Theatre company Frân Wen plans to transform the old St Mary’s Church on Garth Road in Bangor into an arts, culture and community hub dedicated to young people.

Nyth, which has been developed with young people and for young people, will include flexible creative spaces, workshops and small-scale performing spaces that will be used for a range of activities.

Frân Wen purchased the former church in August 2019, At Stage 1 they conducted a Feasibility Study to establish our needs and to test various aspects of the brief. A lot of this work involved talking with our young people, artists, and the companies and organisations they work with.

At Stage 2 they developed the design concept to ensure that building could work for the theatre company and the community. During this time further consultations with residents, young people, artists and other partners, were carried out.

PREPARING FOR PLANNING

Having gone through the first two stages which included feasibility studies, land purchase and design concepts, the project is coming to the end of stage 3 which is when Frân Wen hopes to submit the planning application.

A timeline of the project can be found on www.franwen.com/en/events/nyth/

COMMUNITY

With the help of its communities, artists and partners, Frân Wen aim to submit the planning application by the end of July 2020. But before it does, it would appreciate initial thoughts and comments to help it better understand the needs of the communities as they plan their program of activities.

The survey should take less than 5 minutes to complete: www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/W8NLPKH

THE NEXT STEPS

Stage 4 is about developing the information required to build Nyth – the nuts and bolts. The design team and the construction company will work side-by-side to ensure everything is in place for the build phase.

Stage 5 is where you will see the start of the building work to transform the old church into an accessible and welcoming and environmentally friendly hub for young people and our communities.

Stage 6 will be the opening of the doors and encouraging the community to come in and explore the new home.

The project has been supported by

  • The National Lottery through Arts Council of Wales
  • The Architectural Heritage Fund
  • Welsh Government Targeted Regeneration Investment Programme