Our objectives
The Horsebridge Arts Centre is a creative community hub based in Whitstable, Kent. We provide inclusive access to cultural and creative experiences, enabling people of all ages and backgrounds to engage, connect, and grow through access to the arts. Through a year-round programme of activities, we address key local needs such as social isolation, poor mental health, and economic hardship. Working with over 80,000 visitors and beneficiaries annually we enable people who face barriers to access creativity and feel part of a thriving community.
At the heart of our work is the need to reach out and include those who are overlooked, a young person who doesn’t fit in at school, an isolated child with ASD or a lonely older person with rusty social skills. We want to help them understand and develop their creativity and bring it - and their concerns - to be part of work created by and speaking to our whole community, enabling them to see their creativity explored and enjoyed by others.
Our activities
We use our activities to address the needs of the community. We work in a variety of ways to achieve this, through:
- cohesive and immersive cultural experiences including creative classes and workshops for adults, families and young people; live events for music, comedy, theatre and performances, talks; social film screenings; visual arts exhibitions in dedicated gallery spaces
- Pay What You Can programme which supports donation only activities, where participants pay only what they can afford to reduce the financial barriers to accessing creativity, this includes the family activities we run and engage children and young people in the arts both as part of their educational experience and in their life outside education
- ARTbank, a place for donated and preloved art materials, which are then offered as part of our ‘Pay What You Can’ programme to the community allowing everyone to explore and develop their own creativity without barriers.
- comprehensive volunteering programme that embeds volunteers in the activities and also provides opportunities for volunteers who need additional support to participate.
- working in partnership with cultural, artistic and educational providers to create opportunities for personal and professional development.
- outreach work and building on networks and partnerships with other cultural and educational organisations to generate added value and facilitate best practice
