Community arts venue to be given new lease of life

Unseen Arts co-founders Natasha Morley (left) and Lynsey Wells

A Grimsby arts organisation is to renovate and expand its facilities.

Unseen Arts, based on Auckland Road in the Kasbah area of the town's docks, will use two grants for the work.

The upgraded buildings will include a visual arts studio with ceramics facilities, an arts café and event space, and a renovated and bigger performance studio.

Unseen Arts co-founders Lynsey Wells and Natasha Morley said the grants – totalling nearly £600,000 – would "kickstart the transformation of our historic home" and ensure the building was "safe, watertight and ready to use".

Unseen Arts has received £437,741 from Historic England's Heritage at Risk Capital Fund and £150,000 from North East Lincolnshire Council's Partnership Schemes in Conservation Areas fund.

The community interest company, founded in 2024, offers classes, courses and workshops in aerial, performance and visual arts.

Hayden Dawkins, the council's portfolio holder for culture, said it was "good to see life coming back into the older buildings on our historic docklands".

David Walsh, of Historic England, said the restoration and reuse of historic buildings "is a key step towards the docks becoming a thriving area once more".

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