When Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden advised 25 of the UK’s most recognisable cultural institutions* to be consistent with the Government on issues of contested heritage, voices across heritage and the arts expressed a need for separation between culture and politics.

But when charities faced calls from Charity Commission Chair to remain apolitical - a reaction to groups such as The National Trust opting to present the colonial history of some of their properties - the cultural sector was equally unhappy.

This may appear contradictory; on the one hand, arts and heritage charities calling for state and art to be kept separate while at the same time bawking at being told to avoid politicising activity. Maybe artists aren’t that great at being told what to do. Or maybe politics can be intrinsic to, whilst also remaining separate from, the work of charities.

The work of charities is intrinsic to (small p) politics

Arts and heritage charities exist to enrich our understanding of the past and inspire the next generation to build a better future. These aren’t just fluffy-feels. Rather, they are legally defined principles, set out in what is known as ‘Charitable Objects’.

Objects such as, ‘to preserve and promote heritage and arts’, ‘advance education’, or ‘promote equality of opportunity for persons of different racial and cultural identities’, can’t help but touch upon the micro-politics of everyday life.

Objects exist to focus resources and give donors assurance funds will go toward furthering their chosen cause. When we give to charities, we put our trust in them to decide how to best use those resources in pursuit of the Objects.

Funders may request charities use a hashtag in acknowledgement of funds or report on how funds are spent. But, this need for accountability does not take precedent over thee responsibility to stakeholders first and foremost.

As independent legal entities, charities must remain free to decide what activities are most appropriate in pursuit of their Objects, for the good of those they serve. Charities cannot act against their legitimate Objects just to keep someone happy - even when that someone is the Culture Secretary, or the Charity Commission Chair.

Art and (capital P) Politics must be separate

When it comes to funding, this ‘at arms length’ principle is important for the autonomy of all charities and is particularly notable in UK culture, with creation of The Arts Council itself post-WWII to ensure a clear separation between culture and capital P Politics.

This separation of Charity from State is critical as it safeguards the pursuit of a charity's mission from any shift in government priorities.

It means charities can focus on the interests of those they serve rather than being distracted by the interests of those who fund them. They cannot de-prioritise stakeholder interests in the pursuit funds, even where those funds are administered by the Government or public funding bodies such as Lottery. They must be able to maintain their autonomy so they can flex and adapt to meet changing stakeholder needs - not least so they can ensure they remain relevant to an ever diversifying donor pool.

Applying pressure on how legally constituted organisations pursue their legitimate charitable aims - by warning public funding will be ‘scrutinised’ should they not tow the line, for example - is even more problematic right now, due to the financial precariousness of the sector.

Charities exist to make change and pursue activities that help to make life fairer for us all. To use Chris Whitty’s ‘Swiss-cheese’ analogy, they plug any gaps in the wider public sector safety-net. We must protect this freedom at all costs, so charities can respond to the disproportionate impact of the pandemic, amplify stories that give new perspectives to dominant narratives and ensure the art we make remains free from Political constraints.

Our charities, our heritage and our culture must remain independent. That freedom is more important than ever, for the sake of our collective recovery and prosperity. We must distinguish between the Politics to be kept at arms length and that which is central to our mission if want our vision to remain in arms reach.

By Emma Harvey, CEO

Seven ways to show solidarity

1. Support the work groups diversifying the sector, such as Migrants in Culture and Inc Arts
2. Sign Howell Furber 's petition to encourage to reconsider DCMS' stance on contested histories
3. Follow news about the Hands Off Our Heritage on social media
4. Sign up to Strike A Light's mailing list to be part of future cross-sector conversations
5. Join The Museums Association's campaign to decolonise museums
6. Write to your MP in support of a 'Keep At Arms Length' approach to UK culture
7. Show your support on social media to those such as @nationaltrust and other UK arts and heritage charities impacted*, using hashtags such as #KeepItArmsLength #HandsOffOurHeritage

*List of organisations: The British Film Institute, British Library, British Museum, Churches Conservation Trust, Historic Royal Palaces, Horniman Museum, Imperial War Museum, Museum of the Home, National Archives, National Gallery, National Museums Liverpool, National Portrait Gallery, Natural History Museum, Royal Armouries, Royal Museums Greenwich, Royal Parks, Science Museum Group, Sir John Soane’s Museum, Tate Gallery, V&A Museum, Wallace Collection, Arts Council England, Historic England, National Lottery Communities Fund, National Lottery Heritage Fund

Trinity has been working to create opportunities for children and young people in our local community of Old Market, The Dings and Lawrence Hill to access to arts and well-being activities during the COVID19 pandemic.

“Many families we support don't have gardens, computers or printers to benefit from online resources many organisations created. It is important to remember about this digital inequality and therefore packs like those prepared by Trinity Centre are particularly valuable. They contain colourful booklets with inspirational ideas ... to cheer up those who can only dream about their own gardens”.

Pat Pinkowska, Community Engagement Officer, Up Our Street

As part of this work we have created two activity packs full of creative ideas, ranging from make your-own Bird Feeders, to singing Lullabies to learning more about Resistance Movements in Bristol - all devised to do in the home.

Working with our community partners including local primary schools and Eastside Community Trust we have delivered over 900 activity packs to local children and young people.

Trinity's Summer and Winter Activity packs are also available as a free download . They have been devised by the Trinity team and designed by Group of 7.

The packs have been made possible thanks to grant funding from Children in Need, Power to Change and Quartet.

In life, we chase rainbows. In death, we want something much simpler. Our own salvation or damnation dependent on the compatibility of our relative goodness to those who mourn our passing. Making saints of those held close and casting aside the sinners, though the space between is the one most of us occupy. Society depends on us all trying to be the best versions of ourselves. Our crimes are committed in the moments where we forget to try. It’s those who touch the extremities of expected behaviour -both good and bad - who create the most ripples.

Phil served 13 years in prison for a devastating crime. He came to Trinity in 2004 on a back-to-work ex-offender placement.

Sometimes there can be no forgiveness. But, in that space between life and death is where we find community. A space for the misfits and the troubled. Beyond the warmth of our family and our friends, a sense of belonging that is unconditional.

Emma Harvey, CEO

It was just a shabby shell back then, after a period of closure that many thought would mark its end. A re-imagining, but without any of the resources needed to realise that vision.

Phil offered us a lifeline. Without him, the building could never have reopened. Nor could it have remained open during those early years, when so much manual work needed doing in order to make it a safe space.

On Phil’s release, he continued to work at Trinity for no financial or personal gain. He did so much and grafted in a way that was unimaginable. It was his dedication and determination that inspired everyone who met him in those times. Others would try to emulate it, but we’d all be in bed crashed out at a time when he was up and about, working on setting things right so we could open our doors the next day.

His atonement laid the foundation stone of Trinity today. So many times, he managed to help us pull something unrealistic out of the bag and make the magic happen. His work ethic at times seemed superhuman and pushed him to breaking on several occasions. He was so stubborn in his dissent from that ladder, when it came to his retirement in 2016.

With his cynicism, it was like he hated all that busyness and insanity that gave the place life. When the lock-down started, the team joked that this was the Trinity Phil had always wanted. A quiet space with no people and the building all to himself. But, that was his trick on us - he loved the building’s life, he just never felt that he deserved to be a part of it.

During the Phil years, to walk in and see a weathered old man followed by his faithful hound, you just knew you had found somewhere where you could just be in spite of, not because of, your past self or any future expectations.

Trinity made him feel something in a space someone more poetic might call his heart. He felt enough of a sense of being part of the wonderment though just by being in the background as He who was both church care taker and care giver, whilst never permitting himself to fully become immersed.

For those who Phil hurt most - as for any victim of crime and their families - the worst thing to have is that sense of the perpetrator’s life being allowed to continue. The fear and anger that they are somehow able to enjoy that which they have taken from their victim. That they get to feel the warmth of the sun on their face.

The reality is much more complex. Even in our most joyous of times, Phil never basked in that sunshine. There was no absolution, just resolution and resignedness to a life in the shade. To paraphrase Indigo Girls (a band he loved) even if his sweat smelt clean, the glare off the sun would hurt his eyes.

Father. Husband. Functioning alcoholic. A mask that began to slip more and more with the passing of time. But, what never changed was a deep warmth and an unwavering loyalty beyond reason. Humour in the face of adversity. Cigarettes with Steve when there was nothing else. Amongst the glimpses of joy - guitars and fish and chips and T-shirts and Poppy - there were subsequent losses and drinking alone and fear and loneliness. Life meant life.

Love. There was so much love and hurt over past wrongs so damaging that they can never be set right, no matter how virtuous any subsequent action. Nevertheless, he was deeply loved by his Trinity family. We reflect on the life of a person who touched and changed lives dramatically and catastrophically. We respectfully mourn and pay tribute to a one of a kind man who inspired us to work hard and do better, knowing he could never be forgiven.

Sometimes there can be no forgiveness. But, in that space between life and death is where we find community. A space for the misfits and the troubled. Beyond the warmth of our family and our friends, a sense of belonging that is unconditional.

That he has passed during such particularly challenging times gives us greater cause for reflection. If a criminal can become such an outstanding citizen then we can hold onto hope that good grows out of even the most darkest of moments. That one might work toward a better future they might not be part of, but which still very much exists because of the part they played.

Restoration if not of a soul, at least of a building that is still very much here. A space for love, life, death and reincarnation. A place of radical inclusiveness, helping us to see that grace extended - even if it is felt to be undeserved - can take us all to somewhere better.

Phil. A reminder that who we are at any one moment does not define us. After all, we can always choose to change ourselves.

Big love always

Emma x

In these challenging times, Trinity and Cambridge Junction have come together to offer a £3,000 commission to a D/deaf or Disabled Artist(s) to create work for an online audience.

We will commission one new piece of work and want the brief to be as open as possible, so you can respond in a way that best suits you as an artist. We welcome artists of any practice, working in any art-form, to apply.

We want to commission:

• A brand-new online performance/exhibition that can remain available to experience for a set period of time – we want people to be able to experience your work safely from their homes

• One artist who identifies as D/deaf or Disabled, or a collective of artists where at least 50% of the collective identify as D/deaf or Disabled

• Work that will be completed and distributed online before the end of October 2020

Photo Alexa Ledecky

Photo Alexa Ledecky

Trinity has been selected to be one of 40 community arts centres to take part in Here and Now, a national and local celebration of culture within communities running alongside the National Lottery’s 25 year anniversary.

The Trinity Digs project will enable Trinity to host and support more community activity at the centre. Photo Paul Blakemore

We have been awarded a grant of £231,818 from Power to Change to deliver ‘The Trinity Digs Project’ to carry out capital improvements to the site so can host and support more community activity at the centre.

“We want to make sure Trinity’s ongoing development continues to be shaped and informed by those who use it. As part of the project we’ll be running a community activity programme so that people can get involved, have their say and kick-start their own ideas. More news on this coming soon - watch this space” Glyn Everett, Chair of Trustees and local resident

The project will install customised container-units on site, to provide affordable, low-cost, sustainable hot-desk space as a base for community partners, emerging artists and local start-ups. Improvements to the ‘Graffiti Room’ will also mean more activities can be hosted, such as neighbourhood meetings, rehearsals and workshops.

Match funding has been generously provided from local funders including The Nisbet Trust, who have donated £20,053 toward the capital project, alongside generous donations from members of the public. The project has also been supported by Derbyshire Environmental Trust who have supported with a grant of £28,315 towards costs of the container units. A £25,000 individual gift and a grant of £7,624 from the Postcode Local Trust to improve accessibility to our community garden.

The design scheme was produced thanks to support from Backstage Trust who helped us to revise and update our Feasibility Study, 2018-2019, to work out the next priority for capital works. Alongside the capital works we will be helping support people who have ideas within the community to get involved and set up their own initiatives through the Community Kick Start Project. We are particularly interested in working with small voluntary and residents groups with limited or no budget to support getting new ideas off the ground.

Set up to grow and support community businesses in England, Power to Change provides grants to community businesses run by and for the local community. Our aim through the Trinity Dig’s Project is to continue to invest in the Trinity Centre as a key cultural and community asset, and to build a varied and sustainable participatory community arts programme, that reflects the interests of Bristol’s diverse communities and cultures.

View the latest Trinity Digs plans on www.bristol.gov.uk planning portal application ref: 21/05771/F

Open to any disabled adults over 18 in Bristol and the surrounding areas.

Creative Challenges are short creative tasks that help everyone become more creative! Each challenge is different, and helps you think of different ways to do something creative. We'll have a selection of challenges for people to choose from, and lots of different materials to use. You can make pictures using card, fabrics and glues, draw  in ink and pencils, and even write poetry!

Art, writing, discussing, making, drinking cups of tea and creating!

Free refreshments

No need to book, just pop-in!

To find out more please contact the WECIL team on 0117 947 9942 or email peersupport@wecil.co.uk

WECIL Peer Support activities are free and transport can be provided.

Upcoming dates:

Nov 28 1 - 4

Jan 30 1 - 4

In their annual report of 1978, BCCE chairman writes "our aims and objectives are clear - a centre for youth and community activities; the philosophy is a multi-racial multi-cultural centre. The project is part of this community, and if it is to progress then the community must believe in it." (As quoted in Venue Magazine, no.70).

1 July 1978 - 'Trinity Community Institute' as it was then named - is officially launched, with a grand opening to coincide with St Paul's African-Caribbean Carnival to reflect the group's drive to embrace and celebrate Caribbean culture. The Centre is used every evening of the Festival week.

20 September 1978 - Official notice is given by the Church Commissioners that an Order in Council came into operation on 21st December 1977, allowing Holy Trinity building and its land to be used as a community centre.

October 1978 - The Easton Christian Family Centre newsletter contains an update on Trinity Church building: "The old Holy Trinity Church has been taken over by the Caribbean Community Association, who are a division of the West Indian Community. They have made extensive alterations, putting in a stage in the main auditorium for a theatre, and changing the side aisles into separate small rooms. The vestries have been changed into offices. They are currently negotiating plans to turn the graveyard into a large play area including tennis courts."

In 1992 Trinity was reopened by the New Trinity Community Association.

The new tenants and a dedicated team of volunteers began a second round of development and renovations, which included the installation of the sprung wooden floor downstairs.

In 1991, almost a decade after the BCCE group ceased to exist, the new landlords Bristol City Council leased Trinity to the New Trinity Community Association who reopened the building as 'The Trinity Hall' in 1992.

The new tenants and a dedicated team of volunteers began a second round of development and renovations, which included the installation of the sprung wooden floor downstairs.

It was under this new management that Trinity would again gain international fame, playing host to the biggest domestic and international music stars of the time. This helped to bring Bristol to the world's attention as a creative melting pot with its own distinct flavour - The Bristol Sound.

As well as the successful music nights there were also daytime community activities from bingo madness to a boxing club, the two levels provided a much needed space for local people's use.

Designs were produced by Architect Daniel Pacaud, which at the time caused great controversy with the Church Commissioners Advisory Board for Redundant Churches, who felt that the proposed works compromise the architectural heritage of the space.

The Church was at the time considered to be one of the finest examples of the work of Architect Thomas Rickman, who built the church between 1829-1932 with Henry Hutchinson.

Pacaud's plans for conversion, involved the installation of a dividing floor. But, despite the Church Commissioners' discontent, the build project went ahead.

The images found show this development in full flow and include pictures of a visit by politicians - including a rather young looking Kenneth Clarke - to see first hand the "Community Initiative" in progress.

Works included:

• Installing the first floor and sprung wooden floor on the ground level
• Repairing many of the windows which had been smashed over the years
• Cleaning the exterior sandstone, using a sandblasting method, to remove graffiti and pollution dirt

However, the costly process meant that many of the works proposed by Pacaud - particularly the developments of the upstairs hall spaces - were eventually abandoned.

Today, Trinity continues to renovate and develop the space to try to avoid any further compromising of the interior and realise this original vision to make a multi-functional community hub.

"Although the very fine interior of this church would be ruined by the proposals as the building now belonged to the local authority Board members felt that it would be a waste of time to try and say it by fighting a rearguard action. It was RESOLVED: That the Church Commissioners be informed that the Advisory Board regards the church of Holy Trinity, Bristol, Diocese of Bristol, as a building of considerable architectural and historic interest with a fine interior that would be entirely compromised by the present proposals for conversion to a community centre" - Church Commissioners Advisory Board for Redundant Churches, June 1987.

Jan 21-22 Arts Opportunity Theatre staged 'Black & White in Colour' in 1983. The play explored causes of the St Paul's Riots in 1980.

Trinity Centre during the Festival of Light event in 2018 Photo Khali Ackford

This year Trinity will not be hosting our annual fireworks display.

Having run the popular free community event since 2004 this year we have decided to take a well earned break to focus on developing our Community Activities programme.

Our newly announced Community Kickstart project will launch on the Nov 3 during our very first Community Feast.

We are calling local residents who have an idea and the passion to start an activity (BS2, BS5) to join us for a hearty veggie meal (cooked by our friends at CoExist Community Kitchen) and to find out more about how to get support and small amounts of funding to get their ideas off the ground.

We also have lots of regular activities happening in our garden including Play & Learn Sessions for 0 – 5 and their carers, as well as regular volunteer work. You can always join us on the Nov 5 at our annual Heart & Soul Celebration as we welcome members, friends and supporters for an evening looking back at all the wonderful events, projects and activities that took place at Trinity in the last year.

This is a great opportunity to ask us any questions about getting involved with Trinity and how to get your own ideas or projects off the ground and out in the community.

During the celebration we will welcome resident artist Roxana Vilk who will be sharing her project 'Lullabies' and our Communities team will be running an easy drop in workshop to create bird feeders. Plus, there will be food from Pieminister who have kindly donated vegan and veggie pies.