As many of you will know, in December 2014 we heard that our application to the Heritage Lottery Fund had been successful. We were awarded development funding of £22,800 to help us prepare our completed application for stage 2 funding (provisionally £263,600). HLF require a high level of detailed information and advanced plans before they award the full grant, so 2015 has been a busy year.
In March we appointed our Project Development Officer, Melanie Rintoul. Melanie ran the reminiscence sessions in Glenmona over the Big Arts Weekend and you may have met her there. She has collated some great stories about the Old Church, which we hope to publish as a booklet as part of the next stage of the project. She would love to hear from you if you have any memories of the Old Church you would be happy to share. Melanie has also been completing the more utilitarian aspects of project development including our Business Plan, Activities Plan (heritage and community use of the building) and many funding applications. The plans can be viewed by clicking this link: CPT01 DR03 Proposed Elevations and Plans
In May we appointed Alistair Coey Architects to draw up plans for the Old Church. We are delighted with the draft plans which are sympathetic to the original building whilst providing the services needed to make it a versatile and useable space in the long term. We have attached the plansto this e-mail and we welcome feedback but please be aware that these are only draft plans and subject to change.
We had one serious setback. The main HLF grant was part of a funding package which included funding from Ulster Garden Villages and a Listed Building Grant worth approximately £75,000. Due to government cuts the Northern Ireland Environment Agency withdrew all listed building grants in 2015 which, along with a slight rise in building costs, has left us with a funding shortfall that we need to make up before we can submit our stage 2 application. Inevitably this will hold the project up. So far we have successfully managed to raise £15,000 towards restoring the stained glass windows – thank you Pilgrim Trust. We will persevere with applications to other funding bodies and fundraising activities and hope that we will have all the funding in place by the end of this year.
Cushendun’s Big Arts Weekend 29 April to 2 May 2016
The Big Arts Weekend is now an established event in the Glens of Antrim calendar and we have exciting plans for this year, so make sure to SAVE THE DATE. Just to whet your appetite, we have Rory Conway and Band to get the weekend of to a dancing start; something new is the ‘Play in a Day’ drama workshop for young actors and on bank holiday Monday Ballycastle Town Market will be at Glenmona.
