'2022 and all that...'

This has been a rollercoaster year for culture in Torbay…

Torbay Culture has worked with partners to make sure culture and heritage is at the heart of making our home, Torbay - a UNESCO recognised environment - a better place in which to live, work, learn, visit and invest…

There were successes with the DCMS Cultural Development Fund (CDF2) awarded for Torbay which - alongside Future High Street Fund investment - is helping to restore and reopen the historic Paignton Picture House for 2025…

…and looking ahead, during 2023 and 2024 CDF2 funding will support a creative programme involving local culture organisations and people in Paignton. Filament Works is already liaising with local partners and we will be sharing more news in 2023…

…South Devon College will support skills and training opportunities; the college will also develop digital activity with Sound Communities which celebrated its 10th birthday this year.

Among the highlights of this past year, the Torbay Hospital project by Hospital Rooms, commissioned by Devon Partnership NHS Trust was completed. Three mental health wards at Torbay were transformed with artworks, and the year-long process was celebrated with an exhibition at Make South West.

Torbay Culture supported the University of Exeter’s research into creative industries in coastal and rural towns. The report, for the Creative Industries Policy & Evidence Centre, profiled innovation in places including Torbay, and called for more investment in flexible apprenticeships specifically in creative industry occupations, coordination for sector-specific networks to facilitate peer-to-peer networking, learning opportunities, and knowledge exchange.

There were disappointments with the Arts Council England investment decisions, with several Torbay organisations (Sound Communities, Palace Theatre and Torquay Museum) declined funding…though there was welcome success for Libraries Unlimited securing an uplift for Torbay libraries, and Doorstep Arts which had its national portfolio organisation (NPO) funding renewed.

The Lightplay installation at Royal Terrace Gardens was shortlisted for a Surface Design Award, to be announced in February 2023. Designed by Michael Grubb Studio it celebrates our UNESCO Global Geopark designation with motifs inspired by Amelia Griffiths (1768–1858) and William Pengelly (1812–94).

At the start of the year we launched our Heritage Gardens on the English Riviera film, which features several places on the national Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest. Created by the award-winning team behind the Agatha Swims film, this was completed as part of our Culture Recovery Fund work, encouraging people to learn more about Torbay's heritage and explore our places.

In the spring we welcomed the National Lottery Heritage Fund’s Director for England, London & South, and the Fund’s Head of Engagement to Torbay. Stuart McLeod and Richard Bellamy visited Oldway and Torre Abbey, and met with Torbay Council leaders.

Thanks to the Heritage Fund’s support the resilience work at Oldway was able to start with recruitment of the specialist team who will develop plans for the future of the historic mansion and park.

Torre Abbey secured a National Heritage Memorial Fund grant (Heritage Fund) and a DCMS MEND grant (Arts Council) to enable important conservation work at the scheduled monument.

Just this month, our friends at Torquay Museum were successful in their application for DCMS/Wolfson Foundation funding for its nationally Designated Quaternary Collection.

Over the summer, Lucy Worsley and Alan Carr filmed TV series here in Torbay, exploring different aspects of Agatha Christie’s life, featuring numerous people and places and raising the profile of the bay’s culture and heritage.

The International Agatha Christie Festival returned, and there was real appetite for more from visitors who came from across the UK and overseas... and a range of brilliant writers - Kate Mosse, Dreda Say Mitchell, Lucy Worsley, Vaseem Khan, and local talent including Adam Nevill, Sarah Pearse and John Curran…

The artwork commissioned to celebrate the life of Dame Agatha Christie is being made by Brixham artist Elisabeth Hadley and its progress has been featured on television… it will be installed once the public realm works complete at the Strand and Torquay harbourside.

…and Torbay Council, English Riviera BID, and SWISCo pooled their energies and resources with Towns Fund investment to bring us the Bay of Lights which continues until 8 January 2023.

There is so much work happening, and so much more to do. As we come towards the close of what has been another difficult year, it is important to remember the positives and the progress.

Thank you to everyone who has supported and worked with Torbay Culture over the last year.

Image credits: Lead image - Paignton Picture House (Paignton Picture House Trust, 2022)

Inset images - Lightplay at Royal Terrace Gardens (Kathy Coley Photography, 2021); visit by Heritage Fund’s Stuart McLeod and Richard Bellamy with members of the Torre Abbey team (Torbay Culture, 2022)