THE RISING Sun Arts Centre has been given a £1,000 from a Reading charity last week.
The John Sykes Foundation, which aims to improves the lives of individuals and communities within the borough, awarded the arts venue with a cheque to put towards improvements in the building.
The centre runs a full programme of arts events in visual arts, music, dance, poetry and theatre.
And earlier this year, Rising Sun Arts launched a fundraising campaign, which has raised over £7,000 so far.
The venue’s recently installed a new ventilation unit to provide a safe space for volunteers and the public in the future.
Larry Watson, manager of the Rising Sun Arts Centre, said: “The task facing the organisation is to reconnect with volunteers and groups and re-engage volunteer teams in order to restart the centre’s programme and open up the space to people once again.”
Mr Watson said volunteers are currently running a variety of fundraising activities alongside the venue’s crowdfunding campaign.
He said: “This grant from the John Sykes Foundation has been a morale boost and re-energised our volunteer fundraising team putting us within an achievable distance of our target.
“It would ensure a much loved and well used venue is able to return to providing the safe, creative, energetic, collaborative, space which people depend upon.”
Mr Watson added the grant will enable the centre to continue to contribute to the well-being of people in Reading.
And he said it would help the space to emerge from the most difficult period in its 30 year history.
John Sykes, founder of the John Sykes Foundation, said he is excited to award a grant to Rising Sun Arts Centre.
“We hope that with the installation of the ventilation system it will encourage the groups that rely on safe space to return to their full capacity to engage its service users and return to some normality,” he said.
“It is part of our ongoing commitment to work hand in hand with local groups and charities to enable them, in some cases, to restart their projects since the pandemic.”
For more details, visit risingsunartscentre.org
