Fort Regent closure fears spark further arts uncertainty

Thursday 24 January 2019

Fort Regent's potential closure is a serious threat to arts and culture in the island, and would leave the Jersey Symphony Orchestra without an adequate place to perform, the organisation's chair has warned.

The comments from Alison Stewart come in the wake of a damning £48k independent report which urges that Fort Regent should be closed and replaced with a brand new sports facility, which has also sparked concerns from other members of the arts community.

ArtHouse Jersey have asked about the implications for performance spaces - especially at a time when the future of smaller locations remains uncertain.

After the publication of a £48k independent report which urged the States to close the Fort as part of their 14 ‘strategic requirements’, a number of urgent concerns have been officially raised about the site’s safety.

The consultants Knight, Kavanagh & Page (KKP) were commissioned to carry out the review of the island’s sporting facilities, within which they recommend that a new sports facility should be delivered by 2027. 

However, as the consultants’ remit was to review Jersey’s sports provision, no mention was made of replacing the 'arts venue' aspect of the landmark site. In fact, the dual-use of the site for both sports and culture was criticised by the consultants for being detrimental to the sporting activities that the venue hosts. 

Pictured: The Jersey Symphony Orchestra is just one of the organisations who will be left without a home venue should the Fort close (Facebook/Jersey Symphony Orchestra).

The report reads: “Fort Regent caters for a wide range of uses and the cultural programme of activities at the venue often disrupts (and thus can have a negative impact on) the sports programme. 

“Given the time it takes to set up for and then de-rig after events, the hall can, on occasions and particularly where technical issues associated with hosting are complex, be taken out of action for two or three days before, during and after the event. 

“This is turn makes the venue unattractive for key sports clubs and leagues given their need for consistent and regular, uninterrupted access for training and fixtures.”

Alison Stewart, Chair of the Jersey Symphony Orchestra (JSO) Players’ Committee of the orchestra, spoke to Express about what the Fort’s closure might mean for them.

Pictured: Alison Stewart said that the orchestra is heading for uncertain times if the Fort were to close imminently.

Alison echoed some of the concerns that were raised in the report, explaining that the JSO had been aware of the facility’s deteriorating quality. The report’s recommendation comes after the recent detection of both asbestos, and legionella species, at the Fort, forcing entire key areas of the site to be closed. 

Alison said that these issues have “had an impact” on the orchestra’s use of the space. “We’ve been aware that obviously it’s been deteriorating over a period."

Despite this, the fact that the closure may come imminently due to safety concerns as was suggested in the report would leave the orchestra in a very difficult situation.

“It’s the only space actually big enough for a symphony orchestra to actually play in”, Alison explained, so although on a practical level she said that “this is no shock”, without an alternative venue, the orchestra will be heading for uncertain times. 

“If it [the Fort’s closure] is coming quite imminently… then we’ll really be struggling.”

“I’m not sure what course we have open to us. We’re just an amateur organisation but we take up a lot of space when we do perform and it’s only three times a year. We don’t have the kind of resources ourselves to do anything, or to build anything.”

This news comes on the heels of another independent review of arts and culture funding revealed that two of the island’s other arts venues are being threatened with closure due to chronic underinvestment in the island’s arts sector. 

Pictured: Chronic underinvestment in local arts and culture have threatened two other arts venues with closure. 

Alison told Express that this report could be the catalyst for more arts funding: "Maybe this report is the thing that’s really going to galvanise us and the island and maybe the States."

"The Arts and Culture report suggested that the States should be co-resourcing arts funding and not relying so much on groups like ours funding themselves, coping completely on whatever they can raise.

"...the value of what the arts, music, culture can contribute seems to be well recognised, but I would say that Treasury and Resources in almost every jurisdiction tends to feel it’s perhaps a luxury or can’t be justified in the way that sports can," Alison added.

Tom Dingle, Director of ArtHouse Jersey, also urged the States to consider that the Fort is not just a sporting facility. 

Having commissioned work that has been performed at the Fort, Mr Dingle wanted to “emphasise” the venue’s role within the island’s arts community.

“We recognise that this report is predominantly focused on Fort Regent as a sports facility, but we would emphasise that it is also a location for large-scale cultural events …It is hard to think of an alternative space that would have the required scope, equipment and parking to be able to accommodate… event[s] of that magnitude. 

Pictured: Tom Dingle of ArtHouse Jersey expressed his concern at the prospect of the Fort closing its doors as an arts venue (Holly Smith Photography).

“It also seems that the possibility of Fort Regent’s closure comes at a time when two key performance venues, the Jersey Arts Centre and Jersey Opera House, are also facing uncertain futures. This is worrying, and it is imperative that the role Fort Regent plays in Jersey’s cultural offerings is fully considered within this context”, Mr Dingle explained. 

The ArtHouse Jersey Director continued: “The public rely on Fort Regent, the Opera House and the Arts Centre as spaces to celebrate the artistic talent in our community and also as venues that allow international performers to come to the island to entertain and inspire us from stand-up comedians to concerts and recitals. This is even before we consider types of spaces that the island lacks, such as a flexible and well-proportioned gallery.”

“We understand that a new political oversight group is being established in light of this report and that they will be looking at the report’s recommendations. We would hope that they will consider cultural activity as well as the vital sporting facilities that the Fort currently provides.”