Our Vision

Our vision is for all children and young people to have their imaginations sparked and their wellbeing nurtured through a quality cultural education, regardless of their background.  

Our mission is to use the lifetime’s work of our founder, Academy Award winning costume designer John Bright, to be a catalyst for creative learning and inspire a new generation of imaginative children and young people to reach their full potential.

Our Offer

We offer a programme of life enhancing creative learning to children and young people, particularly those experiencing disadvantage.  The Barn Theatre is a 50 seat children’s theatre and workshop studio that presents inspirational puppet shows and theatre productions to children, young people and their families.  The adjoining museum showcases John Bright’s personal collection of period toys, puppets and theatre sets dating from the 18th century to the present day. 

Our programme includes school visits, summer schools, performance projects, cross-curricular learning, wellbeing retreats, volunteering, family festivals, skills training, and career support.

The majority of our work throughout the year is focused on schools and local groups. Our public activity happens mainly in school holidays and occasional weekends. 

We are committed to offering free access to schools, local groups and those who face barriers to participating in the arts. For our public programmes we operate a Pay What you Can scheme.

The Benbow Arts Space, located in the heart of St. Leonards-on-Sea, will be an exhibition and community arts space, and offer creative career training to young people. It will be opening in 2023.