SOME towns and cities have been unfortunate enough to lose their arts centres during the last decade or two but Helmsley Arts Centre seems to be bucking the trend, going and growing from strength to strength – a real hub of the community in this Ryedale market town.

The centre is run and staffed primarily by a dedicated crew of volunteers, no less their director, David Powley, who took on the role last September, although has been involved with Helmsley Arts Centre since it opened in the mid-1990s. He set up both the cinema and the youth theatre and has been an active member of their in-house 1812 Theatre Company for many years.

He was asked to take on the directorship by the trustees, a role he will fulfil for three years.

“At the time of being asked, nothing could have been further from my mind,” he said.

David, who has been retired for some years, and who has been involved in both amateur and professional theatre work for much of his life, decided to take up the challenge, and is working on and developing ideas which will, he says, hopefully attract a younger audience and ensure that the centre survives long into the future. And as a former head of theatre and TV at what is now York St John University, and with a long-term interest in education and community theatre, he is more than qualified to know what this may involve.

He is keen to see the centre run in very much the same, successful vein, with the broad spectrum of shows and events.

“It’s the main place to go in the whole area, covering the whole range of the arts. We have a huge number of volunteers who really believe in it and who have really made it a part of their lives. They are very stretched, though, which is one of my major concerns – I’m going to have to look at that and attract more volunteers.”

Another area he will be tackling is fundraising, for the centre, like many other organisations and businesses, must keep the money coming in if it is to survive the recession. It is currently financed by a combination of its own income, including the Friends of Helmsley Arts Centre’s yearly fee, and the box office, plus funding from Ryedale District Council and the Arts Council, and one or two ‘very generous donations’, which enabled them to build the new extension.

However, funds need replenishing, as David said: “We are pushed to break even and the arts centre is expensive to keep up.”

As such, he is trying to inject some new ideas into what he calls a ‘very successful centre’, to move it forward for the future.

“I want to respond to what people would like to see here that isn’t here already,” he said.

“I have a desire to bring in a wider range of people to the centre and the younger ones are an absolute priority. We currently have 70 people in the youth theatre and I want to involve more.

“I want to encourage partnerships with local schools and make sure that the venue is used more for activities than in the past. I’m hoping to move into developing an Arts Award Scheme, the arts’ equivalent of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Awards, awarding bronze, silver and gold medals for all areas of the arts, performance, dance, music and art work, which is available to those up to the age of 25. This also means that it gives young people who want to work in the arts some further training.”

Helmsley Arts Centre is setting up a digital film-making unit which, David hopes, will attract more young people (“and by this I mean under the age of 30”, he laughs). Classes and workshops include digital imaging classes, Tiny Tocks, with music for the under fives, and ballet classes, and David wants to develop art classes.

He said: “We want to move forward and expand what we are doing, so we need to find ways of getting new people in.

“Early on, there was a very unfortunate notion that some people had, that Helmsley Arts Centre was too upmarket and snooty for them, but this is not true – it’s for everybody. We put on stuff on that all sorts of people would enjoy.

“Tribute bands are always very popular, as was the Little Num Num Club night with Chris Helme, the folk weekend, and local band One Night Only. The cinema is also very popular. We are trying to show that we are not elitist and this is a slow process, but it’s working.

“I don’t see us fading away – we might have to pull our belts in but there’s enough will to get us through.”