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Status
Received: on time
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Income
£285.4K
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Spending
£311.9K
Public benefits
All of our activities flow directly from our charity’s purposes, are capable of being demonstrated and are beneficial and not harmful. We meet the Public Benefit in the following ways: Public Element: all of our activities are open to the general public without discrimination of any kind. Our restored building will be open to everyone,
irrespective of colour, creed, orientation, handicap etc etc. Membership of our cross-community choir gives great pleasure to the members as well as to their audiences. Any private benefit to individuals is incidental: for example, we will run courses for aspiring organists and choir masters: if, subsequently, they are appointed to an organist’s post they will accrue private benefit. However, we will also have improved the standards of church music. Similarly, with our heritage building skills courses, if a trades person attends he/she may subsequently win a contract based on the skills that he/she has acquired. However, we have improved the awareness of heritage building techniques in the community at large. Direct benefits: we run educational courses in, for example, music and heritage building skills and competitions in hymn tune writing, art, public speaking etc. We stage “classical” music concerts of national standing for all members of the general public. We have acquired and are in the middle of a £1.5m restoration of Portaferry Presbyterian Church. We have raised all of the funding for this from various charitable sources, government bodies and personal subscriptions. Once restored the building will be a state of the art heritage and arts centre celebrating the history and heritage of the Portaferry area as well as the history of Christian church music. This building is for the whole community to use and will be known as “Portico”. For example, it will house the local GAA club’s archives and the local Presbyterian congregation will use it for their Sunday services. The building will contain exhibits for the general public to access to improve their knowledge of the locality. We will also involve the local community: for example we are currently carrying out a cross community 1st World War project recording the lives of all those from the area who served in the Great War. Both grant maintained and state schools are taking part and working together. Indirect and wider benefits: we have rescued this near derelict Grade A listed building and are fully restoring it. This will greatly enhance the general appearance of Portaferry, enhance tourism in the town and indirectly benefit the residents through the creation of jobs and the expansion of the tourist industry. We will also increase awareness of traditional heritage building skills thereby improving employment opportunities for trades people. By increasing people’s musical skills we will enhance both their enjoyment but also the enjoyment of people that they perform in front of.
... [more] [less]What your organisation does
We have now completed a £1.6m restoration of the building formerly known as Portaferry Presbyterian Church and now called Portico. We have no outstanding debts from the restoration. Currently we run the building as an Arts and Heritage Centre presenting 3 or 4 events per calendar month ranging from classical music through jazz, country to popular
and soul music. We also have film shows, theatre presentations and comedy shows. The acts that we present are international, national and more local in origin. In addition we have an amateur, voluntary cross-community choir and it perform several times per year in Portico. We have full recording facilities available for those who wish to press CDs of their performances. The building hosts permanent displays on the heritage of the region from the ice age, and the creation of Strangford Lough, to the present day. The local historical society and others are heavily involved in the production of this material. We also have rolling exhibitions that change annually. Finally, the building is still used by the local Presbyterian congregation under a licence arrangement for its weekly services.
... [more] [less]The charity’s classifications
- The advancement of education
- The advancement of citizenship or community development
- The advancement of the arts, culture, heritage or science
- The advancement of environmental protection or improvement
Who the charity helps
- Adult training
- Children (5-13 year olds)
- General public
- Older people
- Volunteers
- Youth (14-25 year olds)
How the charity works
- Arts
- Community development
- Cultural
- Education/training
- Environment/sustainable development/conservation
- Heritage/historical
- Rural development
- Volunteer development
