M&S stores across Bristol are calling on local people to roll up their sleeves and Spark Something Good by joining over 100 M&S employees in a week of volunteering that will positively impact 24 projects at the heart of local communities.

Spark Something Good will take place across 24 cities in the UK and Ireland over the course of 24 months and will see 24 projects benefit in each location. Bristol has been selected as the next city to host the event as part of the retailer’s commitment to Big Green Week...and the Trinity Community Garden is one of their selected projects!

From Saturday 11^th to Friday 17^th June 2016, Spark Something Good will form a focal point of Big Green Week Bristol with M&S employees and customers coming together to donate their time to improving local community spaces.

Different volunteering projects will take place each day. Trinity will be welcoming volunteers on Thursday 16th June to help us improve the outdoor kitchen in the garden. Activities will involve clearing the site, sawing wood, levelling ground and compacting with gravel to create a clean and smooth floor surface where we can cook and eat safely. This will help make the space more accessible and inviting for participants of all ages and abilities. We'd love your help to make it happen!

If you would like to sign-up to take part in our project or find out more, visit the dedicated website, www.neighbourly.com/mandsvolunteer, developed by Neighbourly (the social network for social good) and look for our project. Sign up for a full day or half day of volunteering here.

Rob Bailey, Store Manager at Marks & Spencer Bristol Broadmead, said: “M&S is really proud to be the Community Champion for Big Green Week and this year promises to be extra special with the addition of Spark Something Good. It was difficult to choose just 24 projects but we have some really worthy causes on board. With M&S employees and the Bristol community working together to volunteer with organisations that really matter, we know we can achieve something great. Getting stuck in and helping others can make a profound difference to the services so many people across the city rely on, and we can’t wait to get started on June 11^th.”

Spark Something Good is part of Plan A, M&S’s ground-breaking eco and ethical programme. It was developed following extensive research and dialogue which revealed that getting involved in community projects enhanced people’s lives. M&S aims to spark Bristol residents into action by showing just what can be achieved when people come together united by a common goal.

Volunteers can also sign up for Spark Something Good Bristol by calling 0117 915 1279.

Control and Calculation : Inheriting Liberation : Improvised Publics

Emergenc(i)es is two week series of free workshops, performances, talks, films and exhibits from some of the most exciting thinkers and creatives.

Emergenc(i)es challenges how we learn? How we are (mis) informed. Does our online, algorithm driven world teach us detachment. What if we could learn, share and transform our lives in another way.

Writer, activist curator Deborah Withers wants to provoke us. She wants to take nothing for granted. Together, speakers, artists and participants will learn how we can radically transform our lives.

Inspiring live performances:

Anushiye Yarnell performs Nest a performance which has accumulated over a period of 4 years since the early stages of her pregnancy.

Cellist Bela Emerson invites the audience to become live co-creators in her piece in this innovative and inclusive work.

Abher behn presents a solo performance that uses sound and video improvisation, performance, composition and collage in a response to our experience of The City.

Ben Owen’s Goldf” will gather range performers in clusters across the floor of Fyfe Hall producing a sprawling live soundtrack to accompany his expanded film work.

Workshops and thought provoking discussions:

Shannon Woodcock presents a gentle and provocative engagement with how history can affect and inform us today as we time travel to meet colonial Australia’s first cook book writer, Cooking the Books of Genocide in Australia.

Madhu Krishnan examines how a radical politics might intersect with notions of resilience in the context of oppression under late capitalism in the twenty-first century.

Celebrated improv vocalist Maggie Nicols uses creative exercises to facilitate an inspiring group dynamic which reassure the nervous and challenge complacency to enable you to release your inner voice.

Should we be demanding Wages for Digital Labour? How do we, as everyday users of digital technologies, help to create wealth for large multinational companies?

Corey Mwamba looks types of silence as a palpable musical event within totally improvised music.

Bristol's favourite poet, playright, historian and general all rounder Edson Burton will respond to ‘Concerning the Poem’s Information’ from Édouard Glissant’s Poetics of Relation.

Martin Crowley’s presentation explores theory of participation in relation to culture, what it means to be truly involved and how what happens if we are not.

Charlotte Cooper, author of Fat Activism: A Radical Social Movement, will challenge you to generate your own ideas for research and publishing tactics that demolish unethical and unequal power systems.

Per-forming Pharmacy - considering the emergency of the current historical moment through the collecting, categorising, collaging and sharing of words.

Transgender: Cultural and historical developments and the “case” of James Miranda Barry - Anne Heilmann explore how have perceptions and understandings of gender, sex and sexuality developed through history.

If you would like to learn more about repairing how we are portrayed in our public spaces, and if you’d like to take collective action to repair how we are portrayed in our public spaces, then join Dr Nathaniel Adam Tobias and Isabelle Cox as they Dismantle the Master's Museum.

The week will culminate with one last final performance to end on - watch this space for details.

Thanks to everyone who came along to this year's EPIC garden party!

We celebrated 40yrs of music in style, with a fantastic array artists performing live. Alongside theatre, workshops, stalls and great food including Rana's Dhaba Junction, offering a choice of delicious vegetarian and non-vegetarian Indian dishes and Roger Moore’s, serving up authentic tastes of the Caribbean.

This year’s event had an exciting backdrop of visual arts; East Bristol Contemporary exhibited in our upstairs Graffiti Room, as part of a wider residency. Jimmy Cauty’s critically-acclaimed ADP installation - seen last at Banksy's Dismaland - re-housed in a specially converted shipping container, chose Trinity its first stop as part of The ADP Riot Tour, which will be visiting sites of historic riots across the country throughout the year.

As well as visual arts, our upstairs Fyfe Hall hosted performances for children and families; Arnold's Big Adventure had everyone singing along to their original music set to a backdrop of shadow puppetry. Cinco Coisas solo-show of dance, play, clowning and improvisation also appealed to the younger Trinity crowd.

Downstairs in the Main Hall, Drumming Workshops provided a positive, enthusiastic drumming session teaching children and adults alike about drumming culture. Pixel Whipped’s amazing array of consoles kept those who wanted a break from the scorching sun entertained with retro-gaming.

Outside, compères Edson Burton and Alice Taylor-Matthews worked wonders together on the Main Stage, making sure the music and entertainment ran smoothly. They also helped to kick-off our Notes for Notes fundraising appeal, aiming to raise essential funds for some much needed capital repair work – you can donate online here.

Trinity music students Omar and Sam kicked off proceedings with some great performances, alongside students from Temple Records. As the day heated up, there were sets from Bristol's Bodywork djs and art rapper Luui, plus psychedelic pop summer sounds from Yama Warashi, to entertain the growing crowd.

The site was bursting at the seams with our capacity reached by 3pm, while Many Monika brought us some punk-rock. Jazz-punk-rockers The Evil Usses took to the stage, ‘gaining one hell of a reputation for their fierce and uncompromising live performances’. With the sun blazing, the garden itself reached capacity, with everyone kicking back to enjoy the hottest day of the year so far.

Trinity residents Bristol Samba’s Bloco Carnavalesco got everyone moving, with the site full and a queue right down Trinity Road. Many could not face the one-in one-out wait, so took to celebrating on the street and setting up on surrounding grassy areas to enjoy the festivities remotely.

The Most Trio featured Mr.Woodnote & Lil Rhys, ‘two of the most notorious buskers Bristol has ever produced’, plus the sumptuous voice of Eva Lazarus. Their funky, fat base-beats and instrumental artistry set the audience in motion once more.

Lionpulse, who came onto the sound-system scene a few years back with their packed-out launch party at Trinity, gave us some great roots, revival reggae and dub sounds.

What better way to end the celebration of 40 years of Music at Trinity then with a feel-good set from pioneering DJ RSD - Rob Smith from Bristol Sound legends Smith and Mighty - who played us out with positive hip-hop, dub, reggae vibes.

We raised £1,400 in donations on the door and, overall we raised a total of £4,500 from the day after costs, which is such an amazing achievement for a free event! This means we can keep developing our in-house community arts event programme.

If you missed it, or you just want to revel in the good-times, check out some images taken throughout the day:

• courtesy of Khali Ackford Photography, see below and here on Facebook.
• courtesy of Jon James (Trustee) here on Flickr.

Thanks to everyone who came along to join us for the Trinity Centre's 40th birthday bash - it couldn’t have been better!

Left to right: Alice Taylor-Matthews & Edson Burton; The Most Trio; some garden revellers; Lionpulse Official. Images courtesy of Khali Ackford Photography.

BAFTA Award winning Thespians are not necessarily what first comes to mind when one thinks of Trinity. But national treasure Miriam Margolyes - our charity Patron since 2014 - kindly agreed to support our fundraising effort by contributing her time, spirit and humour for one night only, December 2015.

The audience arrived promptly at 7pm, to be greeted by the scent of mince pies, mulled wine. The aromas set the tone for an evening of festive mischief.

We considered carefully which performers would compliment an evening with Mirriam Two of Bristol' s finest Opheila Biltz and Tom Marshman immediately came to mind.

The delectable queen of double entendre, cabaret-compère Ophelia Blitz, charmed, teased and enthralled the audience in a sequinned costume that sparkled almost as much as her wit.

Chameleon, performer and theatre maker Tom Marshman served up a warm dish of surreal character sketches borrowed from his show ‘A Place in the Sun’ - exploring the pleasures, pains, highs and lows and sunburn, of package holidays. The audience of 80, somewhat new to Trinity, may have wondered what they had wandered into as his characters challenged them with churlish quips and dry rebuffs.

Pianist Jack Calloway - of Old Duke stalwarts the trad-jazz aficionados, Prohibition Jazz - filled the space before Miriam's entry. Miriam cut short what was to be a roll call of her achievements by staff member Edson Burton with a playful ' none-of-that-nonsense' approach, before launching into her performance.

With decades at the top of her game, Miriam has a treasure-trove of memories from which to draw. But far from reeling off her achievements, she drew us into her confidence as if we were old friends. Throughout the hour, Miriam took us on an enthralling journey through her life, punctuated with songs, poems and readings from Dickens.

Miriam is a consummate raconteur and a fantastic entertainer but, for many, it was her candid reflections that were most engaging. With surprising frankness she named and shamed those now famous bullies who ridiculed her commitment to theatre during her university years spent at Cambridge. Miriam has, of course, had the last laugh. She is a national treasure. At a time when many celebrities have fallen from grace she is untarnished indeed she glows brighter. Her eyes sparkled with tenderness as she spoke movingly of her long term relationship. A relationship which begun at a time when attitudes to same sex relationships were less enlightened.

Behind her cut glass accent - acquired through elocution classes - is a survivor who has learnt to thrive as a woman in theatre. It is fitting then that the night raised a total of £2,200 towards our youth music provision, which caters for young people experiencing emotional and family stresses.

Miriam brought a new audience to the Trinity. Towards the end of the evening, as we all sang the Daisy Bell song by Henry Dacre, aka Daisy Daisy, we all felt just that little bit closer.

Trinity would like to give a big thanks to Miriam for hosting such a wonderful evening.

Big thanks also to Alice, Tom and Jack for performing alongside Miriam in-kind, to raise vital funds for our youth training programme.

Left to right: Ophelia Blitz; Tom Marshman; Miriam Margolyes & Jack Calloway; Miriam Margolyes. Images by Jessica Bartolini.

In our ongoing efforts to build archive content for the Trinity Centre, we're looking for people with images, film and stories to share about their time at Trinity during the 1990s.

For many this was Bristol's musical heyday, with Managers Derrick Sterling and Andy McGrath hosting some huge names - local and international.

Trinity was pivotal in the Bristol Sound movement, with many of Bristol's legendary artists cutting their teeth in the Trinity Hall. Jungle and DnB also built up a strong following, for example Ruff Neck Ting featuring Full Cycle (Roni Size). This was against the backdrop of national and international touring performers, most notably Public Enemy.

The BBC Radio 1 Sound City in 1995 was an epic event seeing the likes of Orbital, Prodigy and Skunk Anansie performing live under the same church roof.

Alongside this, the psy-trance and house movement was gaining traction amongst an emerging local audience, with nights such as Tribe of Frog, Sundissential and Tokyo Sex Whale making Trinity their home.

If you have a story of this time you would like to share - however long, short, bitter or sweet - get in touch with edson@3ca.org.uk or tweet @TrinityBristol.

View our archive here.

For every donation over £5 towards the Notes for Notes appeal, Trinity will exchange a musical note.

When we reach 4,000 musical-notes we will launch 'the Trinity Anthem' - a unique piece of music, created by Adrian Utley & John Parish, to celebrate the diverse musical heritage of the centre and city of Bristol.

We hope that people who hold Trinity close to their hears will support the Conservation Project and help us raise vital funds to help secure the centre's future

You can support Trinity's Notes for Notes fundraising in a number of ways:

• by donating on our Just Giving webpage

• text ROOF31 £5 to 70070 to donate to Trinity's Notes for Notes appeal and make a difference today. JustTextGiving by Vodafone.

• And fundraising for Notes for Notes with your friends, neighbours, family or work colleagues – you can get some inspiration by downloading our Fundraising Guide here or create your own fundraising idea and  raise money to repair the much-loved Trinity building: let us know what you have planned and we'll  promote your fundraising to help you raise more

You can learn more about the essential repair work needed to the Trinity building here.

You can learn more about the essential work Trinity Community Arts provides in the local community here.

The Aftermath Dislocation Principle (ADP); a stand-out exhibition in Banksy's apocalyptic theme park Dismaland, will be coming to the Trinity Centre, rehoused in a specially converted shipping container.

Far from inciting another riot the exhibition creator, Jimmy Cauty, hopes the experience will be peaceful and thought-provoking , with the only real disturbance being the constant chatter of miniature police radios, dotted all over the exhibit.

The exhibition runs from Friday 29 April - to Sunday 8 May.

We are looking for a great team of volunteers to act as stewards during the opening night, (6pm - 10pm, Friday 29th April) and between 10am - 7pm daily until Saturday 7th May.

Trinity's annual Garden Party; taking place on Sunday 8th May, this year celebrates 40 years of Music.

We are looking for volunteers to steward and help out on the day assisting with crowd management, sign-posting, set up and pack down as well as helping out with workshops and the final day of the ADP Exhibition.

Running between 12pm - 9pm, this year's Garden Party line up includes live music from RSD (Smith & Mighty), The Most Trio ft Lil Rhys & Eva Lazarus, Lionpulse, Rattle, The Evil Usses, Bodywork DJ's, Yama Warashi, Luui, Many Monika as well as theatre performances from Tessa Bide and Bianca  Bartalot and more.

All volunteers will be be given an induction to the site and the role before starting. They will also receive refreshments and a free Trinity T-Shirt! Those assisting at the Garden Party will be provided with lunch.

To sign up or find out more please fill in our online volunteer application form or contact Ripley@3ca.org.uk / 0117 935 1200.

Trinity Community Arts supports findings that when people leave prison, they are much less likely to re-offend if they have a home and a job.

We have a long-standing partnership with Leyhill HMP - a CAT D, open prison - and provide long-term work placements to individual life-prisoners for between 6-18 months, in order to help improve their chances of successful release.

Many prisoners come into prison unemployed and 73.5% return to unemployment on release*

If an ex-offender is able to come out and find work, somewhere to live and develop a support network, this greatly reduce the chances of them re-offending.

Many prisoners are released with nowhere to go and support from friends or family is not always available. Therefore, in our commitment to providing services for the whole community, it is vital that organisations such as Trinity provide support in the form of work experience placements for ex-offenders.

“I am currently serving a prison sentence at Leyhill prison. As part of my resettlement I go to Trinity Centre where I help out with all aspects of keeping this community centre up and running for all the people in the area. This has given me a lot of confidence to help me move forward in my rehabilitation, meeting new people and giving me a new view on how to be more open and to give me more options for when I do get released from prison.” Statement from an individual on placement from Leyhill HMP, who has been successfully released, 2013

The Trinity Centre is a large, converted, Georgian, grade II* listed former-church building, so ongoing maintenance and upkeep of the building and grounds is a constant challenge.

Our Leyhill volunteers bring with them skills including plastering, painting, carpentry, brick-laying, gardening and cleaning, including COSHH. The placements allow individuals to gain practical work experience, whilst also helping us to carry out essential repairs and maintenance that we otherwise wouldn't be able to afford.

Providing ex-offenders with the opportunity to apply their training within a real setting provides individuals with valuable experience to enable them to secure employment on their release.

“Thank you for making me feel part of the team and treating me like a human being again.” Statement from an individual on placement from Leyhill HMP, who has been successfully released, 2016

Want to read more? See: In memoriam: Phil, a story of change.

Our placements are provided on a case-by-case basis, where individuals are not shown to be on the Child Protection Register or Protection of Vulnerable Adults Register. A full disclosure is undertaken, where individuals are assessed to ensure that offering a placement will not pose a threat to either Centre users or other staff and volunteers. We also have an Ex-offenders Policy that we use to train staff and volunteers in working with ex-offenders. Lehyill HMP regularly monitor placements as part of their “Through The Gate” scheme.

___

*HoC Work and Pensions Committee, Support for ex-offenders Fifth Report of Session 2016–17, p5

We are very excited to announce that Jimmy Cauty’s critically-acclaimed The Aftermath Dislocation Principle (ADP), previously seen at Banksy's Dismaland last summer, will be coming to the Trinity Centre, Friday 29^th April – Sunday 8^th May.

The fine city of Bristol has never witnessed such devastating scenes of destruction and chaos. So it will come as great comfort to citizens to learn that it is on an incredibly small scale---1:87 to be precise---and safely contained within a 40ft shipping container, as part of a surreal model village experience visiting the city.

The Aftermath Dislocation Principle (ADP) is a post-riot landscape created in miniature by acclaimed artist Jimmy Cauty -- co-creator of chart-topping band The KLF and its subsequent, million pound-burning arts incarnation The K Foundation.

Following The ADP's critically-acclaimed appearance at Banksy's Dismaland last summer, the installation has taken to the road, re-housed in a specially converted shipping container, which will open its doors to visitors across the country, at the sites of historic riots.

The ADP Riot Tour's visit to Bristol, from 29th April, will see it take up residence at The Trinity Centre, opposite the Trinity Road Police Station, instrumental in The St Pauls Riot of 1980, which saw black and white youth stand up to police harassment.

Far from inciting another riot, the event's organisers hope the experience will be a peaceful and thought-provoking one, with the only real disturbance being the constant chatter of miniature police radios, dotted all over the exhibit.

The Art Therapy sessions were planned for young adults, most of them referred by their GP's. The purpose of the project was to help individuals to increase their understanding of what is happening, reducing the level of distress caused by unusual experiences and prioritising personal recovery and a quick return to valued roles and social relationships.

Katie Gannaway, Mental Health Worker for AWP Bristol Early Intervention Team explains why the project was important:

"Earlier this year we ran a therapeutic art group from Arts West Side, for 16 weeks. The group was for young people 16- 35 years who are experiencing mental health difficulties. As part of their recovery we wanted this group to be in the community to promote social inclusion, leading to service users to feel less isolated and facilitating them to link in to other community resources.

The art group gave them an opportunity to explore their creativity whilst receiving emotional support in a safe group environment enabling them to feel more confident to be part of the community. The group was for a maximum of eight people, and included two healthcare professionals facilitating the therapeutic art group.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommends the use of art for young people because it can help to alleviate negative symptoms and should be provided in a group setting.

The feedback from group members was very positive; they liked the location because it was central, they also felt the space provided was safe and confidential, allowing them to freely express themselves through their art.

They also appreciated the art space below (SPACE), giving them the opportunity to view various exhibits, which for some, influenced their art and interest. This often impacted on our art sessions; members would access the group through the exhibition and this would become a talking point, and an opportunity to engage with others. Some of the members had never had the opportunity to visit art exhibitions; however, the accessibility provided this opportunity.

We would have struggled to provide this group in the community due to limited funds; Arts West Side offered a great space, accessible to communities that are often isolated."

Wild Card Award Open Call for Artist Commission

In Between Time in partnership with Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts (ACCA), Fierce Festival, Trinity Centre supported by Arnolfini, seek to commission an artist to make new work to premiere at IBT17 and tour throughout 2017.

Wild Card Award is committed to supporting and developing artists who engage with live practice and employ an experimental approach to process, form and audience.

Wild Card Award is part of IBT’s wider commitment to supporting artist development and sits alongside the New Bloods platform – an open-call for six emerging UK artists, and The Student Awards, a new prize given to 3 promising UK art students from Leeds Beckett University, University of Chichester and the University of the West of England.

The Wild Card Award 2015 commissioned Peter McMaster to create 27, which was performed in Fyfe Hall here at the Trinity Centre and is currently on tour with IBT.

Deadline Sunday 17th April - more info here

As you all may know, Trinity has been running 6 West Street Old Market for nearly 5 years, under Bristol City Council's Community Asset Transfer initiative, with the aim to support the regeneration of Old Market.

After a successful run of community cafe projects in the space, Trinity received many wonderful proposals for the use of the space, but we were only able to select one.

We are happy to announce that The Island submitted an innovative bid with a clear community engagement plan, which was close to Trinity's own aims and objectives for 2016.

The Island’s main vision for SPACE (Sound-Performance-Art-Community-Engagement) is to create a welcoming and open hub for the local community, supporting creativity in Bristol by showcasing work and sharing ideas. They will be curating a very exciting programme of monthly events, ranging from exhibitions, workshops, art & crafts pop-up shops, small theatre shows, fashion markets and so much more! This exciting partnership will allow us both organisations, Key Arts Providers for the city, to expand our involvement with the local community and offer in the locality.

SPACE launched on Friday 8th April, 6pm with “Vice & Virtue: Discovering the Story of Old Market Bristol” exhibition, based on Trinity's Heritage Project delivered between 2013-2015 by Dr Edson Burton and historian Mike Manson. It includes integrated extracts from oral interviews, photographs, and research findings of the area, covering the history of Old Market's pre 19th century through to the present.

If you would like further information regarding SPACE, exhibition/space or hire avails, please contact SPACE directly:

T: 01173 763 457

E: space@theislandbristol.com

W: http://theislandbristol.com/spaces/space/

Last Friday we saw the launch of Yellow Brick Roadz with Deep Medi's Gothrad & Cosmic Bridge label boss Om Unit. With support from T_! on the mighty RC1 Soundsystem. It was a Bass heavy low light event. Look out for their next exciting event coming up on 15^th April.

Coming up, we are pleased to host The Global Playground Fundraiser on Thursday 24th March, who have secured The Carnyvillains. Zen Hussies & The Undercover Hippyalongside a great host of acts to get you dancing, raising awareness and money for Felix Road Adventure Playground in Easton and school projects in Dunkirk & Calais Refugee Camps. Join us beforehand for FREE pre-event: 'The Refugee Crisis: What Can We Do?' an evening of live music and talks about the refugee crisis at 6pm.

Spring is here and we have the next installment of Teachings In Dub, held on Friday 22nd April, with an exciting line up includingthe legendary Levi Roots, Stryda and Nick Manasseh. Set to be a very special night, join us in celebrating 20 years of Stryda's Sufferah's Choice Show.

Also, coming up is our very own annual Garden Party, Sunday 8^th May, proudly celebrating 40 years of music at The Trinity. We have secured, Rattle, The EvilUsses, Lionpulse and much more...check out our ever expanding line up as the day draws closer. We are still welcoming volunteers and ideasfor workshops, activities and stalls, so please get in contact if you'd like to contribute.

With summer not so far away, Mayfest 2016 has announced its program. The Trinity will behosting "The Castle Builder", welcoming back Kid Carpet from our 2010 Garden Party and his collaborator VicLlewellyn. Also being performed is "Can I start Again Please", a riveting and humorous investigation into the power and failings oflanguage. Plenty more great stuff in there - check the full programme here.

Check out our what's on pages for more info as there just isn't enough space to fit it allhere!

Would you like to join the team? We are currently recruiting for a Caretaker. Find out more info here.

With over one-million young people aged from 16 to 24 in the UK not in education, employment or training (NEET) according to the Office for National Statistics, Trinity's creative learning courses have historically provided a vital route back into learning for disengaged young people.

Trinity has been a youth training provider since 2005 and courses have become increasingly popular - working with up to 60 young people in a year across various learning programmes, combining creative-arts activities with more formal learning and accreditations.

We feel it is important to ensure that we continue to provide musical educational opportunities to young people who may otherwise not engage with mainstream provision in the city, as explained by our Patron, Miriam Margolyes OBE, "These days, the Arts have to fight for their place in our society & I saw when I visited Trinity that it is not only committed to encouraging & fostering the Arts in Bristol, but also to ensure young people from diverse backgrounds experience all aspects of Art & enable them to realise their dreams."

Between 2012-2014, 98 young people took part in Trinity's Youth Music project, with over half of the young people (57%) coming from local wards and 40% from BME backgrounds. 28 young people were able to achieve a Rockschool accreditation.

In 2015 Trinity worked with 68 young people across our ESF funded provision, drop-ins, 121s and outreach sessions.

Changes to provision

Trinity previously worked as part of a consortium led by the City of Bristol College through their 'Faculty for Foundation Education' - a consortium recognised by the Beacon Award for Widening Participation in 2010. Unfortunately Trinity, alongside a number of other community-based learning providers, no longer be receives funding to deliver training courses due to changes in the College's own funding. Between 2013-2015 we worked with Weston College to deliver training with European Social Fund (ESF) support, however this contract has also come to an end.

In the interim, Trinity has been using small project grant funding to continue our youth delivery. We have been working with Colston Hall's Third Space group to deliver activities for young people as well as existing project activity including 121s with Include and YOT and outreach sessions with the Teenage Cancer Trust. We have also developed a successful series of exclusive to Trinity master classes / Q&A sessions with artists as diverse as Devin Townsend, Jack Garratt and Nitin Sawnhney, which we are keen to continue.

Emma Harvey, Centre Manager at Trinity said; “We're receiving calls from referral agencies, parents and young people about our course, so it's disappointing that, at present, we are unable to offer them places on the structured course of their choosing. It's a great shame – but, I suppose, our story is just one of a number of successful youth programmes that have now been placed into positions of uncertainty following ongoing cutbacks to grass-roots training provision.”

Trinity is committed to delivering a varied and comprehensive youth training programme as a key activity for the community and are currently seeking alternative funding to continue to offer this provision.

If you are interested in supporting The Trinity Youth Training Programme or to find out more visit our Just Giving page or text TYTP99 £[and the amount you would like to donate] to 70070

“Trinity is important for me because it keeps me off the streets and gives me the space and time I need to express myself through my music and lyrics. It has helped me build my confidence in areas I wasn't sure about before and has challenged me to try things I don't usually do. They also helped me get a work experience placement at a local radio station that enabled me to get my music heard. I first came to trinity at a very tough time in my life and feel without their help my life would be very different now". Student feedback, 2015

"The Castle Builder tells the true story of an inmate in a Norwegian psychiatric institute who over five years built a castle on a remote headland". Welcoming back Kid Carpet (who previously headlined the Trinity Garden Party back in 2010) and his collaborator Vic Llewellyn who "re-imagine these stories, telling them with live music, projection and heartfelt storytelling".

"Can I start Again Please investigates the power and failings of language – language that tells and hide truths – sparring across the heard and the unheard, the spoken and the unspoken.

The script is poetic and full of humour and is performed by Sue MacLaine and Nadia Nadarajah with a bright, coursing and relaxed reciprocity".

Both shows are taking place in the Trinity Centre's Fyfe Hall.

The wider programme includes some of Bristol's finest as well as national and international performers, including a few companies we have had the pleasure to work with over the last year such as Greg Wohead, (Come Back Special) Massive Owl (Castle Rock) and Still House's Of Rider and Running Horses. Plenty more great stuff in there - check the full programme here

In our commitment to delivering the very best sound in Bristol, Trinity is pleased to announce the installation of our new PA System, supplied and professionally installed by L'Acoustics and the Bristol based King Sound Reinforcement. This top of the range system is a favourite on sound specifications for national and international touring artists.

We want to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to access high-quality arts and culture in Bristol. Prior to the installation, expensive PA hire costs restricted the abilities of local groups and promoters from staging events at the centre. The installation means that we can make sure we're better able to support diverse arts in the city.

The project has been funded by Cory Environmental Trust Britain and The Foyle Foundation. We have also recently received an award from Garfield Weston Foundation to further expand our technical capabilities.

Events hosted so far have included French-Cuban musical duo Ibeyi performing in November and 'Aadhunik' - an evening of Bhangra organised by the Asian Arts Agency. We were proud to have been part of this year's BBC6 Music Festival in Bristol. Having a high-quality sound system has enabled us to take part in events of this nature.

This year, we are working on development of our in-house programme so that we can support other community organisations to deliver events that reach local communities and represent the Bristol Sound.

Images courtesy of Khali Photography

More about the system

Main Left/Right System - 6 KARAi Line Source Arrays aside Subs

Bellow Stage Subs - 8 SB18i Subwoofer Array

Contact: jamell@3ca.org.uk / 01179 351200 for more information.

Click here to view the full specification document.

"Word of mouth brought me to Trinity, I have been to many great gigs and club nights here over the years, but a friend suggested I might like volunteering here. Subsequently I found out there are a number of voluntary roles available.

Currently out of work, I have always loved volunteering as a way of keeping engaged, busy, maybe opening up new opportunities, and making new contacts.

I chose to work on reception because I have some previous experience in the role and wanted to update my computer skills, whilst also seeing how Trinity worked as an organisation.

As a volunteer on reception the tasks are varied: answering the phone and redirecting calls, taking messages, meeting and greeting visitors, office admin 'overflow', answering queries, and showing visitors around, to name a few.  There is, after a settling in period, a chance to take on other small projects.

So now, I feel that I have mastered the switchboard telephone, am getting a good grip on some of the admin systems and am using my customer service skills to a high standard; all very transferable skills for the jobs market.  I also now have a current reference for my job applications.

The team are all friendly and a host of creative and interesting people come and go throughout the day.  It is also heart-warming to meet members of the various community groups that use Trinity for regular meetings and events."

If you're inspired by the testimony of one of our volunteers and would like to get involved, why not join us as a volunteer receptionist? Click here to find out more.

The Trinity Centre is a much-loved historic Bristol landmark and Grade II* Listed building. A community arts centre and live music venue, we play host to a wide range of activities including dance classes, weddings, parties, public forums, music events and more.

We are seeking a Caretaker (permanent) & a Facilities Assistant (fixed-term) to join the Operations team.

Trinity is a small, friendly team with a family feel - we're looking for people who share our values and want to uphold our ethos.

If you have a positive attitude, a sense of enthusiasm, dedication and team spirit, then why not come and join us!

Arts West Side has continued to offer local groups and projects a home across 2015.

Our small but mighty satellite building was able to host a variety of projects and activities that included our now regular weekly writing group, the Art Cafe for over 50's, as well as Raw Food Workshops (part of our Bristol Green Capital project), small meetings and theatre rehearsals. Over 60 participants have been involved in AWS this year.

We have created new partnerships with local groups and maintained existing ones with organisations like University of West England (UWE), LinkAge and Sedated by a Brick.

Our women's writing group "We Can Write" secured a small grant from Literature Works, to continue their sessions and publish a compilation of their works and tutor Sarer Scotthorne was appointed our first Poet in Residence at Arts West Side.

We have also been able to continue to support the Bristol Somali Youth Network, in their aims and objectives, not only by providing a space to grow but also resources to strengthen their organisation. Their programmes have helped Somali young people re-orient their quality of lives and starting afresh to reposition their priorities in employment, training, education and social activities.

Our long term tenant, Phase 8 Photography, has been able to expanded their business and raise their profile by donating photography and collaborating with a number of community groups and projects, including the LGBT community; Trinity's Vice and Virtue: Discovering the Story of Old Market project and also providing free photography to new and local businesses in the area, including the Old Market Neighbourhood Planning Group.

We said good bye to The Good Roots Cafe in July and welcomed JJ's Cafe until the end of the year, when they moved their offer to Gloucester Road.

After a successful run of community cafe projects and due to the growth of this particular offer within the locality, we felt at the end of the year that a cafe space was no longer a priority in terms of achieving our objectives in 2016.

Trinity received many wonderful proposals at the beginning of the year but we were only able to select one: The Island submitted an innovative bid with a clear community engagement plan, which was close to Trinity's aim and objectives. Keep an eye on our website for the launch of SPACE (Sound-Performance-Art-Community-Engagement) in Spring 2016!

If you have an idea or project you would like to test out at Arts West Side, do get in touch with us, we would love to hear from you. Email karina@3ca.org.uk - or next time you are down Old Market, come in say hello!

The Community Garden is an independent branch of Trinity Community Arts, set up in 2014 in response to the need for an organisation that focuses on sustainability and nature based education. We aim to make organic horticulture, food and sustainable living skills and ideas available for the local people, regardless of age, gender, ability or education.

Last year, 2000 people visited the garden and 750 engaged in garden based projects, including community days, mental well-being, children’s holiday schemes, after school clubs, youth groups and events.

We would like to continue to create an organisation that is community-led and whose members, reflect the local community.

We are looking for people that have (not all required):

• A strong understanding and knowledge about permaculture principles, sustainability practice, eco-systems, plants and wildlife

• An understanding of the local community

• Experience in at least one of the following areas of our work:

- groups that may be marginalised from mainstream services, including refugees, young and older people

- long term unemployed and those who may face barriers to employment, i.e. mental health sufferers

• Finance/ accounts experience, including monitoring, accounting and reporting

• Fundraising & funding applications experience

• Integrity, diplomacy and openness in decision making and a flexible approach to working with those with differing backgrounds and experiences

Some of the Duties and Responsibilities are:

• Meet every other month with other management committee members to review the group’s activities to ensure they are aligned with the organisation’s aims as laid out in its governing document

• To ensure good financial management and that finances are being used only to achieve the organisation’s aims

• To promote Trinity Community Garden and develop its partnerships for the benefit of our communities.

We particularly welcome applications from:

• the BME community

• people who live/work locally

• well networked members of the community

How to Apply:

Please write a covering letter and send your CV to Lisa Tozer at: lisat@3ca.org.uk

by Friday 28th February

For legal reasons, all applicants must be aged 18 or over. The Trinity Community Garden is an equal opportunities employer and encourages applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates regardless of gender, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief, socio-economic class.