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Bangor Shared Space

  • Removed

  • This charity was removed from the register on 11 Aug 2023
  • Charity no. 101839
  • Date registered. 27/03/2015

Public benefits

1)Bangor Shared Space aims to work with, support, provide facilities for and programmes to other community groups in Bangor, other agencies, the local townspeople and visitors, through the medium of arts and culture. This will enhance community well-being, specifically impacting on the areas of the local economy, social cohesion, environment and

cultural development. 2) Bangor Shared Space will be aiming to provide the necessary facilities to enhance good relations and social inclusion, providing an arena for recreation and socially engaged programmes in which arts and culture can be expressed in a unified and celebrated way, free from hate and discrimination, enabling communities to learn and respect diversity through various activities. This will also help increase social activity of the local Bangor community, and visitors, and will support social regeneration in Bangor, for the benefit of all. 3)The arts, culture and heritage sector contributes to economic activity and adds value to the Northern Ireland economy, particularly in regard to creative industries, the knowledge economy and employment. Investment in this sector will improve the attractiveness and image of Bangor and provide a key product which will contribute towards tourism development, and will support learning, education and training, which further contributes towards economic development and social welfare for the Bangor community as a whole. Art, culture and heritage will be promoted by dynamic programming embedded in education and engagement; drawing in artists and works of an international standing; and providing access to our local heritage artworks. This investment will lead to improved health outcomes, by acting in a preventative manner, contributing to patient recovery, and support for mental health, learning and physical disabilities, improving health and well-being, leading to cost savings in health expenditure. The arts sector has high levels of participation across a range of social groups and ages, and will contribute towards addressing issues related to social inclusion. Bangor Shared Space is keen to celebrate the historic significance of a key central part of the town, which is evident with its plans to refurbish the former Bangor Courthouse into an Arts and Culture Centre. By restoring and sensitively transforming this building, Bangor Shared Space is creating an asset for the community, and emphasising its connection to this aspect of its recent local history. (4)The redevelopment and reuse of vacant heritage buildings in Bangor will complement the various initiatives underway in the town – Queen's Parade redevelopment, Marine Gardens and the Public Realm scheme. Their use by the creative industries will help to rebuild and rebalance the economy as a seedbed of innovation, job and wealth creation. As well as promoting general economic development, this initiative will act as a driver for local regeneration. Over the past ten years, funding to the arts has helped to establish nine new cultural buildings in towns and cities across Northern Ireland. This is reassuring to Bangor Shared Space considering the significant role the proposed Arts and Culture Centre can play within regeneration. The beneficiaries of the purposes will be the residents of, and visitors to, Bangor and its surrounding areas. This will include community and voluntary groups and will cover all social groups and ages. The public benefits will be varied covering community development, providing facilities, promoting arts and culture and building preservation. The desired outcomes / direct benefit will be demonstrated, based on the nature of the activity, through participant feedback, surveys, consultations, monitoring and measurement, and cover indicators such as business development, tourism, skills, infrastructure, knowledge, capacity building and well being. There will not be any harm or private benefit flowing from our purposes.

What your organisation does

BSS is currently working with the Development Trust Northern Ireland, as part of its Community Asset Transfer Programme, with a view to acquiring the former Bangor Courthouse, a listed heritage building, and re-imaging it as an Arts and Culture Centre. As a result of participation in the programme, the Courthouse has been kept off the open market

by its owners, the Dept of Justice (DoJ), until a proposal has been put forward by BSS. The group will present the findings of an Feasibility Study, to the DSD and DoJ in 2015. This study examines the long term restoration of the building and its sustainability, with BSS visioning the project as a catalyst in transforming the seafront of Bangor. It has ambitious plans in seeing the project become an internationally recognised centre for arts and cultural activities, with the hope of creating an attractive and compelling visitor destination in Bangor. In parallel, in pursuit of its stated purpose, BSS is drawing up a programme of community events that seek to increase and develop local public engagement in the visual and participatory arts, developing local engagement beyond attendance and towards active forms of involvement and co-production through three consecutive and overlapping, socially engaged public art projects:- Project 1 – will make visible the presence of BSS in an arts capacity within the local community of the town. This project will use local groups and individuals to produce a big visual impact around the courthouse building. Project 2 - will engage a variety of groups within the community, such as schools, young offenders, local older people, migrant communities, in a heritage based longer term visual arts project resulting in a large public event/exhibition. Project 3 – will commission a large scale public art work. This would once again make a visual statement about the building and will include an element of public engagement in its production.

The charity’s classifications

  • The advancement of citizenship or community development
  • The advancement of the arts, culture, heritage or science
  • The advancement of environmental protection or improvement
  • Other charitable purposes

Who the charity helps

  • Addictions (drug/solvent/alcohol abuse)
  • Children (5-13 year olds)
  • Ex-offenders and prisoners
  • General public
  • Learning disabilities
  • Mental health
  • Older people
  • Physical disabilities
  • Preschool (0-5 year olds)
  • Sensory disabilities
  • Unemployed/low income
  • Voluntary and community sector
  • Volunteers
  • Youth (14-25 year olds)

How the charity works

  • Arts
  • Community enterprise
  • Cross-border/cross-community
  • Cultural
  • Disability
  • Economic development
  • Education/training
  • Environment/sustainable development/conservation
  • Heritage/historical
  • Medical/health/sickness
  • Volunteer development
  • Youth development

Charitable purposes

The Charity’s objects (“Objects”) are, for the benefit of the public, to:- (1) Promote community development in Bangor and its environs (the ‘area of benefit’) by providing facilities, amenities and support for community and voluntary groups and organisations. (2) Provide facilities in the interests of social welfare for recreation and other leisure time occupations with the object of improving the conditions of life for residents of the area of benefit. (3) Promote the arts, culture and heritage and raise awareness of local history. (4) Preserve, maintain, repair and improve any buildings or structures of particular beauty or historical, architectural or constructional interest in, and those buildings whose preservation will contribute to the regeneration of, the area of benefit.

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