Lady Like by Ella Mesma, programmed as part of IGNiTE at Trinity.  Photo @Jessica Bartolini

Bristol Dance Futures are offering £8,000 for four Dance Connect Artist residencies. The residencies will see artists work in collaboration with Bristol based organisations, with the aim to see how dance practise could enrich a working environment and to exchange learning.

Dance Connect is an initiative by Bristol Dance Futures and aims to nurture talent, provide continuing professional development opportunities for dancers, and create a vibrant dance ecology so people of all ages can engage with high quality dance.

The Dance Connect initiative will embed four dance artists in Bristol’s arts, cultural and community organisations for 40 days, over a period of up to 11 months from November 2020

To apply now* please complete the Full Partnership Application form addressing the aims and the assessment criteria below.

(*Please note applications will only be accepted from those who have completed an Expression of Interest form. You can also download the Full Partnership Application form as a PDF here and the Guidelines and Assessment criteria here)

For more info please contact Deborah Baddoo - dancefutures@theatrebristol.net

Dance Connect Aims:

• Raise the profile of dance within individual organisations and more broadly within the cultural sector
• Embed the value of dance and the contribution dance artists can make within and across organisations - strengthen Bristol’s dance ecology and lever more support for dance
• Better equip organisations to work with dance artists
• Create opportunities for critical dialogue between organisations, dance artists and audiences
• Provide opportunities to test, grow and change the practice of individual dance artists, people working within organisations and the wider sector
• Create models of working which can be sustained beyond the period of this initiative

Criteria for Assessment:

• Experience in working within their chosen field of activity
• Imaginative and ambitious nature of the application
• Specificity of ideas
• Potential for impact of the residency
• What difference the residency will make to the artists' and organisations' practice
• Potential for legacy after the residency has ended
• Ideas on how they might share the impact of the Dance Connect residency

Full Partnership Application deadline 5pm 13th November 2020

Trinity Presents Garden Sessions. Design by Adam Menzies

Drum roll please… We are ready to welcome you back music lovers! In a specially erected tent in the historic grounds of Trinity, we will be running weekend sessions throughout the Autumn and we cannot wait.

Trinity Presents Garden Sessions will run throughout October, launching its first weekend with Bristol's experimental trio Waldo’s Gift (Oct 16), Livity Sound's Hodge & Danielle (Oct 17), and Dubkasm meets Ashanti Selah (Oct 18).

With Saturday & Sunday being powered by Sinai Soundystem.

“We cannot wait to welcome our music-loving audiences back to Trinity and have worked hard to make sure that we can provide a safe space for our audiences to come and enjoy what they love most - music. We cannot wait to bring well-loved artists, from Bristol and beyond, back to Trinity.” Jamell Ackford, Venue Manager

Ticket buyers can book a table for up to 6 people (from £48 +bf). Drinks will be served via Love My Local and there will be options to purchase food.

Tickets go on sale Sep 16, 10am.

Jamell has shaped a career in event programming at Trinity over ten years, including Benjamin Zephaniah as part of Trinity Presents.

Jamell joined the Trinity team in 2010, as part of the Future Jobs scheme, starting in an entry level role, as Events Assistant. Ten years later, as Venue Manager, he reflects on the importance of the opportunity.

“2009, I was fresh in Bristol and fresh out of university.

I had come from the city of Plymouth, where I studied Fine Art and recorded some of the infrequent club events. I wanted to continue my new passion within the arts. I refused to get a job I had no passion for.

One day, I passed Trinity. I loved the look of the place and had to find out what happened there. Luckily for me, Trinity was involved in a 6-month Future Jobs Fund programme through the Job Centre.

I started my journey as the Events Assistant and helping with the Youth Music Programme. During this time, I learnt so much about the amazing work that Trinity does and the passion the team has for each project.

I didn’t want this dream job to come to an end and was elated to be given the opportunity to stay on. I learnt so much from the team; from community bookings and weddings, to developing my skills enough to organise our own NYE events and annual Garden Party - which is the most notable accomplishment, growing the audience every year, with a diverse line up of Bristol talent.

With the development and progression of the role over the years, I am honoured to say I am now the Venue Manager of this wonderful organisation and look forward to what the future holds for the Centre.”

Jamell was able to pursue a career in the creative industries through the Future Jobs Fund. Opportunities like this, and the newly announced Kickstart Scheme, work towards diversifying the workforce in the sector.

We continue to create internships and employment opportunities as part of our project activity. Through our youth programme, Making Tracks, young people enhance their employability through music making. With the economic impact of Covid-19 still to be fully experienced, opportunities like this are even more important.

Read more on our thoughts about the importance of creating opportunities in the creative industry here.

Students and professionals take part in a Making Tracks sector sharing day. Making Tracks is a  life changing music making project delivered by us, in partnership with leading youth services providers Basement Studios and ACE. Photo Paul Blakemore

With the DWP's announcement of the Kickstart Scheme, Trinity explores what such jobs might mean for the Creative industries

People from lower socio-economic backgrounds make up just 12% of the workforce in the creative industries, despite being 44% of the UK population and the Creative Industries Federation highlight the inherent inequality within the creative and cultural workforce across almost every protected characteristic.
Covid-19 will mean high unemployment for young people, as well as having profound impact on the cultural and creative industries.Diversifying the creative industries remains high on the agenda with the Creative Industries Federation citing lack of diversity still a persistent failing across the sector.

Possible redundancies may only serve to harm representation through the loss of junior workforce.

At a time when we need to do more to create alternative pathways, the challenge has been compounded by the pandemic with more experienced people willing to volunteer time or remain in lower-paid roles and less job-mobility at senior or executive level.

The announcement of more detail about the Government's Kickstart Scheme in September 2020 offers some hope - with opportunities created for paid employment for unemployed 18-24yr olds.

But it is by no means a magic bullet and must be accompanied by strong youth provision to ensure that those who stand to gain most from such placements are given every opportunity to access and succeed in any roles created.

Though many will know Trinity as one of the most loved and iconic music venues in the city, what many don't know is that Trinity has delivered youth arts training since 2005, providing creative courses for young people, with a focus on working with those Not in Education Employment or Training (NEET), in partnership with Education Unlimited, City of Bristol College, Weston College, as well as Bristol’s wider youth sector.

Personal development through creative expression can be a critical factor in a young person's success.

Since 2018 we have led a Youth Music funded consortia with Basement Studio and Aspiration Creation Elevation working with 250 young people from challenging circumstances annually, giving them a chance to realise their potential through participation in arts and culture, giving access to free music-making which has truly been a life-changing opportunity for those who come through our doors.

Through our a decade of delivery, we are now part of a network of specialist providers who support with referrals, pastoral care and progression. Being part of this network who work to support the needs of NEET young people is a combined effort it is clear that, in most cases, multiple cross-sector agencies are involved in supporting a young person on their journey. The success of Kickstart in really changing the lives of those who need this chance the most rests on the ability to mobilise a cross-sector approach and support employers to help them realise the potential of a diverse young workforce.

Trinity has been part of a number of youth education and employment schemes historically, including The Future Job Fund, cited by NIESR as one of the most successful back-to-work schemes in history. Schemes such as FJF and the Creative Employment Programme have meant that we have been able to provide 33 young people aged 18-24 through with paid-internships since 2009, providing alternative pathways into creative industries.

Though not always perfect, they show us that this investment can provide a critical pathway into the creative workforce - over 1/4 of young people taken on via an internship remained employed at Trinity beyond the grant-funded post, including our Venue Manager Jamell, who started with us in 2010 on a 6mth FJF placement.

Read more about Jamell's story, here.

The toppling of the Colston statue has put Bristol under the global spotlight.

“2020 could not be timelier for the launch of Art of Resistance: we’re really pleased to be able to launch this two year project, made possible by National Lottery players, at a time of great public movement in the city. We will work with people across the city to document the unofficial histories that are often lost over time and capture Bristol’s creative and activist spirit by exploring the art that underpinned movement that have shaped our diverse city and country.”

Edson Burton, Heritage & Engagement Curator

This, along with the wider Black Lives Matter movement, has led to an outpouring of creative responses - from poetry, to illustration to performance. But this is by no means a new occurrence in Bristol, which has been a city noted of radical art and activism for decades.

Capturing that spirit, The Trinity Centre, Old Market, are launching the Art of Resistance project - awarded funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund in March 2020, prior to lockdown toward a two year programme - will explore the history of protest and activism in Bristol and the art that underpinned each movement.

Over a two year project, the project team, led by local historian, writer and director Dr Edson Burton, will celebrate the creative responses of key movements over the last 100 years - including Women’s Equality, Workers Rights and Anti-Fascism.

A grant of £150,000 will support a broad programme of research, talks, events, artist commissions, exhibitions and the creation of an online archive to chart these untold stories.

Trinity will be working with a number of research partners to realise the project.

“From Bishop Wulfstan to Jen Reid, Bristol has had a long and distinctive tradition of calling out injustice. The arts and music have helped to rally differing groups to ally together against self-serving privilege and callous greed. Given its own history, Trinity is especially well placed to showcase the many ways in which the city and the nation can come to know itself in a more honest and dynamic way.” Dr. Madge Dresser, Honorary Professor of History with Department of Historical Studies at Bristol University.

In life, we chase rainbows. In death, we want something much simpler. Our own salvation or damnation dependent on the compatibility of our relative goodness to those who mourn our passing. Making saints of those held close and casting aside the sinners, though the space between is the one most of us occupy. Society depends on us all trying to be the best versions of ourselves. Our crimes are committed in the moments where we forget to try. It’s those who touch the extremities of expected behaviour -both good and bad - who create the most ripples.

Phil served 13 years in prison for a devastating crime. He came to Trinity in 2004 on a back-to-work ex-offender placement.

Sometimes there can be no forgiveness. But, in that space between life and death is where we find community. A space for the misfits and the troubled. Beyond the warmth of our family and our friends, a sense of belonging that is unconditional.

Emma Harvey, CEO

It was just a shabby shell back then, after a period of closure that many thought would mark its end. A re-imagining, but without any of the resources needed to realise that vision.

Phil offered us a lifeline. Without him, the building could never have reopened. Nor could it have remained open during those early years, when so much manual work needed doing in order to make it a safe space.

On Phil’s release, he continued to work at Trinity for no financial or personal gain. He did so much and grafted in a way that was unimaginable. It was his dedication and determination that inspired everyone who met him in those times. Others would try to emulate it, but we’d all be in bed crashed out at a time when he was up and about, working on setting things right so we could open our doors the next day.

His atonement laid the foundation stone of Trinity today. So many times, he managed to help us pull something unrealistic out of the bag and make the magic happen. His work ethic at times seemed superhuman and pushed him to breaking on several occasions. He was so stubborn in his dissent from that ladder, when it came to his retirement in 2016.

With his cynicism, it was like he hated all that busyness and insanity that gave the place life. When the lock-down started, the team joked that this was the Trinity Phil had always wanted. A quiet space with no people and the building all to himself. But, that was his trick on us - he loved the building’s life, he just never felt that he deserved to be a part of it.

During the Phil years, to walk in and see a weathered old man followed by his faithful hound, you just knew you had found somewhere where you could just be in spite of, not because of, your past self or any future expectations.

Trinity made him feel something in a space someone more poetic might call his heart. He felt enough of a sense of being part of the wonderment though just by being in the background as He who was both church care taker and care giver, whilst never permitting himself to fully become immersed.

For those who Phil hurt most - as for any victim of crime and their families - the worst thing to have is that sense of the perpetrator’s life being allowed to continue. The fear and anger that they are somehow able to enjoy that which they have taken from their victim. That they get to feel the warmth of the sun on their face.

The reality is much more complex. Even in our most joyous of times, Phil never basked in that sunshine. There was no absolution, just resolution and resignedness to a life in the shade. To paraphrase Indigo Girls (a band he loved) even if his sweat smelt clean, the glare off the sun would hurt his eyes.

Father. Husband. Functioning alcoholic. A mask that began to slip more and more with the passing of time. But, what never changed was a deep warmth and an unwavering loyalty beyond reason. Humour in the face of adversity. Cigarettes with Steve when there was nothing else. Amongst the glimpses of joy - guitars and fish and chips and T-shirts and Poppy - there were subsequent losses and drinking alone and fear and loneliness. Life meant life.

Love. There was so much love and hurt over past wrongs so damaging that they can never be set right, no matter how virtuous any subsequent action. Nevertheless, he was deeply loved by his Trinity family. We reflect on the life of a person who touched and changed lives dramatically and catastrophically. We respectfully mourn and pay tribute to a one of a kind man who inspired us to work hard and do better, knowing he could never be forgiven.

Sometimes there can be no forgiveness. But, in that space between life and death is where we find community. A space for the misfits and the troubled. Beyond the warmth of our family and our friends, a sense of belonging that is unconditional.

That he has passed during such particularly challenging times gives us greater cause for reflection. If a criminal can become such an outstanding citizen then we can hold onto hope that good grows out of even the most darkest of moments. That one might work toward a better future they might not be part of, but which still very much exists because of the part they played.

Restoration if not of a soul, at least of a building that is still very much here. A space for love, life, death and reincarnation. A place of radical inclusiveness, helping us to see that grace extended - even if it is felt to be undeserved - can take us all to somewhere better.

Phil. A reminder that who we are at any one moment does not define us. After all, we can always choose to change ourselves.

Big love always

Emma x

The Trinity Centre, Bristol is to release a new podcast series created by young people who take part in the life changing music making project, Making Tracks.

“Thomas explores the roots of creativity, ways of seeing the world, ways of connecting, in his own sensitive, playful way... Thanks so much for having me!” Eli Carvajal

The podcast features interviews with leading musicians about their musical and personal journeys. Upcoming guests include Dizraeli (World Music Awards nominee), Sam Brookes (Sunday Times ‘Breaking Act’) and Kathryn Williams (Mercury Prize nominee).

The Making Tracks Podcast is hosted and created by project participant Thomas Kam Meadley. Diagnosed with leukaemia in 2017, Thomas Kam Meadley spent 9 months in isolation, during which time he took part in a Making Tracks outreach session in hospital.

“My experience made me realise the important of music in our lives, how it helps through hard times and how it connects us to others” says Thomas. The podcast will be released and available to listen to on Anchor FM, Spotify, and all other major podcast platforms, from 14th August 2020 with the trailer available to listen to now via Anchor FM.

We are proud to be the programmers of the Bristol Dances stage at the annual Bristol Harbour Festival. This year, as we couldn't celebrate and dance with you in person, we hosted a special day highlighting some of the UK's most exciting dance and circus artists with premiere streams excerpts from shows and especially curated short performances. Watch part of it again here.

Vogue workshop

Don your sparkles and warm up those voguing muscles and start your day right with Darren Pritchard Dance's Vogue workshop! Darren will take you through a gentle warm up followed by a beginners workshop on the five elements of Vogue Femme including Hand Performance, Catwalk, Spins and Dips, Floor Performance, Duck Walk.

This is brought to you by Trinity Presents. Click here to see more arts, community, well-being and education content or follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Trinity are working with external artists, partners and organisations as part of Trinity Presents Online to provide exciting content, relevant to Trinity's diverse audiences and in line with our Equal Opportunities and Free Speech Policies. Click here for more information about our Policies. While we endeavour to ensure content we share is relevant and appropriate, Trinity is not responsible for individual content created by third parties.

We teamed up with leading Circus Company, Cirque Bijou, to bring you a premier streaming of their outdoor spectacle Balance of the Cosmos. This show was originally created for the Taiwan Lantern Festival 2020 and was attended by over 160,000 audience members across 16 shows.

Balance of the Cosmos streamed on Facebook, Sat 18 July and now you can watch it right here. The show started a special day of live-streaming, celebrating Bristol Harbour Festival, and highlighting some of the UK's most exciting dance and circus artists, with streams, excerpts from shows and especially curated short performances.

Make sure you head over to Facebook and like Trinity and Cirque Bjiou.

About the show

Balance of the Cosmos was created for the Taiwan Lantern Festival, held in the City of Taichung in February this year through a UK / Taiwan co-production.

The show featured over 80 artists and was a true multi-cultural collaboration, celebrating artistry from the UK, France, USA, and Taiwan. It tells a simple story of the need to balance our desire to live interesting and exciting lives with our respect for the environment.

The show was performed by high wire and FireWire artist Jade Kindar-Martin, high wire artist Chris Bullzini, and aerialists Karine Kindar-Martin and Abby Evans. The music was performed by Michael Fergie, Aelfwyn Shipton, Muniyu Saliljan and Lady Nade. Balance of the Cosmos was devised, choreographed and created by the cast and creative team; written and directed by Billy Alwen and produced by Cirque Bijou, in collaboration with Yangling Company. Choreography by Yu yen Fang and Grace Willow, with music composition by Martha Tilston and Diana Yukawa.

Photo Credit: Lin Chunyung. Film Credit: Cultural Affairs Bureau of Taichung City Government

This is brought to you by Trinity Presents. Click here to see more arts, community, well-being and education content or follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Trinity are working with external artists, partners and organisations as part of Trinity Presents Online to provide exciting content, relevant to Trinity's diverse audiences and in line with our Equal Opportunities and Free Speech Policies. Click here for more information about our Policies. While we endeavour to ensure content we share is relevant and appropriate, Trinity is not responsible for individual content created by third parties.

As part of the Bristol Refugee Festival we hosted the Festival Finale with The Fantasy Orchestra performing their own arrangement of music shared with them by refugees living in Bristol.

This is brought to you by Trinity Presents. Click here to see more arts, community, well-being and education content or follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Trinity are working with external artists, partners and organisations as part of Trinity Presents Online to provide exciting content, relevant to Trinity's diverse audiences and in line with our Equal Opportunities and Free Speech Policies. Click here for more information about our Policies. While we endeavour to ensure content we share is relevant and appropriate, Trinity is not responsible for individual content created by third parties.

Uchenna Dance workshop at Trinity Photo @ Khali Ackford

Through the Dance Connect project, Bristol Dance Futures, are pleased to announce the open call for four £8,000 residencies for dance practitioners.

The residencies will embed a Bristol based artist in a cultural, health, education or public 'setting' in order to create opportunities to get to know how these settings operate and, understand how creative practice can take place within the organisations priorities. Further to this artists are encouraged to find out how these spaces could understand more about the potential of dance.

On 24 Sept 2020 organisations and artists are invited to join a Zoom meeting to find out more about the opportunity including:

• Hear about experiences of artists who have co-designed residencies within both arts and non- arts based settings
• Hear from organisations who have hosted an artist residency
• Hear about the interests of other artists and organisation
• Explore synergies between what artists would like to do and what organisations would like to host Artists and organisations will have an opportunity to discuss their values, interests and the focus of their work, with the aim of forming partnerships between independent artists and venues/organisations.

Following the meeting there will be a call out to artists and organisations to submit a joint application for a residency idea to be part of the Dance Connect project by October 30th 2020.

About Dance Futures

Bristol Dance Futures - is a consortia of South West arts organisations and practitioners - to develop the city’s dance offer. The group is working together to grow investment in dance, and includes Emily Williams (Theatre Bristol), Rhiannon Jones (Trinity Community Arts), Kieran Swann (Arnolfini), Nic Young (Circomedia), Helen Cole (In Between Time) and independents Gabbie Cooke, Deepraj Singh, Katy Noakes and Lauren Scholey. Deborah Baddoo, Dance Futures Producer will lead this development and develop Bristol’s regional and national profile as home for dance.

Dance Futures supported by Arts Council England using public funding by the National Lottery.

Roxana Vilk 'Lullabies' Sharing, 2019 © Alexa Ledecky

As both a community and cultural asset, we face very different challenges and responsibilities in relation to the two roles we play. In the second of two parts, we reflect on Trinity's role as a community hub and what role we have to play in a post-lockdown recovery…

Lots of people in Bristol will know Trinity as a gig venue but that’s just one part of our story. Music provides us with a vital source of revenue to subsidise a much wider programme, which includes providing over 4,000 hours of free and subsidised space for community activities. The COVID-19 outbreak has left the voluntary sector facing some of its biggest challenges to-date. It has also demonstrated just how important community hubs, groups and organisations are. This has been highlighted by the recent Locality report: "We Were Built for This" which details the crucial role the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) has played in the initial crisis response and why this sector should be trusted and resourced as part of the UK's post-pandemic recovery.

Locality found that community organisations have been the quickest to mobilise and adapt their services to the crisis, the glue that has held together the community response and a notable ability to harness an upsurge in community spirit. The way communities and organisations across Bristol have mobilised and formed new partnerships to deliver food, supplies and care has been brilliant. Bristol City Council, Voscur and individual organisations big and small have come together to get help to where it is needed most. There are still gaps, but it’s been amazing to see this joined-up approach - and for Trinity to play a small part in the city’s response. “

When crisis struck, across the country community organisations were early responders, coordinating volunteers, delivering emergency supplies, supporting isolated groups, and finding creative ways to keep communities together.” - Locality

Trinity’s charity focus as 'A Centre for The People' is about creating an open, accessible space for people to come together, connect, learn, share and celebrate across a progressive programme of arts and cultural events and grassroots activities. This obviously proves much more challenging with social distancing measures in place - though not impossible. Our successful Youth Music programme to engage and support children who’ve fallen out of mainstream education has moved online, providing sessions to young people 121 as well as supporting music making through our partnership with The Teenage Cancer Trust. Our garden project - supporting people to access nature to develop skills and improve mental heath - has continued through providing online garden tips, nature-hunting challenges and activity resource packs for children and families.

As a venue, we’re home to a range of community groups - from Gerry's Attic and Gentle Dance classes for over 55s to long-standing groups such as Hype urban dance troupe and Bristol Samba Band. We hope to get back to our face-to-face functions as soon as we can and are working with groups and regularly reviewing Government advice to find ways of reinstating activities within the physical space. As a space for celebration, we even hosted our first 'socially distanced' wedding ceremony on Saturday 11th July - which is a key part of our centre's heritage.

A survey recently completed by over 500 people has shown us that you would like us to continue our online offer, develop our offer for children and families and provide reassurance to people coming back into to the Centre. In response to this, we plan to provide hundreds more art packs to children across the city thanks to extra support from Children in Need.

We’re continuing to connect people across the world online through our work with Associate Artist Roxana Vilk and her project, ‘Lullabies’, as well as through the digital launch of our new heritage project – The Art of Resistance: exploring 100 years of social activism and protest in Bristol and the art that underpinned each movement. We are thankful for all the love and respect we’ve received in response to our survey and we’ll continue to adjust our focus to support the community however we and in response to your feedback.

“I'm a huge fan of Trinity and have had some of my favourite Bristol experiences there. Possibly one of the reasons why I ended up moving to Bristol. I know I'm not the only one who feels that way, you have a huge community behind you who love what you do and respect your place in the Bristol scene and will support you through this time, myself included.” Survey feedback, June 2020

Locality’s report includes some asks of the Government; the need for a community-powered economic recovery supported by an investment plan for community assets and a collaborative public services approach to unlock community power and sustain the energies harnessed by new mutual aid groups. Though some financial support has been announced, the #WeWereBuiltForThis message is still very much one that needs to be driven home. We're keen to help grow the Government’s understanding of the critical role community organisations and hubs play in times of crisis and how they are key to building the strong and thriving communities of the future.

We’ve written to our local MP about these issues and are continuing to work with other grassroots groups to ensure the long-term future of Trinity Centre and other important community hubs across the city - big and small.

Locality has info on its website for writing to your MP about the community and voluntary sector - better still, write to them with your story about how much organisations like ours matter to you.

Thanks for reading! Click here to read Part 1: Arts

You can also head over to Trinity Presents to join us for some online arts and culture.

Big Love, Team Trinity & Trustees

Trinity Garden Party 2019 ⓒ Alexa Ledecky

As both an independent grassroots music venue and a community arts charity, Trinity straddles two very different worlds. This first of two parts, reflects on Trinity's role as an arts space and what the future might hold for us in a post-lockdown world...

Trinity's vision is for everyone to have the chance to access great art and culture. As an arts centre, we bring music to young people from challenging circumstances, deliver a range of heritage and cultural activities, projects and events and support artists with affordable space, residencies and producing time, as well as providing a platform to reach new and bigger audiences.

Since lock-down, we've continued in our commitment to ‘empower communities through arts’ via Trinity Presents - our online arts programme featuring live music, DJ sets and performances, which included partnering to bring St Paul's Carnival to a digital audience. With some restrictions now easing, we're exploring what we can do with regard to 'social distanced' residencies and outdoor performances.

However, all of this - whilst delivering social impact - doesn't mitigate against the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our dedicated team has worked hard to grow a range of revenue streams to ensure we're sustainable and our funding model is centred around 'sweating the asset' - making use of the listed former-church building in Old Market we look after on behalf of the local authority.

As soon as the Government announced lockdown restrictions in March, most of Trinity's income disappeared overnight. No live music or club nights. No bar sales. No car park income. No private hire fees for weddings or revenue from large events such as our annual Garden Party, which takes place every May and would've been celebrating its 15th year in 2020.

Though restrictions are beginning to ease, guidance remains confusing and is yet to address Trinity's main income generating activity: gigs and club nights. There is no clear indication as to when we will be allowed to #LetTheMusicPlay and operate at break-even capacity. Some are anticipating this return won’t be until the next financial year, or even until a vaccine is in place.

We have thankfully been able to access some Government support and grants including Arts Council and Power to Change. However, like many of our counterparts in the city and up and down the country, we still face a very uncertain future. Trinity can likely get through the next few months but, if we cannot re-open as a venue in the Autumn, then we are going to start to really struggle without further financial support.

We’ve seen similar organisations go into administration already - including Square Chapel Arts in Halifax and Nuffield Theatres in Southampton. These are huge losses both to arts lovers and to local communities; the arts are not only invaluable to people’s health and well-being but arts centres are also valuable local economic multipliers, as shown by a 2018 Locality report on comparable community venues.

Uncertainty for some venues is even worse than for Trinity, with many facing ongoing rental charges and large business rateable values, excluding them from available grant schemes. Campaigns such as #SaveOurVenues led by the Music Venue Trust (MVT) call for specific consideration to be given to the plight of grassroots music venues, whilst Future Arts Centres call to place arts spaces like Trinity at the heart of the country’s post-pandemic recovery.

The debate on the future of the Arts sector in Parliament, in response to a petition which secured tens of thousands of signatures, touched upon some of these issues - including how the arts is more than just entertainment, supporting people through mental health struggles as well as showcasing the UK to the rest of the world.

What followed was followed by an announcement of £1.57bn to support UK culture. This offers some hope, however the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Oliver Dowden, stated that the priority for grants and loans will be to preserve the "crown jewels" in the arts sector; venues such as The Royal Albert Hall and The National Gallery.

With MVT estimating that 90% of grassroots venues are at imminent risk of closure, smaller cultural organisations are waiting to see what this funding might mean for us.

Though financial support has been announced, the #SaveArtsUK campaign is still very much live. We're keen to support the Government to widen their understanding of those who work in, enjoy and value the arts in their everyday lives and that arts is for everyone, not just those who can afford to access it.

We’ve written to our local MP about these issues and are continuing to work with other grassroots venues to ensure the long-term future of Trinity Centre and other important cultural institutions across the city - big and small.

Future Arts Centres has info on its website for writing to your MP about the community arts sector - better still, write to them with your story about how much organisations like ours matter to you.

Thanks for reading! Click here to read Part 2: Community.

You can also head over to Trinity Presents to join us for some online arts and culture.

Big love from Team Trinity & Trustees

Trinity Presents: Bristol Dances Stage at Bristol Harbour Festival 2019 Photo @KoLAB Studios

We are proud to be the programmers of the Bristol Dance's stage at the annual Bristol Harbour Festival. This year as we can't celebrate and dance with you in person, we will be hosting a special day of live-streaming highlighting some of the UK's most exciting dance and circus artists with premiere streams excerpts from shows and especially curated short performances.

Get involved on the day by tuning in and sharing your best memories of #Harbour Festival on social media.

Balance of the Cosmos - 18th July - 12:00 noon

We have teamed up with leading Circus Company Cirque Bijou, who programme the Circus area at HarbourFestival, to bring you a premier streaming of their outdoor spectacle Balance of the Cosmos. The show featured over 80 artists and was a true multi cultural collaboration, celebrating artistry from the UK, France, USA, and Taiwan. It told a simple story of the need to to balance our desire to live interesting and exciting lives with our respect for the environment.

Balance of the cosmos will be streamed on Facebook and there will be opportunities to talk with the creative team and artists behind the show in the comments section.

Vogue Workshop - 18th July - 3pm

Don your sparkles and warm up those voguing muscles and start your afternoon right with Darren Pritchard Dance's Vogue workshop! Darren will take you through a gentle warm up followed by a beginners workshop on the five elements of Vogue Femme including Hand Performance, Catwalk, Spins and Dips, Floor Performance, Duck Walk.

Celebrating Dance - 18th July - 7pm

Join us for this special one off livestream, celebrating dance artists from around the UK. With short performances from amazing companies  Ella Mesma Company and Gerry's Attic and excerpts of shows from Toussaint To Move and Uchenna Dance

This is brought to you by Trinity Presents. Click here to see more arts, community, well-being and education content or follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Trinity are working with external artists, partners and organisations as part of Trinity Presents Online to provide exciting content, relevant to Trinity's diverse audiences and in line with our Equal Opportunities and Free Speech Policies. Click here for more information about our Policies. While we endeavour to ensure content we share is relevant and appropriate, Trinity is not responsible for individual content created by third parties.

Beatbox Champions, Bellatrix and Grace Savage, taught us the basics of beatboxing and brought amixture of live individual performances and videos of their award-winning duo material. Pick up the lesson here and dance around your living room to their live set (as seen at Glastonbury, Shambala and WOMAD).

This is brought to you by Trinity Presents. Click here to see more arts, community, well-being and education content or follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Trinity are working with external artists, partners and organisations as part of Trinity Presents Online to provide exciting content, relevant to Trinity's diverse audiences and in line with our Equal Opportunities and Free Speech Policies. Click here for more information about our Policies. While we endeavour to ensure content we share is relevant and appropriate, Trinity is not responsible for individual content created by third parties.

Named by the Bristol Post as one of the cheapest car parks in central Bristol, The Trinity Centre has reopened its 24hr Pay & Display car park offering 75 spaces around the building, including accessible parking bays for visitors to the Centre.

Trinity has operated a P&D car park since 2014, using Pay & Display revenue generated to fund charitable activities and cover running costs.

Rates have been increased in response to the impact of the loss of live music and event income caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. However, Trinity is still offers some of the cheapest parking spaces in the city and, what you pay to park at Trinity subsidises hall space, which will be of great help to support local groups and regular classes as they begin to return to the community centre.

Trinity is in walking distance of many city centre attractions and is a short distance from Junction 3 of the M32. Trinity is also within walking distance of Old Market (4mins), Stapleton Road (2mins) Cabot Circus (13mins) and Broadmead (19min).

In line with the latest guidance, customers paying to park will not be able to use cash payments - payment methods include cash, debit/credit card and Apple and Andriod pay. Rates start at £1 for 30min.

The car park is open 24 hours and customers are able to pay for multiple 12 hour slots for overnight stays. Click here for further information about parking rates and terms.

Trinity’s car park is managed by Carflow Management company via an Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system. All users of the site, including Blue Badge Holders, are required to pay and display the correct amount.

Making Tracks Intern and musician Thomas Meadley introduces some of Bristol's rising stars, in this Making Tracks Showcase. The Making Tracks programme is brought to you by Trinity, ACE and Basement Studio.

This is brought to you by Trinity Presents. Click here to see more arts, community, well-being and education content or follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Trinity are working with external artists, partners and organisations as part of Trinity Presents Online to provide exciting content, relevant to Trinity's diverse audiences and in line with our Equal Opportunities and Free Speech Policies. Click here for more information about our Policies. While we endeavour to ensure content we share is relevant and appropriate, Trinity is not responsible for individual content created by third parties.

As part of the Bristol Refugee Festival we hosted the Festival Finale with The Fantasy Orchestra performing their own arrangement of music shared with them by refugees living in Bristol. Watch again in two parts here.

Pt 1: Har Kurd Abin (Ibrahim Ahmad)

Pt 2: Zor Qiji Zerd (Slemany University Band)

This is brought to you by Trinity Presents. Click here to see more arts, community, well-being and education content or follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Trinity are working with external artists, partners and organisations as part of Trinity Presents Online to provide exciting content, relevant to Trinity's diverse audiences and in line with our Equal Opportunities and Free Speech Policies. Click here for more information about our Policies. While we endeavour to ensure content we share is relevant and appropriate, Trinity is not responsible for individual content created by third parties.

"What a beautiful venue, full to the brim with amazing work and gorgeous outreach programmes and artistic development opportunities. I'm really hoping to spend more time there once things have calmed down" Audience Feedback June 2020

Trinity have been awarded funding of £28,677 through Power to Change's £12 million emergency support package.

Power to Change support community led businesses, giving places and people more control over shaping their communities. The grant will contribute towards Trinity’s core costs following the ceasing of trading in March 2020, due to lockdown measures. These costs are usually covered by revenue generated from hires, bar sales and our pay and display car park.

The emergency grant follows funding from Power to Change to improve our ability to support communities in running grassroots activity through the Community Kickstart project, as well as enabling us to increase capacity for community hire through the Trinity Digs project.

Trinity is both a community asset and a community and cultural hub. Free and subsided hire allow community groups and residents to deliver their own activity and organise community led meetings and events.  Provision to support those struggling with mental health or social isolation is offered through project activity including our Community Garden and Youth Music project.

We are hugely grateful to the funders who have contributed emergency funds to help us bridge the gap in our funding, created by a loss of trading activity. This support means we can continue to deliver activities for the many communities connected to Trinity. As a Localis report on the sector recently outlined, this crisis has threatened the existence of community assets and has also shown just how significant they are to society in these most challenging times.

“We are delighted Trinity Centre has supported Full Circle youth services by giving us the nature packs to give out to our most vulnerable families and young people. We are also looking forward to deepening our connection with Trinity to benefit the families and young in Bristol”

Judith Davis, Youth Development Manager, Full Circle Youth Centre @ Docklands, June 2020

We know now more than ever, we need opportunities to take part, connect and celebrate. During lockdown we have worked to offer communities the opportunity to access cultural and community activity. This includes supporting groups and individuals to take Community Kickstart activity online through our Trinity Presents Programme. We have also been working with local organisations and schools to distribute activity packs to families - with more planned to reach others who maybe experiencing social isolation due to Covid-19. You can find out more about this activity and how we are reaching communities during lockdown here. Tutors from Making Tracks project have been working to support young people access music making provision through video sessions.