Save Your Corn Exchange: Thank you

At a time when our buildings are closed once more, and we all face an increasingly challenging time staying apart from our loved ones to keep them safe, we have some much needed good news.

With your help, we have not only reached but exceeded our fundraising target to help protect the future of the Corn Exchange. Thank you.

Your generous donations mean that since we launched our Save Your Corn Exchange: Fund the Future campaign you have helped us raise an amazing

£126,100.15

I am overwhelmed by your generosity and truly grateful for all of the support we’ve received from our local community. Your donations are helping to protect the future of the Corn Exchange and all the work we do, so that when the time comes we will still be here and able to reopen our doors and provide all of the creative activities we know you’ve missed.

Although the pandemic had a huge impact on the work we were able to deliver in 2020 and with our fantastic staff furloughed for much of the year, we still managed to work with tens of thousands of you – from moving our courses and classes online and the launch of our Contactless Creativity project providing isolated older and vulnerable people access to creative activities each week, to our Winter Lantern Trail and the all too brief times we were open during the autumn for performances and film.

It is truly humbling to see how much our work means to you all, knowing how much you all want the Corn Exchange to survive and ensure we are here in the future has really helped us to stay positive in the face of this unprecedented crisis.

This support continues to sustain us now as the impact of Covid-19 on our organisation continues. When we set our fundraising target of £100,000 in October we were in the process of reopening and restarting our activities, but the subsequent closures, including the forced cancellation of Aladdin after just 2 weeks, devastating our ticket income have inevitably led to a growing loss of income for the Corn Exchange.

So, although our campaign ends on a high, over the coming months we will need to redouble our fundraising efforts – even in a ‘normal’ year we would need to raise £200,000 to ensure all of our activities can take place and it feels that 2021 is still going to be far from normal. There are different ways to support us, including becoming a Member or Companion, setting up a regular donation or leaving a legacy.

We believe passionately that the arts make a difference in people’s lives and so we will continue our fundraising efforts to ensure that we can carry on supporting our community with all the work we do.

Katy Griffiths, Director