Digital Journalist Rochdale is undergoing a significant cultural transformation at the moment. The famous old town hall has recently reopened after a refurbishment, and it’s landmark theatre the Heywood Civic is the subject of redevelopment. On top of this, Touchstones Gallery and Museum is also getting a significant makeover.
This refurbishment work is to help develop the venue into a vibrant part of the borough’s cultural district, and is being made possible by funding both external and internal. Advertisement Advertisement Did you know with an ad-lite subscription to ManchesterWorld, you get 70% fewer ads while viewing the news that matters to you. There is a lot going on at Touchstones, and to explain just what is in store and to outline the importance of the redevelopment, Director of Arts, Heritage and Wellness at the venue Mark Bolton told all to ManchesterWorld.
Mark is Director of YourTrust, which is a Rochdale Boroughwide cultural trust which oversees this kind of work in the area. Mark sits on the senior leadership team for the charity, but his specific responsibility is the arts and heritage service. This includes Touchstones.
Mark said: “It’s a major renovation of the entire building, which is Grade II listed. The last time it had any real refurbishment was the early noughties. I’ve been here eight years and when I joined in 2016 some of the spaces were becoming a bit tired, still well loved and well used but needed a refresh.
“A plan developed to see what we might want to change and improve in the building and we were successful with funding from Capital Funding Stream which is through Arts Council England but money from the DCMS. Since getting the green light we’ve been working to fine tune the designs up until May/June this year when we handed over to the contractors who have been appointed for the work. Advertisement Advertisement “In terms of changes, the DCMS funding has been used on the ground floor and the basement.
We’ve since managed to find more funding internally to make changes to the first floor, which is where the exhibition spaces and gallery are. Whilst we’re knocking the rest of the building around we might as well do some work here, too.” Although lots is going on behind the scenes, Mark added that whole new areas are being constructed within Touchstones for the public to enjoy.
“The areas that the public will be hopefully wowed by will be on the ground floor. There, we’re creating a new live performance space. We’ve never had this before, so we’ll have a programme when we reopen of music, dance, theatre and community generated productions.
“It's a flexible space with seats that can be moved back and the space can be used for more things. As you’d expected from a sustainability perspective, we’d hope to get some income for these spaces through private hire. We’re also hoping that the community also uses this space and uses it for activities we want to see happening there.
We’ve had performances in the building in the past, but it’s been about adapting spaces that weren't dedicated to it. Advertisement Advertisement “Next to this space is where the old museum was. We’ve ripped that out and we’re going to replace it with a new collection experience.
Telling new stories that hopefully reflect the rich diversity of the local community. We’re in the middle of working with groups to decide what the collections will be in that space, but the overarching theme will be food. “There will be stories told around food, some literal but others explaining what food means to them.
The storytelling will combine with the food experience and we’re hoping for it to be an immersive experience for visitors. It’s going to be new and experimental, not without its challenges.” There is going to be an emphasis on people being able to get stuck into creative projects at Touchstones.
This involves the chance to really get your hands dirty. “We’re also creating a clean making studio, and we’re also having a messy studio which will have a kiln and printmaking facilities in it. We’re creating a digital studio space with podcasting recording capabilities, so that’s all really exciting.
On the furthest end of this we’re fully modernising a space that will split into two rooms. In one of these we will deliver our formal schools programme, and on the other we’re hoping for it to be the new home for Pinc College. Advertisement Advertisement “This is a college that delivers classes to neurodivergent students aged between 16 and 21.
We have a long standing relationship with them, and they’ve been in the building since lockdown and we want to give them a permanent home. This is the basement and ground floor covered by DCMC. “The spaces on the first floor will remain as exhibition spaces, that’s what they were made for and they’re beautiful.
So we’re just going to be modernising them. We’ll be improving the electrics up there.” A centuries-old discovery is going to have a big part to play in the future of Touchstones, with Mark pleased that it was there to be found.
“We also want to change the conditions up the stairs too. One of the nice stories is that normally this would need to be done through mechanical engineering, which isn’t necessarily very good for the environment. However we’ve discovered that the clever Victorians had put in a natural air ventilation system that had been boarded up over the years.
We’re reinstating this in the hope of being able to control the temperature up there without a big amount of energy consumption. Advertisement Advertisement “At the moment as a team we’re busy focusing on what we need for touchstones, but our trust is also redeveloping another one of our sites - Heywood Civic- so we have a lot on our plate at the minute. It’s all part of the investment that is coming into Rochdale that there probably hasn’t been much of in the past that goes into our cultural heritage.
We’re a priority place with the Arts Council, which means that they’ve acknowledged that we haven’t had as much money for development as some other places.” It’s an exciting time to be involved in cultural heritage projects across Rochdale, and Mark pointed out that having the town hall around the corner has helped to add to this. “There are loads of changes going on to Rochdale Town centre, and then of course there’s the town hall redevelopment- the hall is located just across the way from us.
It just reopened after a redevelopment, which is magnificent. There have been other changes outside that building, and yeah it is a really exciting time. We’re fully aware that we’ve got our heads down doing what we need to do, we know that Touchstones sits as a part of a wider cultural renaissance that is going on across the borough.
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