Press Release: FOREST SAYS YES TO WEFUNDING PROPERTY PURCHASE
The Fringe is over, all the posters and crowds have gone and Edinburgh’s year-round, fringe venue is closing its doors.
The Forest is today beginning departure from Bristo Place, but is determined to return—this time as owners rather than tenants of the building. The volunteer-run open-access multi-arts venue and charity has launched a WeFund campaign to raise sufficient funds to allow it to buy their current location. The Forest will use the money raised as a deposit towards the purchase of the former Edinburgh Congressional Church. However, the charity won’t take the money from supporters’ bank accounts until a mortgage is secured.
The Forest has enjoyed a very busy August, with the Forest Fringe shows attracting rave reviews from critics at the Guardian, Scotsman and other media, and with shows winning awards included the coveted Total Theatre Innovation Award. The venue is a flagship Scottish social enterprise and charity and was recently described as “the saviour of the fringe.” Now the volunteers have decided to take a step forward and take control of their own future.
Ken O’Neill, one of Forest’s volunteer team, said:
We are currently in negotiations with financial institutions about securing a mortgage that would allow us to make a successful bid for Bristo Place. To help achieve that we need our friends and supporters to pledge financial support so that we can raise sufficient funds for a commercial mortgage. People should see this not as a charity donation but as an investment, helping to provide Edinburgh’s city centre with a community and arts centre. Forest is open to anyone to freely create, so if you help buy the Forest, you’re buying yourself an arts centre.
In return for their support and investment, individuals will receive presents depending on how much they pledge [see NOTES below]. We’re also very keen to hear from anyone with an alternative investment proposal for us.
The great thing about WeFund is that if we are unsuccessful in our bid to buy Bristo Place, then our supporters are not out of pocket. More and more art projects and events are raising funds through crowd-sourcing, but I don’t think the UK has seen as big a project as this before. This is another example of the Forest’s innovative ideas. If we are successful, we continue to care for and trade in our current home which is not very appealing for traditional property developers due to its Listed Building status and layout.
Rachel McCrum, a long-term Forest volunteer, said “This is not a charitable donation, but an investment in Edinburgh.” Referring to the Forest’s open access policy, she added: “When we buy the building, it’s yours.”
Ryan van Winkle, also a long-term Forest volunteer and Reader in Residence at the Scottish Poetry Library, said:
We have been proud to be a bright anomaly in a city centre filled with hotels, chain bars and similar looking cafes. The Forest shows everyone that a different way of life and community is possible, that our cities, like our lives, can be vibrant, unique and diverse—that people can work together to make something grand. We need to continue to be a beacon in a cookie-cutter, ever more homogenised world.
The Forest has sought to find a permanent home since former landlords the Edinburgh University Settlement (EUS) was declared bankrupt last year. Recent developments have created the opportunity for the venue to purchase its home of the last eight years. People can pledge their financial support for the Forest via WeFund.com (http://www.wefund.com/project/help-forest-cafe-buy-bristo-place). WeFund, which was founded last year in response to the current austere funding of the arts, is the UK’s first crowd-funding platform that focuses on creativity in all forms. They aim to make arts patronage into a retail experience, with people visiting the site as a consumer, before returning as a backer and possibly a creator as well. The Forest’s campaign is the largest project WeFund has supported to date. People can support the the Forest’s future regardless of buying the building by donating via the charity’s JustGiving site (http://www.justgiving.com/theforest/Donate).
SUPPORT
Award-winning and best-selling author Neil Gaiman said:
The Forest is a welcoming, wonderful, arts-friendly space. It’s unique, and its loss would be a small tragedy for Edinburgh.
Daniel Kitson, comic and winner of the 2002 Perrier Comedy award, said:
The Forest is exhilaratingly independent and truly wonderful. I saw a man climb to space in their lobby and did a show there at 10 AM where they handed out free porridge. It is a tremendously special place where peculiar and magical things happen and is run almost entirely on love, passion, social responsibility and artistic commitment
Jason Webley, an American experimental folk musician, said:
Places like the Forest are perhaps the secret hearts of cities throughout this world. They provide refuge for different ways of thinking and as such are the wombs where new generations of artists are often born. The Forest in Edinburgh is a particularly magical and important example of this, injecting a bit of actual “Fringe” into that beautiful city for the past eleven years.
Sabrina Mafhouz, poet, comedian and Creative in Residence at The Hospital Club, said:
The Forest is an essential part of the unique and wonderful character of Edinburgh. It acts as an essential venue for all those interested in the alternative and leads the way with exciting artistic discoveries.
Sxip Shirey, an American composer, performer, and story-teller, said:
The Forest evolved into something special for the Fringe. Even though I was performing weekly at the Famous Speigeltent, I would make my way to the Forest to see what was going on there and to perform myself. The Forest holds the spirit of the Fringe intact. It is a keystone to the original spirit of the event that has made your city famous. I cannot tell you enough how important the Forest is. It is venues like the Forest that keep art alive and evolving from the bottom up. The Forest is your city’s keystone, the evolution to it’s arts. Every great art scene has those places that you an artist can develop in.
NOTES
- People who donate via WeFund will receive the following Forest gifts:
A pledge of £5 or more receives a signed postcard from Forest artist Magda Boreysza.
A pledge of £50 or more receives a Forest Goodie Bag.
A pledge of £250 or more gets a private performance by musician Billy Liar (www.billyliarmusic.com).
A pledge of £1,000 or more receives free coffee for life from the Forest, whenever the pledger visits the Forest.
A pledge of £1,000,000 or more receives a Forest volunteer who will provide a year’s service.
- Forest will also pick people from a virtual hat to receive a random gift provided by one of the wonderful artists and musicians associated with the Forest.
The Forest is one of Edinburgh’s last remaining open-access multi-arts venues, and has become a multi-award-winning Fringe venue (The Forest Fringe). The volunteer-run charity operates an art gallery, theatre, performance and rehearsal spaces, a darkroom, a publishing house, a swap shop, a record label, a hairdresser and a thriving vegetarian cafe. A detailed press pack about the Forest’s work is available online (http://www.theforest.org.uk/forestpresspack.pdf).
The Forest has successfully raised over £32,000 to secure its future since October, when Edinburgh University Settlement (EUS), who owned 3 Bristo Place, were declared bankrupt and forced into administration. Previous publicity and information about the campaign to help ensure the Forest’s future is also on the website (http://blog.theforest.org.uk/savetheforest).
The Forest Fringe’s full programme is available on their website (http://www.forestfringe.co.uk/festivals/edinburgh-festival-2011/).
For the latest updates from the Forest, or to get involved, visit the organisation’s web site at http://www.theforest.org.uk/ or contact fundraising@theforest.org.uk.
CONTACT
The Forest, 3 Bristo Place, Edinburgh
http://www.theforest.org.uk
Harry Giles
Fundraising Officer/Media Contact
fundraising@theforest.org.uk
07766-191817