Britten Pears Arts splashes £13.4 million to dry out the county

The Aldeburgh establishment has launched a £13.4m capital programme to increase activities, ‘enhance lives and improve health through creativity’.

Among essential items, ‘Britten Pears Arts will work with the Alde and Ore Estuary Trust and East Suffolk Water Management Board to raise the Snape Maltings flood defences’.

Arts Cancel England has chipped in a mingy £750,000.

Press release:
PRESS RELEASE
8 May 2024

Britten Pears Arts launches three-year Capital Programme and receives £750,000 from Arts Council England’s Capital Investment Programme
Britten Pears Arts today announces the launch of a three-year £13.4 million Capital Programme which will deliver increased activities for the organisation’s communities, enhance lives and improve health through creativity. The Capital Programme will ensure Britten Pears Arts’ buildings and sites have improved accessibility for everyone, are financially sustainable and help us on our path to net zero carbon.
Following in the footsteps of its founders, Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears and their passion to ensure that the arts were useful and available to everyone, Britten Pears Arts’ Capital Programme will mean that existing buildings will be fit for purpose, efficient and help the organisation to achieve its mission.
Capital Programme overview
• Britten Pears Arts to work with the Alde and Ore Estuary Trust (AOET) and East Suffolk Water Management Board (ESWMB) to raise the Snape Maltings flood defences.
• Britten Pears Arts appoints De Matos Ryan Architects.
• Britten Pears Arts makes key professional appointments to deliver the Capital Programme. • The modernisation of the Britten Pears Building to enable increased levels of community use and the expansion of Britten Pears Arts community and creative health programmes. A new lift will be created to ensure that everyone can use the revamped studios.
• A series of upgrades to Snape Maltings Concert Hall to improve access, audience comfort and programming flexibility. There will be auditorium seating improvements, upgraded lighting, an extra passenger lift, refurbished toilets and better kitchen facilities.
• Britten Pears Arts will significantly lower carbon emissions by installing roof insulation, use of photovoltaic panels, and by connecting the music buildings to a renewable heating system.
• As well as improvements to existing artist accommodation at Snape Maltings and in Aldeburgh, nine new bedrooms will be created at Snape Maltings for visiting musicians, arts practitioners and visitors. • There will be a new visitor exhibition at The Red House and a Discovery Centre at Snape Maltings, to tell the fascinating stories about the heritage sites.