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The Ariel Centre today

The Ariel Centre King Edward VI Community College Ashburton Road Totnes Devon TQ9 5JX   telephone: 01803 869200 email: ariel@arielcentre.org.uk

The Ariel Centre is a flexible, multi-use performing and visual arts facility. The Centre comprises: • A beautiful "white box" gallery space and foyer area • A theatre which can accommodate just over 300 people with flexible seating configurations • A dance/drama studio with a sprung floor and working space of 66 square metres • Music practice rooms and recording studio • A variety of other medium-sized workshop areas.
The Ariel Centre is in use every day by the students of the college, and in the evenings by the Community Education team who use the Centre for a wide range of Arts activities. In 2003 the College was awarded Specialist Arts College status with an emphasis on the performing arts. This new stream of investment has enabled the College to embark on a number of exciting projects that have enabled us to enhance the Ariel Centre programme. High quality professional theatre, dance and music groups now visit the centre on a regular basis, providing workshops for students and performances for the whole community.
Arts status funding has also provided investment in the staffing and technical infrastructure necessary to expand the centre's activity. This has also facilitated partnerships with other local Arts providers. Since September 2003, the Ariel Centre has worked closely with Harberton Folk who have presented events in the Theatre in association with the KEVICC Parents' Association. As always, they have a full programme of events for 2007/8. Proceeds are shared between the Parents' Association and Harberton village causes.
Dartington+ is a new partnership between The Dartington Hall Trust (encompassing Dartington Arts and Dartington International Summer School), Dartington College of Arts, and King Edward VI Community College in Totnes. As one of their projects for their pilot year, they hosted the South West Music Symposium – 'Future Opportunities, New Challenges' in April 2004. This was the first regional music conference of its kind in the South West and it was a great success. Delegates clearly identified the need for an annual Symposium, and Dartington Plus repeated and enlarged the event in April 2005 & 2006, under the new name South West Sound.   Devon Artsculture is a new partnership between Dartington+, Beaford Arts, Devon County Council and Arts Council England. Launched this Autumn, it aims to deliver support to the arts economy in rural Devon by providing a range of facilities, events and other opportunities for creative practitioners.   Dartington+ has been awarded Arts Council England funding of one million pounds to be one of three internationally significant centres of creative excellence in Music, the other two being Sage Gateshead and Aldeburgh.   On Saturday mornings during the college terms SaMS, a highly successful 'music school', is based at the Ariel Centre, and Rockzone organizes regular workshops and rock concerts.The Centre has also formed fruitful relationships with Totnes School of Dance, Totnes Jazz Collective and Momentum Dance. There is a large range of Education projects which benefit partner schools – twelve Academic Council primary schools, and Kingsbridge and Teign secondary schools. Use this link to read more about the Arts College Programme.

How to find us

The Ariel Centre is on the King Edward VI College campus in Totnes. The entrance is just before the red footbridge as you enter Totnes from Exeter on the A384. It is five minutes' walk from the mainline railway station.

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History

The Ariel Centre is one of the more recent additions to the college and has been at the heart of the relationship between the school and the community since 1996.   A committee was established to raise funds for this ambitious scheme. Architect Peter Sutton developed the plans for the imaginative building that we see today.
Funding came from a variety of sources, including the National Foundation for Sport and the Arts and the European Union, and nearly three-quarters of a million pounds was raised to fund the development. The fund raising and building programme were overseen by the Ariel Trust, which is a registered charity. The Ariel Centre Management Committee, which comprises members of the College and the community, organized the day to day running of the facility. Since the granting of Arts Status, the Committee has focused on a role of monitoring and evaluation.

Contact

 

 

© 2007 Ariel Centre

This page was last updated on 06/09/07.

In the event of any query, please email; webmaster@arielcentre.org.uk.