News Date: Monday 4th June 2007
Ropetackle opening event a sell-out
Shoreham's brand new Ropetackle Arts & Education Centre opened its doors to the public for the first time on Saturday for the screening of Al Gore's Oscar winning environmental film An Inconvenient Truth and then promptly had to close them again as the event was a sell-out.
The thought provoking film was followed by a discussion chaired by Trust Chairman Tim Loughton MP and led by local experts - Bob Allason, Professor of Geography and pro-Vice Chancellor of Sussex University; and Brighton & Hove City Green councillor Keith Taylor. There was an interesting and lively exchange of views which threatened to go on into the early hours and was hailed as a great success for the long awaited opening of the centre.
Before the film local developers Urban Life, who sponsored the event, launched their Generation Green Awards competition for local schools to come up with environmentally friendly ideas to change our lifestyles and engage with environmental issues. Judges of the competition will be Tim Loughton, Adur Councillor Liza Mackinney and Ropetackle Centre manager and Buckingham School teacher Viv Aylward. Tim also took the opportunity to launch a pod cast on climate change which will be broadcast on his new Tell Tim website which also includes a survey on environmental issues for local people to communicate their views and ideas. See www.telltim.co.uk for further details.
Directly before An Inconvenient Truth the Trust screened a ten minute community news reel, created by Buckingham Middle School, about local events. This is the first in a series of community news reels which the Trust is encouraging local schools and other groups to produce and which will be screened before main events at the Ropetackle Centre. Following in the tradition of the old Gaumont News, which preceded cinema films before the spread of televisions, it is hoped this will be a regular feature at the Ropetackle Centre.
A series of events during the Adur festival is programmed for the Ropetackle Centre including an exhibition of pictures and photographs by local artists which opened on Saturday, and the cafe will be open for drinks and snacks throughout the whole 2 weeks. After the Festival the Centre will undergo its major fit-out of technical equipment.
Tim commented:
"Saturday night was a tremendous success. All the equipment worked, the crowds came and everyone enjoyed a thoroughly stimulating and entertaining evening. After all these years of preparation at last the Ropetackle Centre has become a reality and with the quality of events that we have planned I hope it will help put Adur firmly on the map as a centre of excellence for arts events."
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