Page 4 - link magazine

The Link Magazine 9 August 1998
4
Culture there to be found
Terry Court, former Thamesdown Borough Council arts and cultural officer comments on whether Swindon can be regarded as a city
Swindon is a community based lection of 20th Century British Art It seems to me that there is a ships in development. I believe
on hard work, quality achievement and, throughout the seventies and certain lack of insight and a strange the growth of business enterprise
and caring for others. The strength eighties, saw one of the leading type of misguided intellectual and arts opportunities will move
of Swindon's culture is not cos- Community Arts movements in prejudice, which, in reality, is ig- forward in equilibrium and all the
metic. At its roots lie human en- Britain. It has built its culture on norance, from people who look at dreams of heritage and local mu-
deavour and a network of activity action, people doing it for them- Swindon and make jibes. Admit- seums, gallery, concert hall as part
throughout the town. selves and others. Its heritage is a tedly, Swindon isn't refined, with of a cultural civic centre will come
The Mechanics Institute, the es- solid philosophy of inventiveness beautiful buildings, though it has to pass as the town inevitably
tablishment of one of the first li- and imagination. some, that outsiders can swan in moves towards city status.
brariesin the country and the medi- Swindon's character was origi- and out of and stare at. Personally, I hope the Mechan-
cal fund - a model for Bevan to nally forged from fire and steel, a But Swindon is a good place in ics Institute, where it all started,
follow - were groundbreaking. strong work ethic but with a search which to establish a home. To will also soon regain the support it
Swindon had the first munici- for something deeper. Today, al- know it, you have to look beneath requires from those who have the
pally funded Arts Centre, set up though the detail has changed, the the surface. It is a place built on the power to revitalise the building.
the very important Swindon col- essence remains. rock of inner beauty, with very In my mind, Swindon has al-
few inherited natural gifts. Though ways had the strength and convic-
strategically placed, it has had to tion of a city. You find more civic
forge its own path. enterprise here than in towns twice
Since the days of the great, uni- the size. Swindon achieves every-
BLINDS SALE fied vision of Alf Bown and Murray thing it sets out to. Without a
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