Arts at The Old Fire Station

https://oldfirestation.org.uk/about/our-mission/

Sustainability

We will create a sustainable social enterprise, enabling us to secure enough income from supporters and customers to be able to make the impact we are seeking.

We believe that art is for everyone: everyone has potential. Seeing, participating in and making art engages, excites and stretches people, encouraging new voices and unexpected connections.

As an arts centre, sharing a building and working in partnership with Crisis, we want to deliver and sustain a truly inclusive artistic and cultural public space, which welcomes and celebrates difference and enables people to engage with new ideas, develop new skills and try on new identities. Our job is to put on shows, exhibitions, events and workshops – and to work hard selling tickets, running the bar and the shop, hiring out spaces and keeping our customers happy so that we keep the money coming in to make this all possible.

We believe that the people, activities and opportunities within AOFS – and the values that underpin everything we do – enable people to find their own ways to become better artists, more resilient individuals and part of stronger, more inclusive communities. Together, they will create outcomes that we could never have planned for or predicted.

Our ambition is that everyone we are working with – volunteers, artists, homeless people, staff, members of the public, professional colleagues – can enjoy these opportunities and benefits. Within this, we have chosen three specific changes we want to support through our work:

1. Everyone engaged with AOFS is more open to new ideas and different people.
2. Artists are more successful.
3. Homeless people are more resilient and stable.