St. Ives Youth Theatre - News Release
	Date:	11th January 2007
	Subject	Nationally Acclaimed Youth Theatre backs St Ives Corn Exchange Consortium
	Contacts	For press enquiries about St. Ives Youth Theatre, please contact Ian Lloyd on 07803 088185. More information about the St Ives Youth Theatre is available on www.siyt.co.uk

St. Ives Youth Theatre is backing the Action Corn Exchange Initiative to restore the building for long term public use. The Corn Exchange was always intended to be a focus for the local community - that means giving back as well as taking, and SIYT is committed to making a rigorous contribution to the effort to keep the Corn Exchange as a vital community centre for St Ives and the local area.

Commenting on the proposals to sell the building for commercial development, St Ives Youth Theatre Chairman, Phillip Cooke said “ Looked at in the broader perspective of all the available performance venues in the area, the Corn Exchange is an indispensable facility; the Town Council must realise by now that a St Ives without the Corn Exchange is actually unthinkable"

Despite it’s national reputation and acclaimed production at the Edinburgh Fringe, St Ives Youth Theatre is one of the few Theatre Companies nationally without a permanent home. “Without a permanent rehearsal and performance space,” said Mr Cooke, “SIYT will be unable to continue to have a profoundly positive impact on the lives and development of 60 young people every year.”

From it’s conception, the Corn Exchange was always intended to be a focus for the local community - that means giving back as well as taking, and St Ives Youth Theatre is committed to making a rigorous contribution to the effort to keep the Corn Exchange as a vital community centre for St Ives and the local area.

The medium of drama is a powerful force in enabling young people to make sense of the world in which they live and, equally importantly, how they can relate in a meaningful way to their world - the Corn Exchange as a venue and rehearsal studio offers the best opportunity to both reach out to young people and to entertain.

ACE is holding a public exhibition of the plans for the St. Ives Corn Exchange at The Free Church on Friday 19th January between 10am and 6pm and on Saturday 20th January between 10am and 4pm. The exhibition will show the work done to date and allow the public to comment on the ideas before a report is presented to St Ives Town Council in February. ACE will also be launching a Building Pledge Form, asking the public and local business to pledge money towards the refurbishment costs when the project reaches the construction stage.

Phillip Cooke commented, "The Town Council is quite right in being careful not to mortgage future generations by an imprudent short term financial fix to keep the Corn Exchange open; that said they must give ACE more time and encourage the application of lateral thinking and creative solutions,  because St Ives must not lose the Corn Exchange."

More information about the St Ives Youth Theatre is available on www.siyt.co.uk 

For further information about ACE (Action Corn Exchange) visit www.thecornexchange.org.uk

Ends 

For press enquiries for ACE, please contact Nick Dibben on 020 77 55 42 13
For press enquiries for St. Ives Youth Theatre, please contact Ian Lloyd on 077 10 80 84 88