Mark Doyle Director of YourTrust Touchstones

Mark Doyle, Director of Arts, Heritage and Wellness  at YourTrust in Rochdale talks about the cultural renaissance taking place in the borough

Transcript

00:00At the moment, as a team, we're kind of, you know, we're busy kind of focusing on what we need to do

00:06for touchstones and for that particular building. But we, you know, and also I should say that

00:12our trust is also redeveloping one of our other sites as well, Hayward Civic.

00:18So we've got quite a lot on our plates, just concentrating on those two buildings. But yeah,

00:25it's all part of some of the, you know, investment that's starting to come into

00:30Rochdale that, you know, hasn't, I guess, in the past had very much

00:37investment into culture and heritage. So it is part of that wider development that's going on

00:43at the moment. We're a priority place with the Arts Council, which means they've acknowledged

00:48that historically we haven't perhaps had as much money from them to develop the cultural

00:54infrastructure as perhaps some other places have around the country. So we've got that status,

00:59we're taking full advantage of that. As a borough, not just your trust, we're part of,

01:04you know, all those wider conversations. So yeah, priority place, we've got that kind of spotlight,

01:12we need to take full advantage of it. The money that we had from CDF is for touchstones and the

01:18capital redevelopment, that that is just one part of it. There was also money to look at a

01:25cultural compact. So a kind of bringing together all the kind of cultural leaders across the borough

01:31to look at where the gaps are in provision and try to address some of that stuff. There's also

01:38loads of changes going on to Rochdale Town Centre, you know, as part of that funding.

01:44So that's all really, really exciting. And then probably you're aware as well, the Town Hall, which

01:53is across the way from touchstones, has just reopened after major capital redevelopment as

02:00well. NLHF funded and Rochdale Borough Council funded project. Yeah, so there's obviously that

02:09building that's just reopened, which is absolutely magnificent.