🥰 Help a New Arts Venue in Newcastle!

It’s been a while since our last update, and a great deal has happened behind the scenes. Since then, we’ve signed the 30-year lease, secured the £1.25 million funding package for Phase 1, progressed technical design work, taken the project through contractor tender, completed planning amendments, held volunteer action days, and worked through the detailed funding agreements, reporting and project meetings needed to move Boho Hub towards construction. We’ve also had to navigate significant challenges. Construction costs have risen sharply across the sector, tender returns came in higher than expected, and the project team is currently working through an extended Value Engineering process to reduce costs and prepare for construction. As promised in our last update, we’ve now created a project journey page bringing together the story of Boho Hub from the very beginning through to where we are today. From a conversation in a garden during Covid, to The Big Creative Space Survey, the crowdfunding campaign, major funding awards, securing the lease, and preparing for construction, the page charts the milestones, setbacks and decisions that have shaped the project. It’s also packed with photos and designs. As Spacehive only lets us upload a single image at a time, this gives us a chance to share much more of the story. Visit our page, and we’ll continue adding updates as the project progresses: https://www.bohoarts.co.uk/boho-hub-journey With warm wishes Bev & the Boho Team

Two years ago, you helped us raise £44,000 to kickstart a new creative hub for Newcastle. That money’s been locked safely away - and now, dear friends, it’s time to unlock it. The project has taken far longer than we ever imagined, and it’s become more complex and costly - but we’ve kept going, and stayed true to our vision. Last year, we tentatively celebrated a £523,000 award from the North of Tyne Combined Authority (NTCA). Then came major setbacks when both the Arts Council and National Lottery (twice) rejected our match funding bids. It was a blow, but not the end. We went back to the drawing board. Literally! With support from Creative Central NCL, we appointed Napper Architects to revise the plans, phase the works, and reshape the budget into a deliverable Phase 1. We also successfully extended our lease offer from 25 to 30 years. In November, we returned to the newly formed North East Combined Authority (NECA) - the successor to NTCA - with a bold and strategic proposal, and waited. Now, the wait is over. NECA has increased our award to £957,598. And in August, we expect Newcastle City Council - a steadfast ally - to confirm the final £250,000 needed to complete our £1.25m Phase 1 target. Our board has now agreed: waiting is the bigger risk. In December, we signed a temporary lease to hold the building. In April, brilliant volunteers helped ‘strip back’ the property to preserve planning permission. And in July, with NECA’s decision in hand, the 30-year lease entered final legal checks - ready to sign. For clarity, since our mission began more than three years ago, Boho Arts hasn’t received any public funding to cover our time or labour - we were driven by the belief that this vision was worth building. We’ve kept going because we know how needed this is, and thanks to your support, we're now within reach of making it real. Now, we're unlocking your support (alongside £10,000 from other donations) at a pivotal stage - to complete the technical designs and begin the contractor tender process. By acting now, we’ll be ready to move quickly once final funding agreements are signed. As things stand, our delivery timeline looks like this: we aim to complete technical designs and tender for contractors this autumn, begin construction in the winter, involve the community in fit-out next spring - and open the doors in summer 2026. We know we’re spending this money somewhat differently than originally planned, and we want to be transparent about that. Feedback from many of you told us your donation was for the bigger picture - a welcoming, inclusive creative space in the heart of Newcastle. Not only a few toilets and a shopfront - but a lasting home for connection, imagination and joy. Your support has done far more than fix up part of a building – it’s positioned us to receive over £1.2 million in funding, and elevated the whole vision into something much bigger and longer lasting than we first imagined. We couldn’t have done it without you. And yes, those toilets and shopfront (and so much more) are coming! A new roof, studio theatre, workshop rooms, café-bar, bike park, and garden. We can’t wait to show you the designs. We can only upload one small image via Spacehive (we picked a favourite featuring a few of our fabulous volunteers), but we know you’ll want to see more. A dedicated page is coming to our website with designs, photos, and more on what happens next. You’ll be the first to get the link when it’s ready. If you have questions or thoughts, we’d love to hear from you. It’s been a marathon, and every time we hear from one of you, it lifts our spirits and keeps us going. We’d also love to invite you to take a look around pre-construction - to see the ‘before and after’. We’re planning some small group tours, so please email us if you’d like an invitation: [email protected] With heartfelt thanks, Bev & the Boho Arts team

Our first big chunk of funding has been announced! HUGE thanks North of Tyne Combined Authority , soon to become NEMCA (North East Mayoral Combined Authority) for believing in us and to the Creative Central NCL team at Newcastle City Council for partnering with us on our capital project. This shows real support for the NE cultural and creative sector and sets us on our way. We hope to follow this with more good news from other funders in the coming weeks and months so we can make a start on the refurb and turn this unused building into a vibrant hub of creativity for people to enjoy and cherish. You can see the full article at https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/tyne-theatre-restoration-ashington-town-28817808?fbclid=IwAR1PF4UpnPjW9Ijv3EL4QOBx8lD-mk6XMC1veMR-M6_4KY9FKIs7-NF5FJ0

Dear friends. The last 6 months have been a whirlwind of fundraising activity, and this will continue in earnest over the next couple of months, whilst at the same time we wait for news on capital grant awards. Having passed the first round, we were invited to the Arts Council’s final round of their highly competitive Capital Investment Programme in October. That was an intense time to produce the 600-page application! It’s been non-stop since, as this was only the first of a series of grant applications to a range of funders aiming to raise the total capital investment of £1,693,00 that we hope will see ‘the whole’ venue developed - and it is all thanks to your early support that raised the attention of major funders. You proved the need and demand for this space. Your generosity opened minds, urging funders to help open the actual doors. The next couple of months will be the most intensive yet, as we try to gain traction on filling the funding gap, whilst also procuring for our remaining Design Team to get ready to start building! Believe us, we’re working exhaustively day and night. It’s become bigger and more complicated than we ever imagined, but the 30-year lease is ready to go - we just have to keep on going and play the waiting game for funding news to come through a little while longer. The new financial year starts in April and it’s by then we hope the green light will shine for the lease and construction can start. “When, WHEN will it open?” your cry! We wish it could be tomorrow, but to secure the funding to do this right and create a space that will be there for years to come, we’re talking Spring ’25 – just over a year away. Since we started on our mission in 2021 it’s been devastating to see the demolition of creative spaces, more talent leaving the city in search of opportunities elsewhere, and particularly the recent closures of several local community arts organisations that were doing such good work but were doubly hit by the pandemic and funding cuts since. We feel the Inclusive Creative Arts Hub is more needed now than ever and is pivotal to Newcastle’s cultural renaissance. Our capital project is aligned with Newcastle’s Cultural Strategy and is destined to be a transformative force within the council’s Creative Central NCL zone, supporting and complementing the surviving and hopefully forthcoming grassroots arts organisations, groups and freelancers in the area. We’re grateful to Newcastle City Council and North of Tyne Combined Authority who continue to support our initiative. Live Theatre too, who came on board as a supportive NPO, freely bringing us help and guidance in all sorts of areas, and to Gosforth Civic Theatre who have given great advice - having gone through a successful capital development recently. At the heart of our mission is bringing diverse artists and groups of people together under one roof, and while we pursue the Capital Project fervently, our charity wants to develop audiences and create opportunities now. We’re delighted to have received a project grant from the Newcastle Culture Investment Fund at the Community Foundation Tyne & Wear and Northumberland to present a free family-friendly and accessible event at the Stand Comedy Club in Newcastle on Sunday 24th March. ‘Sunday Gathering – the art of community’ is aimed at becoming a monthly happening when Boho opens. Stay with us. We’re working hard and we’re getting there!

Dear friends. We have news! Boho's capital project and mission to create a brand new accessible creative arts hub here in Newcastle is making progress. We are delighted to announce that we have appointed Graham McDarby, director of Gradon Architecture as our new Lead Designer, and Martin Round, director of Artis on board as our Cost Consultant. Both bring exceptional experience in the arts and charitable sectors to help us develop our vision, and to hopefully help unlock the further capital funding we need. Their appointments are thanks to additional funding we have been awarded from 'Creative Central: NCL' (formerly known as CCZ - Cultural Creative Zone) funded by North of Tyne Combined Authority and Newcastle City Council. We are so very grateful as this enables us to bring on board the design team and other specialists that are essential to the project. Our capital project and mission to create a brand new accessible creative arts hub here in Newcastle is making steady progress. We are delighted to announce that we have appointed Graham McDarby, director of Gradon Architecture as our new Lead Designer, and Martin Round, director of Artis on board as our Cost Consultant. Both bring exceptional experience in the arts and charitable sectors to help us develop our vision, and having the right team who bring their skills and talents to the project will hopefully hopefully help unlock the further capital funding we need as well. Their appointments are thanks to additional funding we have been awarded from 'Creative Central: NCL' (formerly known as CCZ - Cultural Creative Zone) funded by North of Tyne Combined Authority and Newcastle City Council. We are so very grateful as this enables us to bring on board the design team and other specialists that are essential to the project. Procurement for our design team began in May, and continues as we begin to advertise for further specialist consultants to bring on board. We're working on the project round the clock and it feels great to finally have the beginnings of a professional and experienced team around us - and it is exciting to sit down with the new team to think and talk creatively!

Oops, sorry - it was actually £700 more than the last picture showed!

A million thank yous! The crowdfunding campaign closed on Monday, successfully passing our target by almost £1500. We can’t believe the support we’ve had. It has been incredible. It’s been a whirlwind. Now a brief moment to catch our breath and onto the next steps… meetings with funders, architects, construction firms…. we will keep you posted on developments. You are all superstars. To have so many people backing us shows how important this venture is to so many people. We feel excited, blessed and thoroughly grateful.