The Olibob Arts Foundation is proud to announce the donation of a £5,000 grant to the Corn Exchange Trust in Newbury. Below is the Press Release made by the Trust.
Corn Exchange Newbury have received a grant from The Olibob Arts Foundation, a UK registered charity focused on ‘helping young people to develop key life skills through the performing arts.’ This vital grant will be used by Corn Exchange to provide Youth Theatre Bursaries (Olibob Bursaries) for local creatives, as well as being used to fund tickets for the ‘Panto Pay It Forward’ scheme, and to fund an allocation of tickets for local schools for the ‘Come and See a Show’ experience. This funding from The Olibob Arts Foundation will allow Corn Exchange Newbury to increase their work within the community, ensuring a broad range of people from West Berkshire can engage in the area’s vibrant artistic scene and develop their creativity.
The Olibob Arts Foundation was set up in 2021 in memory of Oli Williams who died in a tragic accident on the A34 at East Ilsley, near Newbury, during Storm Alex in 2020. Oli was brought up in Tadley, and participated in local youth drama groups such as Tadley Youth Drama and Silchester Players, and when he moved to Stratford-upon-Avon, after graduating from Cambridge University, he continued to work with local amateur dramatic groups. While in Stratford, he became one of the youngest patrons of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC).
The Olibob Arts Foundation intends to give other young people who would not otherwise have the same opportunities, the chance to benefit from skills learnt through the performing arts. The Foundation awards grants to schools, drama groups and clubs to fund performing arts projects, with a particular focus on 11–21-year-olds. The aim is to help young people to develop key life skills, such as social cohesion, role playing, team working, interpersonal skills, and communication skills, through the performing arts. This in turn will help them gain confidence, resilience, and to participate in society as independent, mature, and responsible individuals.
The opportunities made possible by this funding complement Corn Exchange’s generous artist development schemes in partnership with 101 Outdoor Arts and Jerwood Arts, as well as their Careers in the Arts project in partnership with the Watermill Theatre and its wide range of creative workshops and courses for all ages.
Corn Exchange Newbury
Corn Exchange Newbury is a flagship arts centre for the South East and engages with over 130,000 people a year through its live events, extensive learning and participation work and free outdoor events. It presents a mixed programme of theatre, dance, comedy, music, film and family work in its 400 seat auditorium and 40 seat independent cinema. Every year it produces its own in-house pantomime, which this year is Beauty and the Beast, written and directed by Plested Brown and Wilsher, and it supports a range of artists and companies across all art-forms through commissioning and development opportunities, mentoring and production support. A key area of Corn Exchange Trust’s work is 101 Outdoor Arts: National Centre for Arts in Public Space – a specialist facility for the development of large-scale outdoor performances with rehearsal spaces, fabrication workshops and onsite accommodation – and it also manages The Base Greenham – a visual arts and crafts centre with a gallery, workshop space and studios for eight resident artists.
We are delighted to have received this funding which will help us provide greater creative opportunities for young people in the area. We know how much young people gain from being part of our youth theatre, not only in terms of drama
