17 October is a big day for Bristol’s much loved Trinity Centre. The Big Lottery-funded development work on the building has begun and Bristol West MP, Stephen Williams will open a new open-access children’s play area. The open day from 10am onwards will be a great chance for Bristol communities to come and see what's happening and what will be on offer in the newly developed Centre, as well as to try out the new play area (weather permitting!).

Funded by The Veolia Environmental Trust with a grant of £23k and a £2k Community First grant, the open-access play area designed and built by the Green Play Project has been created using high quality, sustainable materials and will include environmentally-conscious features - including a bamboo corner and tunnels which can be used to grow climbing flowers and vegetables - in order to inspire and challenge children and young people.

Bristol West MP, Stephen Williams said:

“The Trinity Development Project is an excellent candidate to receive this funding. The local people are working together to create valuable community green space and a safe children's play area and I would like to say a big thank you to The Veolia Environmental Trust for their help. Old Market is pulsating back into life.  A decade ago hardly anyone lived there but now in 2013 it is home to thousands. I am sure the play area will become a vital part of this new Old Market spirit!”

The Executive Director of The Veolia Environmental Trust, Paul Taylor, said:

“We are pleased to support this project that has created a safe and exciting space for children and families to enjoy outdoor activities and connect with their environment. I hope that the opening event is a success and that the new play area is enjoyed by the community of Bristol for many years to come. Congratulations to all involved.”

The Trinity Centre is internationally renowned for its music events (famous bands like U2, Echo and the Bunnymen, the Clash, Roni Size and others have played there) and locally it provides a much loved centre and resource for community activities. Trinity Community Arts have been awarded a grant of £460,000 towards redeveloping the Centre, which will improve access and increase the space on offer for community activities. The grant is from the Big Lottery Reaching Communities Buildings Fund - aiming to help people and communities most in need through giving funding to improve community buildings where a wide range of community activities take place. The work has also been supported by the Ibstock Cory Environmental Trust who have provided matched funding for the Big Lottery grant to replace the boiler.

Centre Manager, Emma Harvey said:

“The Lottery grant will be used to create a new entrance and reception area and install heating, a sprung wooden floor, lighting and drapes in the upstairs hall space to make it suitable for activities such as conferences, dance and fitness and performance. There will also be a second, smaller, hall space suitable for IT classes, community meetings and smaller functions.”

Click here for more information.

Press management on October 17^th, Nigel Locker, Bud Communications nigel@bud.uk.com

We are looking for a team of volunteers to help with the distribution of flyers & posters.

As we get busier and busier we need to expand on the small team we have at present. Work depends on how many gigs/events we have coming up each moth. Some are busier than others but there is always work to be done.

We offer 2 FREE tickets to each volunteer subject to availability.

If you are interested or would like more info please contact: jamell@3ca.org.uk

The Trinity Centre was pleased to welcome iconic poet Benjamin Zephaniah through our doors today as part of a national research tour into the history of black radical poetry in the UK. Writers and activists drawn from the local community attended a meeting to share ideas and sources with Benjamin.

The meeting was coordinated by writer and literary consultant Kadija George (of Peepal Tree Press), in partnership with Trinity's Project Coordinator Dr Edson Burton, through the Trinity Community Initiative. Trinity has been a base for community arts and creativity since the 1970s and the meeting served as a homecoming for Benjamin, as he recalled performing here in the Centre's early years as a venue.

This was an exploratory meeting to discover what information is available within Bristol. The project is ongoing and we may hear soon of a call for more sources to support Benjamin in his quest to compile a comprehensive anthology.

‘10 to 10’ Old Market Community Photo-Shoot

Thursday 19 September 2013, 10am-10pm at the IC-Visual Lab photo office, 58 Old Market St, Bristol, BS2 0ER

Free photography event following the theme “Community”. The project aims to bring together the local community in a fun activity using photography. The event, led by IC-Visual Lab is designed to encourage locals and the wider Bristol community to explore and document Old Market Quarter - bringing attention to the area by building a live photo archive - The Old Market Diaries.

From 10am-10pm participants can capture the everyday life of The Old Market community. The participants can choose to photograph their homes, gardens, work places and streets. The activity is open for everybody - photographers and non-photographers, locals and the wider public. Instructions and map will be provided from the IC-Visual Lab office (58 Old Market Street) during the event.

Participants can then upload their images to a dedicated website www.icvl.co.uk/10to10 which will be available during the day. Our editors will select the final images that shall be uploaded to the project’s online archive. The IC-Visual Lab office will also contain facilities for downloading the images from cameras as well.

Up-and-coming photographers have been invited by One Giant Arm to come along during the day to take their own view of the area. The final images will then become part of the online archive and will be published in a photo booklet co- edited with OGA.

Also available on the day:

• Mobile Portrait Studio - professional portrait photographer Kirsty Mackay will taking pictures of passers by in Old Market, who will be able to get their prints afterwards on Clifton Colour.
• Digitising old photographs and family albums - bring along your old photographs and family albums related to Old Market to be digitised. The activity will review the past of the area, trying to find unique events that took place and recording the stories behind them. The digitising studio will be based in IC-Visual Lab office.

More about Old Market Quarter

Old Market Quarter has been selected for this project as it is one of Bristol’s fastest growing communities with residents originating from over forty different countries. Yet, Old Market, with its changing worlds and its connected histories, hasn’t ever had its stories told. Via the interventions of the IC Visual Lab collective of photographers and local participants Old Market will act as a catalyst to construct living archive of the area that will enable and enhance greater community cohesion, both within the local community itself but also within greater Bristol as a whole.

Emma Harvey, Centre Manager for the Trinity Centre said; ‘’Trinity has run several heritage projects about the area and we're happy to support IC-Visual Lab in running this great project that explores and celebrates the rich and diverse heritage of local communities"

For more information contact ibi@icvl.co.uk

The British Red Cross memory garden was officially unveiled on 30 August 2012 - the International Day of the Disappeared - an annual commemoration of people who have gone missing in armed conflicts or other violent situations.

Speaking last year to the Bristol Evening Post, Red Cross Service Manager Liz Abbey said: "The coming together of the British Red Cross with Trinity Community Arts highlights the importance of the Day of the Disappeared. There are thousands of people who are going through the agony and pain of losing contact with loved ones. The day remembers those people and gives the Red Cross the opportunity to let them know we are here to help them."

The memory garden has grown well over the past and includes flowers, a kiwi tree and is a space for people to come and pay tribute to the missing and provide a safe place for people to come and remember loved ones they have lost contact with.

Read more about the 2012 memorial garden day here.

If anyone has any memories of seeing particular bands, photographs, flyers, posters or tickets we would love to hear from you.

We would also be very interested to hear from anyone who may have had family celebrations there when it was a church, such as weddings and christenings. These can be from any period in time and we would be especially pleased to hear from elders in the community who have stories to tell. ​

We will build on our current archive to create an exhibition of photographs, gig/event posters, letters, people's memories and memorabilia for an open day on 17 October.

The Centre is about to undergo an extensive programme of renovation and improvement to the upstairs hall and external grounds to create new facilities for the whole community. The open day will provide a change for people in the local community to come along to the Centre and learn more about the improvements, meet others, share their stories and join in the fun.

Please email us your stories to or write to us at Christina Robino, C/o The Trinity Centre, Trinity Road, Bristol BS2 0NW.

The Bridges project was a great success - we produced two new commissions and had an audience of 774 across our events and show. We ran 67 activity sessions involving 238 participants, with 120 of these being 18 or under. 97 artists and actors were involved in the project, representing a total of 392 days of employment for artists. For more info about the project check out the Bridges Project Report.

The success of the project owes much to the tenacity and resourcefulness of all involved. This was a project that was in many aspects much bolder than had been budgeted for, and in excess of the available capacity. Effective management by TCA ensured that these deficiencies did not diminish the quality of the artistic experience.

Overall the project was successful in terms of participant numbers, audience numbers and profile and TCA hopes to build upon this for future community arts projects and big thanks have to be made to Edson Burton and Nick Young for delivering such an inspiring and aspirational project.

We've submitted an application to HLF for 'Vice & Virtue: Old Market Heritage Project' so bring on the next big challenge! Thanks again to everyone involved for making the project a success.

Keep an eye out for Lil Hype who are taking part in Aleasha Dixson's Street Dance Stars on CBBC from Monday 20^th August. This fierce contest showcases amazing dance crews from across the UK, all hoping to win the ultimate prize of being Aleashas' Street Dance Champions. Here's hoping Lil Hype can show them all how it is done.

Fancy having a go yourself? Hype Dance rehearses at the Trinity Centre every Wednesday and they are currently recruiting strong male and female dancers, 16-25yrs old who are up for performing at events and competing nationwide and across Europe! Contact thype@hotmail.co.uk for more info.

If dancing isn't your thing check out our open music sessions running each week with our Youth Music Makers.

Tank Theatre Company presents 'M.C.Beth' an inspiring original take on Shakespeare's classic story.

Director and writer Dave Lovatt set up the company thanks to funding from the Ernest Cook Trust to help young teach actors between 16-26 become professionals, in honour of Leroy 'Tank' Reid.

Ticket info: £6 adv / £4 conc - Available in advance from Bristol Ticket Shop, at the Trinity Centre and on the door on the night.

For more info about this event 'click here'

The project is being led by Trinity Arts Ltd, designed and built by The Green Play Project, and is costing £24,000 in total. The play area will use high quality, sustainable materials and will include environmentally-conscious features which will inspire and challenge children and young people.

It is hoped that, in addition to being used by the many existing users of the centre, the play area will also attract more local families by creating a natural, fun, safe space within an inner-city urban environment, where currently there is nothing similar this side of the M32.

The Trinity Centre offers a range of much-needed services and facilities. The landmark building – a unique grade II* listed converted former-church now provides a space for the whole community, including those who may face barriers to participation such as young people who have been disengaged from mainstream services, refugee communities, Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities and long-term unemployed and financially disadvantaged people.

The play area project will form part of the wider Trinity Development Project funded by the Big Lottery Reaching Communities Buildings Fund, designed to improve and increase the centre’s overall provision to the community.

Funding for the project has come from The Veolia Environmental Trust who awarded a grant of £23,000 through the Landfill Communities Fund.

Centre Manager, Emma Harvey, says, “We are delighted that work is underway. The centre’s garden is a rare greenspace in an inner-city locality and the addition of a play area will encourage wider use by the community.”

The acting executive director of The Veolia Environmental Trust, Maria Cade, adds, “We support community projects up and down the country and it is always great to hear about one starting. I hope that the play area is enjoyed by the community of Bristol for many years to come and I look forward to seeing the completed results.”

The project has also been supported by a £2,000 Community First grant awarded by the Easton and Lawrence Hill Neighbourhood Management Team.

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Landfill Tax and the Landfill Communities Fund Any rubbish that is thrown away and cannot be reused ends up in a landfill site. Operators of landfill sites collect tax on each tonne of landfill for HM Treasury. The purpose of this tax is to make it more expensive to put waste into landfill, in turn encouraging us to reduce our waste and recycle more.

A small proportion of this tax, currently 6.8%, can be used to support a wide range of environmental projects near landfill sites, through the Landfill Communities Fund (LCF). Through the LCF over £1 billion has been invested in UK projects. The Veolia Environmental Trust is part of the LCF, which is regulated on behalf of HM Government’s Revenue & Customs by ENTRUST. For further information, please visit www.entrust.org.uk.

The Veolia Environmental Trust has been supporting community and environmental projects for over 15 years. Since we were established in 1997, Veolia Environmental Services (UK) plc has supported us by contributions of over £51 million to 1531 projects.

We have helped fund a diverse range of projects, including the repair of woodland footpaths, the renovation of community halls and the installation of playgrounds and play areas. For more information, or to find out how to apply for funding, visit our website www.veoliatrust.org.

Press information issued by Rebecca Jacob, tel: 01902 794978, email: rebecca.jacob@veoliatrust.org (project number: 4000)

Trinity Community Arts (TCA) is a charity that connects communities and contributes to urban regeneration, through a progressive programme of live music and creative activities.

Based in a much-loved historic Bristol landmark, The Trinity Centre, we provide a cultural hub for the city, where people of all ages and backgrounds can come together to access and shape arts and culture.

We are seeking enthusiastic individuals with a passion for arts and their community to join our Board of Directors, to help realise Trinity's core vision and shape our activities. We welcome applications from:

• Community champions who can help Trinity to meet the needs of our diverse communities
• People who have experience in one of our key project activity areas; Community, Arts, Heritage, Education & Training, Live Music
• Professionals with experience in any of the following areas; Management, HR, Finance, Fundraising, Business Development.

The role of individual Directors is to provide a measured and informed opinion and decision making on matters relating to Trinity's work. Dealing with staff and volunteers, other directors, partners and stakeholders, Directors should demonstrate integrity, diplomacy, openness ambition and innovation in their decision making.

Trinity is what you make it - so come get involved!

If you are interested in joining, please click here for more information. If you are interested in applying and would like to first have an informal discussion with our Chair.

We have secured Awards for All funding to provide a Project Coordinator for the Activate West Side Project. Based at Arts West Side, the new post will help to support volunteers to develop and run regular activities, providing advice and support as well as access to small project budgets for volunteers to set up and deliver their own activities (for materials and flyers, for example). As part of the application, we will also be delivering some food workshops around the café led by The Uprising Bakery, as well as Food Hygiene certificates for core volunteers working in the café. We will also provide two new laptops for the space so that the café is better placed to offer free internet access to the local community.

Volunteers are working to continue the coordination of a rotating Arts Exhibitions Programme and we welcome enquiries from any new or existing volunteers wishing to develop arts/community workshops. The aim is, through support and guidance provided by a new Project Coordinator, to build upon initial ad-hoc activities to create a more structured programme of community activity.

If you are interested in applying to join the team, please visit the Trinity website and download the job description and application pack. Deadline for applications 29 July 2013.

We have also recently redeveloped the Arts West Side café in partnership with The Uprising Bakery, installing a retro counter and furniture for a more kitsch-cool feel. Why not come join us and check out our latest menu, with healthy lunchtime options available!

If you would like to support the Arts West Side project and make a donation to help us run community activities from the space, text AWSP13 £{the amount you would like to donate} to 70070 JustTextGiving by Vodafone.

All you have to do is follow the straightforward instructions below and make sure your original design reaches us by Mon 12th August to be in with a chance of having your creation on the front of our next listings flyer.

Trinity is a unique community arts space and amazing independent live music venue so we're looking for an artistic design that will inspire others.

We want to use our flyers as a platform for artists' work so, the winning design will feature on a printed flyer (5000 copies) distributed across the city! The winner will also receive two complimentary tickets to an upcoming gig of their choice*

Technical info

• Flyer size: A6

• Dimensions: 105mm x 150mm + 3mm bleed each side (Design can be portrait or landscape)

• Resolution: 300dpi

• Colour model: CMYK

• Format: Tiff/Jpeg

What's next?

Design your cover by print, or by hand and scan in, and email your image to info@3ca.org.uk with the subject heading Trinity Flyer Design

Be sure to include your details**:

• Artist name

• Artist website

• Artist email

We will be running our flyer design competition every other month so please keep an eye on our website with regards to future competitions.

See Mbrk's work (our latest winner)  here

*Subject to availability

**We will feature the winner's contact details on the flyer – please let us know if you do not wish to do this

Next Sunday 23rd June we're hosting an intimate one-off show for Goldfrapp as a warm-up for their up-coming festival appearances. Tickets are flying out already so act fast! Available from See Tickets or Bristol Ticket Shop 0117 929 9008

Also, this week we're very excited to announce that we have teamed up with Asian Arts Agency to bring you kickass Canadian 5-piece world fusion dance band, Delhi 2 Dublin, playing here Friday 23rd of August.

Meanwhile Figure 8 Festival, here Saturday 28th September have just announced indie veteran's Dodgy as festival headliner with more acts added to the bill including the fabulous Brighton-based folk artist Chris T-T. They are joined at this exciting charity festival by the likes of , Mumford & Sons and Laura Marling collaborator Pete Roe and Leeds rockers ALASKA as well as former King Blues member Josie Ghost, London singer/songwriter Katie Malco and Northampton’s answer to Damien Rice, Joel Harries, the man behind Men Diamler, Richard Abberline, Mat Motte’s new band Shock Horror and up and coming Camden indie kids Velveteen. Plus plenty of local acts too.

For more info visit our events pages

2013 has been a difficult year to secure funding for our Community Garden project and after several applications, a short term grant came through, allowing us to continue to this years growing season!

Anita O'Flynn, one of our Volunteer Garden Coordinators, is one of the lucky winners this year to receive The World of Difference UK programme funding. The programme gives 500 people the chance to work for a UK charity of their choice and get paid!

Thanks to this funding Anita has been able to set up an all day drop-in session for Women and Children on Wednesdays as well as free gardening sessions on Thursdays with small groups of vulnerable adults from Rethink, Second Step and others.

Awaz Utaoh (South Asian women’s group) has also joined them on Wednesdays and they have been showing us how to make a tandoori oven aand cook from it, which is very exciting and is going to be a great resource for their community garden.

To read more about the garden and Anita's work, visit her blog:

http://worldofdifference.vodafone.co.uk/blogs/anita-o-flynn2012/

Trinity Community Arts are currently part-way through a year-long scheme of works to carry out improvements to the Trinity Centre, Lawrence Hill in Old Market Quarter, Bristol.

We are half-way through a roof-repair works project, funded by English Heritage, Pilgrim Trust and Biffa Award. These essential repairs, due for completion at the end of June will help to protect the fabric of the building long-term.

Trinity has recently been awarded a £30,000 grant from the Ibstock Cory Environmental Trust (ICET) to fund improvements to our heating system, including to run an underfloor-heating system in our large upstairs hall-space. Cory Environmental is one of the UK's leading recycling, waste management and energy recovery companies and its trust, which is also funded by Ibstock Brick Limited through the Landfill Communities Fund, supports community projects across the country. The ICET grant will help to improve the community building, where a wide range of community activities already take place, in order to allow for more activities to happen.

Emma Harvey, Centre Manager for Trinity said; “Anyone who has used the Centre before will know how heating this old converted church is one massive challenge. The support from Ibstock Cory Environmental Trust will help to ensure that the community can make maximum use of the newly developed space in the coming year.”

Angela Haymonds, Secretary of ICET said: “ICET trustees were delighted to support this project. Trinity Community Arts hosts a broad range of arts-based and other community group activities and this project will serve to keep the building warm whilst keeping bills low.”

Angela continued: “This community project is just one of the many ICET has funded through the Landfill Communities Fund (LCF). The scheme offers funding to projects that benefit communities living within 10 miles of a landfill site. Groups interested in submitting projects should visit our website to find out more”.

The work funded by ICET forms part of a much larger scheme, due to start after the roof-repair works conclude, funded by the Big Lottery Reaching Communities Buildings Fund. The wider scheme involves improvements to external grounds, the creation of a new daytime reception and installation of a sprung wooden floor, lighting and drapes in the upstairs hall space to make it suitable for activities such as dance, fitness and performance. The Big Lottery grant will also be used to install a full-height partition upstairs, so that a second smaller hall space will be created, suitable for IT classes, community meetings and smaller functions.

Works are due for completion by the end of 2013 and will be delivered in phases in order to ensure the Centre remains open throughout. Details of the planned works can be downloaded by clicking here. For more information visit www.3ca.org.uk/projects/trinity-centre-development contact 0117 935 1200 or email info@3ca.org.uk.

This period of change and growth cannot happen without your support. We've set up a JustGiving page so that people in the community who care about Trinity can organise their own fundraising activities for the Centre. If you would just like to show your support, you can donate via the Trinity Text Appeal 2013 - text TRIN13 £5 to 70070 to donate to Trinity and make a difference with JustTextGiving by Vodafone.

The Tank Theatre Project is a new young people's theatre group, funded by the Ernest Cook Trust.We're looking for ambitious young people with a passion for acting and/or writing (stories or lyrics) to take part in this exciting new project.

Over 29 Saturdays this summer, you will get to work with award-winning director Dave Lovatt to create your own, contemporary performance, whilst also getting to learn from the master playwrights and what makes their works so great. By the end of the experience, you will have a practical grounding in theatre and have mastered acting and improvisation techniques in order to create and put on a final 2-night performance at The Trinity Centre.

Trinity has hosted high-profile theatre performances including the Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart during MayFest 2012 and Beowulf – A Thousand Years of Baggage for this year's Mayfest event. Trinity has also developed other successful site-specific theatre performances including, At Tether's End by Nick Young and The Ithaca Axis by Nick Young and Dr Edson Burton.

If you're looking to get into acting but don't know how, or you're studying a theatre course and want to get some more practical experience, please get in touch 01179251200 / info@3ca.org.uk and send us your contact details for more info!

Trinity Community Arts is a registered charity (no 1144770) if you would like to support us in our work, text TRIN13 £5 to 70070 to donate to Trinity and make a difference today.

The Veolia Environmental Trust have awarded Trinity Community Arts Ltd a grant of £23,000 towards the creation of a new, safe, play area within the centre’s garden. The play area will be used by the many existing users of the centre. It is hoped that it will also attract more local families by creating a natural, fun, safe play area within an inner-city urban environment, where currently there is nothing similar this side of the M32. The project has also been supported by a £2,000 Community First grant awarded by the Easton and Lawrence Hill Neighbourhood Management Team.

The Trinity Centre provides a range of much-needed services and facilities. It provides a space for the whole community, including those who may face barriers to participation such as young people who have been disengaged from mainstream services, refugee communities, Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities and long-term unemployed and financially disadvantaged people.

The play area will use high quality, sustainable materials and will include environmentally-conscious features which will inspire and challenge children and young people. The project will form part of the wider Trinity Development Project funded by the Big Lottery Reaching Communities Buildings Fund, designed to improve and increase the centre’s overall provision to the community.

The Veolia Environmental Trust award grants to community and environmental projects through the Landfill Communities Fund. The grant was awarded by our Board at its recent quarterly meeting, where it awarded a total of £1.2m to 47 projects across the UK. Their projects team will now start the process of working with Trinity Community Arts to develop their final plans and get the project off the ground.

Centre Manager, Emma Harvey, said, “We are delighted that The Veolia Environmental Trust has awarded this grant and we are looking forward to the project getting underway. The centre’s garden is a rare green space in an inner-city locality and it is great that we can improve it to encourage wider use by the community.”

The Executive Director of The Veolia Environmental Trust, McNabb Laurie, added, “Projects like this one make a real difference to our communities and our Board awarded this grant on its merits. We will now start working with Trinity Community Arts to develop a project that will really benefit the community of Bristol.”

Trinity Community Arts is a registered charity (no 1144770) if you would like to support us in our work, text TRIN13 £5 to 70070 to donate to Trinity and make a difference today.