00:00We're here today to celebrate a fantastic £600,000 grant from the Arts Council who
00:16generously supported our regeneration here of Carpenter's Yard in Priddy's Heart.
00:21This is a beautiful collection of historic buildings which we are going to renovate and
00:25create a beautiful artists' quarter.
00:27This funding is going to enable us to create nine affordable artists' studios with sustainability
00:32at the heart of the development.
00:34We're going to be putting solar panels and air source heat pumps to make sure that this
00:37is as affordable as possible on a usable basis for the artists.
00:41This space is absolutely beautiful and lends itself around this courtyard to create a landscape
00:47centre for workshops and for innovation and collaboration, opening out onto Priddy's Heart
00:52site, welcoming the community into this space and creating that interplay between artists
00:57and the public.
00:58How long will it take to actually get finished and what was the history of it all?
01:05Well, we're hoping to start on site at the beginning of next year and so this site should
01:09be ready to be re-inhabited by artists by autumn next year.
01:14Can you share any of the history of this area, why is it so important to regenerate it?
01:20Priddy's Heart is the most magnificent site.
01:23It started in around the 1700s as the munitions yard for the Navy and over the years it's
01:28grown organically, a slightly ramshackle collection of beautiful historic buildings.
01:34The Navy left the site in the 1980s and since then piecemeal regeneration has happened but
01:40we now have a spectacular master plan for the site, a lot of which is contingent upon
01:45flood risk and flood defences being built.
01:47However, we're really delighted to be able to start with this part of the development
01:52and create this beautiful artistic community to help lift the site.
01:55It's just that sense of possibility and I love that about Deep Place, whenever I come
01:59here you always introduce me to amazing people who are doing amazing things and so for us
02:03as a national development agency...
02:04What does this make to Gosport?
02:07The magical thing about Gosport is that our heritage and our culture is our superpower
02:13and up until quite recently I don't think it's been nationally recognised that actual
02:18culture and heritage has a huge capacity to be able to regenerate areas and to instil
02:24a sense of confidence in the local economy and this investment here is going to do wonders
02:30to regenerate this small corner of Gosport and attract investment and economic prosperity
02:35to the area while also reigniting some of our real heritage jewels in this area.
02:48How has Council invested in Gosport?
02:54Gosport is an amazing creative place, it's somewhere where there's huge amounts of possibility,
02:59it's got that amazing heritage and that history of making things and what we've got here is
03:04more and more artists coming here and making their business here.
03:06Gosport's a wonderful place to come and visit but also it's a brilliant place for people
03:10to live and work and grow up.
03:12How do you know that?
03:13Because every time I come here, I'll do it as a full sentence, every time I come here
03:18I see artists who are making brilliant work, I talk to Caroline Diner who's the local MP
03:25and she tells me the story of Gosport and there's a real sense here with the local authority
03:28and the councillors to really make this a place that people want to visit, a real destination
03:33but also somewhere where the people who live here can have brilliant lives and I think
03:36that's what's so exciting.
03:38Thank you and in terms of the arts themselves and what Arts Council England are doing, why
03:44is it important, how can it affect people's lives, what difference does it make?
03:49Artists and creative people have this ability to help everyone to see beyond the everyday,
03:55they can imagine amazing things, they're innovative, they're creative, it's really exciting what
03:59an artist can do and I think what we're seeing here in Gosport is more and more artists coming
04:03and working together in one place to make a really exciting set of possibilities.
04:07If I was a young person growing up here I'd have all sorts of opportunities now that I
04:10wouldn't have had ten years ago and at the Arts Council we're about investing in that
04:14talent, we're about creating happier lives, we invest taxpayers' money and national lottery
04:18players' money and we make people's lives better.
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