UNVEILING '33': CELEBRATING LUTON'S ICONIC ARTS CENTRE AND COMMUNITY HUB
Luton Community Arts Trust Ltd, a charity responsible for the administration of a wide range of arts resources and progressive cultural provision from the mid 1970’s to the early 2000’s, housed at the iconic, groundbreaking and influential '33 Arts Centre', based in Guildford Street Luton, many professional artists, now with international reputations, who began and developed their careers at '33'.
Through its ongoing programme of community arts and youth work, '33' also touched and impacted on the lives of the local community, was a very important place for people to meet informally, and worked as a useful social facility for many combatting loneliness in a non-judgemental environment. It embodied social cohesion brilliantly in a vibrant multi-cultural town.
This collection of photographs, videos, memorabilia and interviews has been made possible through the work of the Accidental Archivist project which was funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Over its lifespan, '33 Arts Centre' nurtured local and national creative talent across contemporary visual art, film, video, photography, theatre, stand-up comedy and music through its free community arts projects, exhibitions, youth programme (SNAP) and accessible, multi-use facilities. These facilities included a theatre, music recording studio, video editing suite, gallery, photography dark room, rehearsal spaces and a vegetarian café.
'33 Arts Centre' was established against the backdrop of a challenging economic climate. But the arts and cultural sector in the seventies was also experiencing the heyday of the British Community Arts Movement - which emerged in the 1940’s as local attempts by artists to diversify the production and engagement of arts and culture and participation beyond traditional museums, galleries and venues.
If the ethos of both the British Arts Movement and '33 Arts Centre' was about making creativity, self-expression and learning accessible to all, then the project’s local, informal and collaborative approach to building a unique archive of '33 Arts Centre’s' work does justice to the centre’s original ethos which touched so many.
freshly filled in guildford street
I liked to be
at the 33
Arts Centre.
I went a
lot of times
and rhymes, there.
Mostly to share our show:
me and Nigel on guitar
and the after glow
and laughter in the bar
and a feeling of healing
and alive.
My visit number one
to 'The 33'
was to see
Scarlet Theatre act
out a cunning play
and that day
I thought the name
of the venue came
from thirty-three
being its capacity.
But in fact,
it was thirty-five.
— John Hegley