Here's what Molly had to say about her time at Trinity:

"I was expelled from my college course at Circomedia when I was 16 because of my poor participation, which was mainly due to my crippling anxiety and non-existent confidence.

I found out about Trinity's courses for young people online and signed up for some free classes and workshops as part of the 2007 Bristol Sound Project led by Nick Young. I took part in a mixing class with Souljah Clique, a scratching class with Dutty Girl, amazing singing workshops with the fantastically talented Kizzy Morrell from Studio 7, theatre sessions with director Dave Lovatt and a graffiti workshop with Bristol street-artist Silent Hobo.

I then went on to re-do the college course at Circomedia I was expelled from and received a triple distinction.

After one year of their professional course I went on to study at a well known circus school in Montpellier, France, where I had wanted to go for years. I've been working with a circus in France and now plan on coming back to Bristol to continue training and hopefully spend some time volunteering at the place which helped me gain my confidence.

The Trinity Centre is a truly unique organisation filled with talented people driven to encourage young aspiring creatives and support those who need it. My time there was special and even as a lost moody teenager I didn't feel judged or belittled - totally the opposite. I can't recommend their courses enough."

Each year Trinity works with 60 young people from challenging circumstances across our learning programme and activities. We work with young people who have fallen out of education, helping them to can gain confidence, develop skills and find routes back into education or employment.

If you would like to support our work with young people, visit our Just Giving page or text TYTP99 £[the amount you want to donate] to 70070 to donate to the Trinity Youth Training Project today.

The Trinity Community Initiative (TCI) offers free and subsidised hall space from 9am-5pm, Monday to Friday, to give individuals and groups space to run free activities, projects and events for the local community.

Aims

• To get new ideas off the ground
• To help community groups develop and grow
• To provide a wider range of services for our local community
• To support activities that promote social cohesion and inclusion
• To promote and foster partnerships between groups

Who is it for?

• Local, community, charity and voluntary organisations running a free public event or activity
• Individuals who are looking to establish a new community project or activity
• In order to qualify for the scheme your organisation must be a Member and pay the standard annual membership fee (£10 concessions / £20 individuals / £50 groups & organisations) - click here for details about Membership

What space is available?

• Main Hall, Fyfe Hall, Graffiti Room, Meeting Room and/or Garden

TCI subsidises the use of the space only. If you have any other requirements, like equipment (PA, projector, screen) or refreshments, this may incur a fee. See space hire for more information on rates.

How long can an activity run for?

• It will depend on what you're doing, our availability and the demand from other groups wishing to benefit from the scheme*.
• If we need to change your booking, we’ll give as much notice as possible, and try to find other suitable spaces or dates

*Access to TCI is cap at 24 hrs per year. Concessionary rates apply after cap.

How to apply?

Please send us a brief proposal (no more than two pages) outlining:

• An introduction to you/your organisation's mission/purpose
• What activity you’d like to run, and who it’s for
• What space/s you would like to use
• The best dates and times for your activity – if known (including set up and take down times)
• Any other information in support of your proposal

Email your proposal to info@trinitybristol.org.uk with the subject header 'TCI proposal'.

If your proposal is successful, we ask that you become a Trinity Member and to publicly acknowledge Trinity's support by including our logo in all your publicity (i.e. flyers, posters, website).

Please note that in order to overcome any issues surrounding liability to TCA, we request groups a 'peppercorn fee' of £1 for the duration of the activity.

On Saturday April 11, we are providing an opportunity for smaller, niche businesses to promote themselves to couples looking to make their special day one to remember.

As an alternative licensed wedding venue for Civil Marriages and Civil Partnerships, we hope to attract those who want to stand out from the crowd.

We have affordable indoor and outdoor pitches for venues, photographers, caterers, bakers, florists, décor specialists, illustrators, card makers - or something completely different!

Stall-holder fees range between £25-£60 dependant on business size/type. If you are interested in booking a stall or would like to find out more, please contact the office on 01179351200 or email info@3ca.org.uk

We're also inviting musicians and bands interested in being booked for weddings to come along and perform live on the day. You don't have to pay, just book a slot and come along to perform live on the day to our audience. To find our more, get in touch via the details above.

Click here for more information about the event.

Deadline for booking, Sunday 1 March 2015.

The Trinity Centre is a community arts centre and one of Bristol's leading independent live-venues, bringing live-music to the city since 1976. Yes, we're cool...

But, if you've been to a gig, roller disco or a dance session, you might have found yourself getting a little hot under the collar!

With over 40,000 centre users, of which 25,000 are gig-goers alone, enjoying live-music and dance events hosted at Trinity each year, that's a lot of sweaty bodies to cool down.

Like you, we want to Make Trinity COOLER!

We need your support in raising funds to improve the hall by installing a new air-extract system in our main hall space. We're asking you to give what you can, so that we can make the centre a nicer place for everyone, as well as helping to make Trinity more sustainable.

“We currently run a weekly elderly support group at the Trinity Centre...without this resource we would have nowhere to go” Awaz Utaoh, Asian Women's Group

About Trinity

Trinity is a cultural hub for the city where people can come together and get involved in the arts. Our mission is to make sure everyone is able to access and shape arts and culture in Bristol.

The Trinity Centre is used by over 40,000 people each year, across our range of activities and events. This includes:

• 7,674 participants in our community activities - such as community hires, dance groups, across 12,214 unique visits
• 730 people participating across the life of the our Garden, Arts West Side and Vice & Virtue Projects
• 41 young people across our youth training activities and youth music
• 53 volunteers each year across our programme and projects

Our Trinity Community Initiative (TCI) provides over 1000 hours of free or subsidised space hire each year, so that community and grass-roots groups, who may otherwise not be able to afford space, are able to run their projects, meetings and events. Click here to find out more about the charity.

How you can help

Text HOTT65 £[the amount you want to donate] to 70070 to donate to MAKE TRINITY COOLER or visit our Just Giving Appeal Page to make a donation.

Thank YOU!

Trinity Community Arts

Registered Charity Number 1144770 Registered Company Number 4372577

At the end of 2013 we received funding from Awards for All, to run our Activate West Side project and Sarah Bentley (Project Coordinator) worked hard to expand the offer of activities for the community and supporting the volunteers that lead on them.

2014 saw more than 60 sessions ran by 26 volunteers as part of the project, from weekly writing groups, women lunch clubs, art collectives meetings and workshops to creative play sessions for children as well as healthy eating sessions and exhibitions. Over 230 participants have been involved in our activities this year.

The project has created new partnerships with local organisations like Parents4Play, Children's Scrapstore, Trinity Community Garden and University of West England (UWE). Trough the project we have also been able to support the Bristol Somali Youth Network, who now call Arts West Side home.

Sarah finished her post in October and left successful pilot partnership activities in place, like the Art Café for over 55's in partnership with LinkAge and UWE as well as Creativity Makes me Happy for people with learning difficulties, in partnership with Stepping Out. Both activities ran weekly from October until December 2014 and we look forward to continuing both projects in 2015.

This year we also welcomed our new tenants, Phase 8 Photography and The Good Roots Café.

Get in touch if you have an idea or project you would like to test out at Arts West Side. Email westside@3ca.org.uk - or next time you are down Old Market, come in say hello!

Trinity pledges to develop and improve it's ecological awareness and take steps to reduce waste both as an organisation and within the larger community.

We will do this by:

• Implementing energy saving initiatives, as detailed in our Green Audit
• Identifying a strategy for delivering a Solar PV installation
• Support the local community to participate in the Bristol Green Capital year
• Provide a venue for Green Capital events

Following the recommendations of the green audit undertaken by UWE graduates in 2014 year, we have set short and long term goals to make our Grade II* listed building and charity more ecologically sound.

Short term goals have already been set in motion, such as the switch from traditional lighting LED lights in all our halls, workspaces and outdoor spaces and switching to a green energy provider. The Trinity Centre has an Energy Performance Certificate rating of C - considerably higher than similar historic buildings, which have an average rating of D. Recent installation of a new boiler and Building Management System (BMS) system, insulation works to the loft alongside the LED lighting has led to a very good rating being achieved for the style of building.

Other actions such as staff training and public awareness are an on going commitment. We are encouraging our visitors to show a positive attitude towards keeping green, such as having recycling points. Through leading by example, we hope to increase local people’s awareness of what can be done. These actions will be combined with workshops and activities around recycling, permaculture and keeping green Trinity will continue to work within the community to build awareness around green issues.

Long term we aim to install solar panels on the premises and implement ongoing improvements within the building to reduce energy loss. We are seeking funding to become more self-sustainable and use less energy within the building. One example of this would be our goal to replace the acrylic coverings to the original stain glass windows with double glazing, to help better insulate the building.

As well as directly developing the building Trinity aims to develop new and improve existing projects based around sustainability and keeping green. We plan to do this by continually supporting and working with local art projects such as Litterati who held a week's residence in 2014 at Trinity. The project was a culmination of local artists running free daily workshops for young people based around the idea of re-using items that would be traditionally seen as rubbish. This project educated young people about the amount of waste that is produced as well as ways to re-use and prevent so much waste.

We will continue to support 'green' or 'eco' themed conferences and workshops held within the venue offering advice about local resources such as catering and transport links in addition to offering a discounted rate for charities and non-profit green organisations.

We will also evolve our own projects, investing more time into supporting flagship projects such as our Garden Project and Arts West Side. As part of the Bristol 2015 programme we will be delivering the 'Grow It...Cook it...Eat It!' project, to educate, support and involve people within the community in the Green Capital agenda, targeting hard to reach groups as well as the wider community.

Keep an eye out on our website to find out more about this and other projects!

We have run our annual hooping event, SWhoop at The Trinity Centre for several years and have enjoyed a great relationship with the staff here. Our work engages the local hoop community as well as the best of talent across the world. It is important to us to show-off our wonderful city in a strong, grassroots ethical organisation. Our Show case event at the end of the weekend features a demonstration of another Trinity community partner, Bristol Samba and is a great success each time. 

We have enjoyed excellent relationships with the staff here, whose flexibility and professional conduct have helped us sustain a strong continuity of delivery.

We have appreciated over the years the terrific improvements made to the infrastructure and to the increased services to the community. The grand opening of the first floor dance/theatre space was a vibrant event and drew a wide cross section of the community, including the Mayor.

We have great pleasure in supporting the work of Trinity.

Drs Stephen Robins & Emma Kerr, SWhoop

The most notable achievement for 2014 was the completion of a two-year capital project, which included repairs to our South Aisle lead roof alongside significant redevelopment of our upstairs hall space and grounds.

Contractors gcp Chartered Architects and CW Duke worked tirelessly and within strict budget and deadline to complete the scheme of works, which included a new reception area, heating system, partition wall, sprung wooden floor, lighting and drapes - to enable us to provide a more flexible space for the variety of uses of the centre.

The plan to redevelop the Trinity Centre has been an ambition for decades and this former converted church has long been a focal point for the cultural and community activities in East Bristol. Thanks to support from funders including Big Lottery Fund and Ibstock Cory Environmental Trust, these long-held aspirations have now become a reality. With a second large hall space in the upstairs of the Centre, we are able to provide access to high-end facilities at affordable rates for a range of activities including dance, performance, meetings, conferences, weddings and more.

Over 200 Friends of Trinity turned out for our official opening of the new 'Fyfe Hall', named in memory of former board member Nicholas Fyfe, who passed away in 2007. The event gave people in the community and users of the Centre the opportunity to see all the improvements made to the building and the audience were entertained by Bristol Reggae Orchestra who gave an outstanding performance as the first musicians to perform in the newly renovated space. This was folloed by the public relaunch event with a performance from Adrian Utley of Portishead.

Throughout the year, the Trinity Centre was used by over 40,000 people, across 222 activities and events. This includes:

• 7674 participants in community events, across 12214 unique visits
• 730 people participating in projects such as our Community Garden, Arts West Side and Vice & Virtue
• 41 young people involved regularly across our youth music training programme
• 53 volunteers supporting across all activities
• provided 4 paid intern-ships for young people aged 18-24 through the Creative Employment Programme.

Our Trinity Community Initiative (TCI) provided 1,180 hrs of free or subsidised space hire at The Trinity Centre for grass-roots groups and community projects (inc theatre and dance rehearsals), meetings and events and approx 125 hrs at Arts West Side – our satellite venue on Old Market High Street.

In line with the Bristol Green Capital 2015, we will be focusing on making Trinity more sustainable, both environmentally, through taking steps to make Trinity a greener venue and financially, through building our reserves. Our activity plans for 2015 include exploring new ways of bringing communities together, such as a series of live community-debates, taking more artistic control over our live-programming and providing more learning opportunities for young people. We're looking forward to doing more for our communities in 2015!

It's been a busy year in the Trinity Community Garden with community projects using our spaces to grow, forage and cook and participants experiencing truly sustainable living and the complete food cycle. The garden has also provided a place for workshops, children's quests, community events and gatherings through Comic Relief, Community First and Quartet funding. We have also played host to the Wild Walks for Wellbeing group and delivered the Children's Good Food Adventures for the Activate West Side project, funded by Awards for All.

Between April and October, the garden has brought together around 60 members of the community every month, as part of their weekly and monthly drop-in sessions and special celebrations. We worked with a wide range of people but have specially ran tailored sessions for adults with mental health issues.

We had a small set back in June when considerable damage was done to the hand-built roundhouse building, after it was set on fire, leaving walls and ceiling burnt and damaged. We dedicated Trinity's Big Gig on Sun 13^th July, to the Community Garden, to help raise funds to repair the damage done and thanks to Incredible Edible donations we were able to complete the necessary works in record time. We also received a Churngold Environment grant and we now have storage for all our wood and materials!

BYCA awarded us two grants to run Summer and October half term activities for children’s aged 6-12yrs. Activities included fire lighting, herbal first aid, food growing, cooking, arts & crafts and den building. Over 30 children came along to the sessions, fully immersing themselves in nature and learning about their environment.

The aim of all of our activities is to increase peoples confidence, well-being and to get them to work together. We think 2014 has been all about that with a great big thank you to all the volunteers involved!

If you're interested in community gardening and would like to get involved in our Trinity Community Garden project, contact lisat@3ca.org.uk

“I've gained a Rockschool certificate...coming here has helped me decide what I wanted to do for college and so I am now attending DBS college where I study DJing and production” Rob, 19

The training team recently went in to guest on Paulette North's Ujima radio show to celebrate the success of two recent graduates of the Trinity music course who have since gone on to secure long term work experience positions at the station and can confidently report they are doing a fine job co-presenting and engineering. Congratulations Ny and Reeks.

We have plans to develop professional an exciting new programme of activities for young people in 2015. We are working to raise funds to continue delivery of our Music-Makers accredited training and drop-in sessions (Rockschool and Arts Award).

We also aim to introduce new Music-Labs and Master-Classes, delivered by project partners and guest musicians and a new Industry Music project strand. This will include Live-Learning and Industry-Learning, linking with music professionals to provide industry taster days, shadowing, mentoring and internships within a music industry setting.

Young people learning music at Trinity are able to work towards a Rock School Music Practitioner accreditation. They also get the chance to gain exclusive 'backstage' access, where they get to see first-hand the inner-workings of the live-music industry and meet artists and professionals during event set-up of live-events. As one of Bristol's most legendary music venues, this is a unique learning experience to inspire the next generation of musicians.

"Tutors Al and Dave and students Ny and Reekes came along to my show - the two young people were full of praise for the Trinity Centre . In their own words they several times repeated 'Big up the Trinity Centre!' They talked about how their lives were turned around because of the course they did on music with Al and Dave. I was in no doubt that the Trinity Centre is an amazing place, but it is wonderful to hear our young people say it."

Trustee, UjimaFM presenter and local activist Paulette North

If you are a young person wanting to make music, or you know someone who wants to get creative, get in touch with our training team via training@3ca.org.uk.

We are very excited to announce this year's NYE Party: 2014/15 will be brought to you by After Dark who have teamed up with Tremor vs Swing 'n' Tingz': The Countdown Carnival with very special guests Slamboree - expect walkabout circus performers / outdoor fire performers / carnival décor / full SXS lighting rig / full SXS 30k martin audio sound system / carnival fancy dress is encouraged!

Coming up this Thursday we host a special performance from Arifa, performing in Fyfe Hall (our new upstairs space) playing one of only 3 UK gigs; "artistic sophistication, technical mastery, and fascinating blend of backgrounds and influences make it highly recommended listening". Tickets for available from Bristol Ticket Shop or on the door. This will be a unique chance to catch a "masterpiece of postmodern, post-global cool".

If dance is your thing then check out Around the World in 80 Minutes a wonderful night of New Orleans jazz, tango, flamenco, afro-beat and opera, featuring South West Dance Theatre, Jazz Quartet, Movema, Rise, 3rd Stage, and more...all raising money for Shelter.

Also plenty of new additions on the website including This Is The Kit + The Fantasy Orchestra, 27 (a new performance from Peter McMaster as part of IBT15) and  Sharon Van Etten. Check it out!

Coming up to the end of a bumper October here at Trinity which has seen some super gigs (Morcheeba, FKA Twigs and Goat to name a few), stunning theatre and exhibitions and some fabulous community events including the Up Our Street Thank You Awards last night.

Still to come we have tonight Reggae Inna Space featuring film screening of 'The Upsetter: The Life And Music Of Lee Scratch Perry' plus spoken word performances from Steven Duncan (Uk Slam Champion), Nadine Bourne (Bristol Slam Champion), Chloe Laing  (Poet / Singer) and our very own Edson Burton (Writer).

Sunday sees a great opportunity for young people (11-25) to play alongside Tomorrow's Warriors Connexions as the launch of a new series of jazz jam workshop with this award-winning jazz collective and best of all its free!

On sale today we have Chrissie Hynde. Tickets already flying out so you need to get in quick to make sure you don't miss the opportunity to catch one of a handful of special shows that will see The Pretenders front woman play songs from her illustrious back catalogue alongside her critically acclaimed debut solo album ‘Stockholm’.

And don't forget - Sunday 2nd November is the date for this year's FREE Fireworks Party. Live music will come from, No Go Stop (FKA Bristol Afrobeat Project), flyers are out and about or available to collect in the office and act as your 'ticket' so make sure you grab one.

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As we go from strength to strength we are also getting busier and busier so we are now looking for a great new Duty Manager to join our events team. We are looking for someone keen to work across working on a broad verity of different shifts, mostly evenings and sometimes into the small hours.

We run a wide range of activities from dance classes, weddings, parties, public forums, music, club night events and more. Some of the big and diverse events from the last year have included hosting Damon Albarn, The Anarchist Bookfair, numerous weddings, dance and theatre performances and community meetings.

The ideal candidate will be able to work with a diverse range of people and be able adapt to an ever changing environment.

Deadline 5pm Friday 31st October

See our Jobs Page for full details

For those of you smart enough to get your ticket early, then tonight we have the Mercury Music Prize Nominee FKA Twigs.This weekend we have a bumper selection of events such as the exhibition launch and film screening of A Brush With Immortality - Henrietta Lacks by artist Helen Roe, featuring scientists, spoken word and performers; Bump Roller Disco doing their thing on Friday night; Scenes, Soundsystems and Shebeens discovering and exploring Bristol’s African Caribbean music scene of the 1970s and 1980s; Planet Shroom dancing away until the small hours on Saturday, and then a slightly more relaxed Sunday with Sunday Assembly followed by Lil' Bumpers.

For those of you looking further ahead, check out Reggae Inna Space and Tomorrow's Warriors Connexions at the end of the month exploring musical genres through workshops, films and activities.

New announcements include the 'sumptuous, thrilling and alchemical' Arifa, bringing their influences from East and West in November as they do a short UK tour following their appearance at the London Jazz Festival, and Hudson Taylor in the new year.

Also, we've just announced our Winter Art Market for Saturday 6th December, so get in touch if you'd like to book a stall or find out more! info@trinitybristol.org.uk

All you have to do is follow the straightforward instructions below and make sure your original design reaches us by Friday 17 October to be in with a chance of having your creation feature as a fold-out poster inside a new Trinity leaflet.

The theme for this competition is TRINITY COOL.

We have some very special events as part of this year's Black History Month in October including a brand new play from Chanje Kunda, Amsterdam in a special double bill with Isadora Vibes and her show The Ultimate Seduction; Know Your Bristol On the Move and the Bristol Record Office host a reminiscence event, Scenes, Soundsystems and Shebeens, to discover and celebrate Bristol’s African Caribbean music scene of the 1970s and 1980s, and we partner up with the Watershed as part of their upcoming Afrofuturism Season with Reggae Inna Space.

Big announcements include Morcheeba who will be visiting Trinity, performing their collection of greatest hits,as wells as tracks they've never played before, join us for this intimate performance with the trip-hop LEGENDS. Resonators also confirmed to perform at Trinity alongside local favourites DJ Stryda ft. Solo Banton + Sasha Steppa all powered by Lionpulse Sound Friday 28th November. Tickets on-sale Monday.

For those of you who prefer seeing things in print keep an eye out for our lovely new brochure which will be appearing in a shop/cafe near you very soon or feel free to pop by the Centre next week to pick on up for yourself!

The first half of month sees a wonderful mix of theatre and reminiscence. First up is 'A Brush With Immortality – Henrietta Lacks', a documentary and exhibition by Helen Wilson-Roe, making visible the image of a woman who unknowingly had an incredible impact on medical history. The screening takes place on 10^th October, and you will have an entire week in which to visit the exhibition. The following day is 'Scenes, Soundsystems and Shebeens', an exploration into the music and legendary venues of Bristol's African Caribbean scene in the 1970s and 1980s. Featuring guest speakers, live music and delicious food, come a long and share your memories of an extraordinary era. And on 16^th October, stories of seduction, love and lust come to Trinity's stage. For one night only, performance artist and poet Isadora Vibes will explore the powerful themes of emotional, physical and psychological abuse in her mixed-media poetic performance 'The Ultimate Seduction'. Following on directly as part of a double-bill, poet, performer and playwright Chanje Kunda will answer the question of 'what happens when you abandon your responsibilities to chase your dreams?' in her play 'Amsterdam'.

And the drama continues! 'Tangled Roots', a spoken word performance exploring the untold story of the UK's mixed-race population, will be preceded by a life-writing workshop – your writing will become part of the story that evening! Join in on 19^th October. Alternatively, on 24^th October, take a journey through the dub-driven rhythm of the universe via film, spoken-word and music with 'Reggae Inna Space'. Presented as part of the Sci-fi Afrofuturism Season, in partnership with Watershed and Film Hub South West & West Midlands.

Tomorrow's Warriors, a jazz collective that has helped to kickstart the careers of some of the most talked about jazz artists in the UK, will be holding a jazz jam taster session on 26^th October, 'Tomorrow's Warriors Connexions' Bring your instrument for this practical workshop!

Finally, on 28^th October, we have seventh instalment in the brilliant 'Vice & Virtue' series, which has been revealing the hidden history of Old Market. 'Black GIs in Britain' will discuss the impact of US racial politics on wartime Britain.

Its now under a week until we bring a solar powered pop up outdoor cinema.

We have 10 great films to choose from. All you have to do is clink this link to go to our Facebook event and place your vote.

Bring a cushion or a blanket (and maybe a woolly jumper just in case). Bring your own picnic or purchase some snacks from our lovely outside bar.

Summer holidays are in full swing and we have been very busy here at Trinity with lots of outdoor activities for young people keeping them entertained.

For those of you who are a little older and looking for evening entertainment we still have great events coming up including Friday's Jazz Jamaica gig with band leader Gary Crosby plus Myrna Hague and Bristol Reggae Orchestra who will be in full party mood to celebrate Jamaican Independence Day. Doors open at 7.30pm.

Black Roots will be here Saturday 16th with a fantastic line-up topped by Horace Andy who has recently headlined Glastonbury's Other Stage with Massive Attack. After that, we have Reggae Lives featuring Glen Washington, in the Bristol leg of the three-date 'Reggae Lives: The Lovers Rock Tour' on Friday 22nd August.

We also have our latest live gig announcement; The Pierces, plus some fantastic theatre performances; Possibility and Amsterdam by Chanje Kunda now live on our What's On page.

We have plenty more coming up in the Autumn from cinema, talks, theatre and dance to the usual live music and late night shenanigans so keep an eye on the website for latest info.

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