WELCOME to EYPE CENTRE for the ARTS
It has been a challenging pleasure over these past six years to have taken on the responsibility of turning the embryonic Eype Church Centre for the Arts at St. Peter’s, Eype into a viable and well-known and loved venue for artistic events.
In August 2007 the fledgling organisation became a Registered Charity operating under Licence from the Salisbury Diocese and changed its name to the Eype Centre for the Arts to differentiate itself from the Church of England activities which still take place at St. Peter’s. The building retains its consecrated status and there is a monthly Evensong as well as some other religious activities. The Chapel is a popular venue for the Symondsbury School Christmas event and a parish Carol Service.
Historically the church has always played an important, sometimes crucial, role in the development of the arts. Through the arts and the support we now give to the local Parish in helping to keep the building open we try to encourage a greater use of the church.
The 2002/2003 transformation of the Victorian Church into a versatile space takes the building back to what churches were traditionally used for; a local meeting place, a village hall, a community centre as well as a haven for prayer. The success of introducing an arts centre demonstrates what can be done to save threatened church buildings and may well inspire other Parishes to look at their increasingly redundant buildings in a new light.
Our mailing list has grown from just over 100 in 2004 to over 1,000 and we still manage the organisation on a totally voluntary, but hopefully professional basis.
We hope we will encourage you to join us in celebrating the arts. But also to pay tribute to the foresight of the Rev. Dr. Raymond Shorthouse, the incumbent of Symondsbury Parish in 2002, who persuaded his fellow Trustees of the Walbridge Trust to use the bequest for which they were responsible to save St. Peter’s by creating this amazing and versatile space in its beautiful and dramatic setting overlooking the sea and the stunning Jurassic Coast.