The Stage

DCSF helps Oxford’s Pegasus achieve fundraising goal

Published Tuesday 9 December 2008 at 13:20 by Lalayn Baluch

Oxford’s Pegasus Theatre has reached its £6.3 million fundraising target thanks to a major grant from the Department for Children, Schools and Families, enabling it to embark on an 18-month redevelopment scheme.

The organisation - established to house the Oxford Youth Theatre in 1969 - was one of 21 projects across England to receive cash from the DCSF as part of the Myplace programme, which aims to create safe places for young people to get involved in activities and seek advice from adults.

The £1.85 million funding from the government department, along with backing from Oxfordshire County Council, Arts Council England, local trusts and foundations and theatre patron and author Philip Pullman, will subsidise the modernisation of the building. This will include demolishing dilapidated workshops, renovating the auditorium, and creating a new backstage area. A new foyer and bar, youth-led dance studio, and administrative offices will also be constructed.

The first stage of the work will begin in January, and then the venue will close in May until late 2010 to allow the main building work to be carried out. The scheme is being led by architectural firm Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios.

Pegasus Theatre chief executive and artistic director Euton Daley said: “Young People have been intensely involved in every aspect of this redevelopment project - from fundraising to design - not just because they want to see the worn out post-war sheds in which they work replaced, but because they want the new Pegasus to keep the qualities they value like quality, professionalism and ownership.

“This is a fantastic opportunity for all of us and a leap forward for young people in Oxford.”

Theatre spokesman Gill Jaggers explained that the cash will also fund the venue’s programme of work, including new outreach projects for young people from the most disadvantaged areas of Oxford, run in collaboration with the county council.