to art exhibitions; 3,684 tickets sold; 1,148 people participated in workshops; there were 600 external hires; we have 12 artists studios, over 40 artists sell their works in our shop and we have a team over over 40 active volunteers.”

“We are hugely heartened by the support shown to us so far by the public,” Trustees chairman Colin Kay said. “Now we have to make sure that support is translated into positive action: we would like to ask all those who speak up for us and who work for local businesses, many of which are national firms who have charitable giving programmes or are local firms run by people who, like this Board, want to save this beautiful and historic building for Trowbridge, to go to the decision makers and ask them to help.

“Trowbridge Town Hall Trust was set in 2011 as both a company limited by guarantee and a charitable trust. It has two objectives: the promotion of the arts in Trowbridge and the refurbishment of the Town Hall. As a trust it does not have members but anyone can apply to become a trustee and we have regularly had trustee recruitment campaigns. The trust has not changed since it was set up and the current trustees are ordinary people committed to the development of Trowbridge."

Companies wanting to know more about how they can get involved should contact THA Director Tracy Sullivan on director@townhallarts.co.uk or call 01225 774306.

People who want to make a one-off or a regular monthly donation, to help ensure the long term future of the Town Hall, can do so through Local Giving.org, by searching for Town Hall Arts.