Arts & Culture
Rob Collier, Curriculum Manager, left, with performing arts students Erin Marlow, Atlas Wright, Phoebe Newman-Moore and Amber Crawford; music students El Grist, Kris Thubron, Torin Croisant and Zeph Brailey; and music teacher Tim Jackson.
Published: December 18, 2023 | Updated: 18th December 2023
A Southampton sixth form college says an £80,000 grant will transform its hall into a hi-tech professional performance venue for students and eventually the public.
The grant, for Richard Taunton Sixth Form College, has come from the government’s Local Skills Improvement Fund.
It aims to help education providers like the college to teach the skills identified as lacking in the area in the Local Skills Improvement plan, drawn up by Solent LEP (now Solent Partners).
Some of the grant will fund a professional standard lighting rig, control desk and sound system for the college’s main hall as well as upgrading sound and lighting in its rehearsal spaces.
Rob Collier, Curriculum Manager, said the primary reason for applying for the grant was to give performing arts and music technology students the opportunity to work on industry-standard equipment to prepare them for a professional career.
He added: “We want them to get the opportunity to work with the best equipment when they are here so that when they go into the industry the kit they have been learning on will be at least as good as the technology they will be working with.
“They will be training on the best quality equipment we can offer.
“In all areas we need to be giving our students the best opportunities by investing in them and giving them these top-quality facilities to work with.”
The college plans to launch a new T-level media and broadcast production for the 2025/26 academic year.
T-levels combine classroom teaching with industry placement.
The new equipment, due to be installed over the course of the next academic year, will eventually mean the college’s hall can be hired out as a public performance space for theatrical productions, gigs and lectures.
The college plans to make further grant bids to fund retractable seating and dedicated changing facilities.
Angela Berry, Richard Taunton’s Principal, said: “I’m delighted for all of our students and the community in general that we will be getting this equipment and upgrading the hall, it will become a fantastic performance space.
“We have some incredibly talented students who are already flourishing here and these new facilities will help take them to a new level.”
