Birks Cinema Gathers Grant Support
27.01.10
An award of £10,000 has been made by P&K Council to the Birks Cinema project in Aberfeldy.
 The old Art Deco cinema, built in 1939, has been standing empty in the town centre for five years, and was bought just before Christmas by the Friends of the Birks Cinema, the charity that aims to restore it to life as a modern, 92-seat digital cinema and café-bar.
Funds to buy the building and produce detailed plans came from the Scottish Government’s Town Centre Regeneration Fund (TCRF), and the P&K grant will augment this, paying for preliminary survey work, essential repairs and the clearance of the building.
“We are getting estimates for the preliminary work at the moment,” said Charlotte Flower, Secretary to the charity and one of its trustees, “and in the meantime, we are beginning to fund-raise for the renovation. We have put in a big application to the Scottish Rural Development Programme and are applying to other funders as well.’”
News on the SRDP application is expected in late May to early June.
£50k Trust Pledge
Further encouragement to the Friends has come from the private Ward Blenkinsop Trust, which provided a generous grant three years ago to help get the project underway. The Trust has now pledged a further £50,000 to assist with the rebuilding of the cinema.
As and when the cinema comes into being, the idea is that it will be run as a social enterprise – one that is profitable and uncompromising on quality, but that has at its heart the interests of local people. That can mean anything from buying local produce and looking locally first for contractors and staff (it is estimated that the cinema will create at least two full-time and a number of part-time jobs) to ploughing profits back into schemes that benefit the community – a special programme of films for the over-60s, perhaps, or a film project for children.
For further information, visit the Friends of the Birks Cinema website, www.birkscinemafriends.org.uk, where there are also details of how to get in touch. “We’d very much like to hear people’s ideas,’ said Charlotte, “and we would also much appreciate extra help if people have time – especially now that there is so much going on.”
by Julia Watson
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