Following a call out to singers from choirs and ensembles across the region, a Britten Pears Arts pop-up choir, conducted by Ben Vonberg-Clark, gave a special performance at the Aldeburgh Food & Drink Festival at Snape Maltings.
Gathering beside the reed beds, the choir sang from the Act 1 chorus, from Britten’s Peter Grimes that has a powerful resonance today: ‘O tide that waits for no man, spare our coasts!’ This musical moment aims to draw attention to the profound changes taking place along the area’s coastline, and the threats facing coastal towns and villages in the Alde and Ore estuary region, including Snape Maltings.
Britten Pears Arts is raising awareness of the region’s particular vulnerability to flooding and coastal change, and to the communities, landscapes and cultural heritage at stake.
Britten Pears Arts is raising funds for its flood defences at Snape Maltings, as part of this wider call for attention to our coast’s future.
Having raised £14.1 million for major improvements to the Britten Pears Building and Snape Maltings Concert Hall, fundraising efforts are now focused on raising £3.6 million for flood defences and air cooling to protect the site against the impacts of climate change. In December 2013, 27 properties in Snape village were badly flooded by high tides, including The Crown pub, and Snape Maltings was perilously close to major inundation. For many years it was planned that Snape Maltings would be protected by a comprehensive estuary-wide scheme, delivered by the East Suffolk Water Management Board and funded in part by the Environment Agency. However, the wider project has suffered challenges and delays, and there is currently no major public funding available for raising defences. With full support from the Alde and Ore Community Partnership and the Alde and Ore Estuary Trust, who work together on a plan to build resilient estuary defences in the area, Britten Pears Arts has now taken the decision to pursue an independent scheme and has recently received its activity permit.
Britten Pears Arts’ Chief Executive, Andrew Comben said:
“We want to raise awareness of the profound changes taking place along our coastline and the growing risk of tidal surge flooding facing Snape Maltings and communities across the region. We are now focused on securing the remaining funding needed to raise the Snape Maltings flood defences and protect this special place for future generations. Every contribution, however small, can help make a difference. Once complete, Britten Pears Arts’ Capital Programme will realise our plan to create a truly sustainable and accessible creative campus. Our founders Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears knew the importance of the Suffolk landscape as a fuel for creativity and believed in the power of the arts to connect and be useful to communities. Their vision for Snape Maltings as a creative campus remains at the heart of this work, ensuring more people can enjoy this remarkable place for years to come.”
Funding for the Capital Programme
The Britten Pears Arts Capital Programme is supported with public funding from Arts Council England, and trusts & foundations, including Paul Hamlyn Foundation; 29th May 1961 Charitable Trust; East Suffolk Council Rural Business Investment Fund; East Suffolk Council Rural Business & Community Hub Fund; The Foyle Foundation; Garfield Weston Foundation; the Wolfson Foundation; the Clore Duffield Foundation; the New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership; the John and Penelope Lebus Trust; the Vanneck Charitable Trust and an anonymous charitable trust. The Alde and Ore Estuary Trust funded the business case to the Environment Agency which enabled surveys and development work for the Snape Maltings scheme.
Individual donors include Wendy Bostock, Charles & Pascale Clark; Angela & John Crowther; In memory of Stefan T Edlis; Matthew Greenburgh & Helen Payne; Keith & Frances Griffiths; Margaret Hyde, Peter &Veronica Lofthouse; Angela & Lawrence Mallinson; Lindy & Mark O’Hare; David Robbie & Fred Goetzen; Garth and Lucy Pollard, Simon & Victoria Robey; Clive & Eileen Schlee; Alan Swerdlow & Jeremy Greenwood; Sarah Zins; Paul & Sybella Zisman and other anonymous donors.
Further information about the campaign and how to contribute is available from Emily Stubbs (estubbs@brittenpearsarts.org).
