Plans unveiled for a 'Culture House' at Melton Mowbray's Stockyard

Borough councillors will next week consider pushing ahead with a full feasibility study into the scheme at a time when there is uncertainty over the future of Melton Theatre.

Loughborough College Group has put the theatre, and the adjacent college campus, up for sale after a consultation exercise failed to identify potential new investors or owners of the site.

It is still hoped that a buyer can be found to retain the Asfordby Road theatre as a vital community asset for the town.

But Melton Borough Council is partnering with the college group in a plan to set up a Cultural Hub at the Stockyard, which would provide spaces for small theatre productions and study areas for performing arts students.

The ‘Cultural House’ has been put forward as the main part of this hub in revised plans for the redevelopment of the Stockyard unveiled this morning (Wednesday).

It would be provided inside the Exhibition Hall and Banqueting Suite after earlier plans to put it in the trader hall were found to be unviable.

A report to go before the next cabinet meeting states: “Melton Mowbray can turn the challenge of losing a small local theatre to the opportunity to reinvent cultural provision via an innovative Interdisciplinary cross-art-form culture house model.

“This will be a ‘theatre plus’, combining spaces for rehearsal, development, presentation and exchange.

“It will speak to the needs and aspirations of local people and provide pathways for talent to access tailored courses; spaces and programmes for communities to access space for exchange and development; and opportunities for all to encounter innovative cultural experiences across all art-forms.

“This will be the home for culture in Melton Mowbray and for surrounding communities.”

The plans outline a ‘dedicated black box performing arts space as a new home for the Melton Mowbray Theatre. This would offer a more flexible space than the current theatre, allowing for a range of productions across the performing arts, music and for other conferences and events’.

It would also offer small units for creative enterprises, such as studios or co-working spaces, and a location for exhibitions and events.

As well as programming events across the Stockyard site it could also potentially organise them in the town centre and parks.

The concept of a ‘Culture House’ comes from a Scandinavian approach to cultural infrastructure and it also borrows from the principles of UK arts centres created in the 1970s and 1980s, the report states.

The Cultural Hub project will benefit from £2M in Levelling Up Funding (LUF), which was diverted from Melton Theatre when previous owners, SMB College Group, was unable to accept it due to financial pressures.

The council was constricted on where the funding could be spent in the borough and needed to make a quick decision to alleviate the threat of losing the funds.

If cabinet members give the go-ahead for the feasibility study, the council will explore potential funding partners including Arts Council England.