Photographer: Sarah Hickson, arts & health, take care group
welcome Firstly, thank you for your continued support as a patron of Farnham Maltings. Put simply, it has allowed us to do things that wouldn’t have happened without you. We are working with more people from every part of our community. But more than this, we value the encouragement your support gives the team. From my point of view we have only just begun to scratch the surface of what is possible. We remain ambitious and believe there is more we can do. Over the past year we have started to work with the Gulbenkian Foundation to explore the civic role that organisations such as ours can and could play in our communities. Pleasingly we were recommended to them as an organisation that is doing this work well, based in no small part down to the new things we are doing. Many of you may have heard me speak about wanting the Maltings to contribute to the shape and character of the town, to ensure that all of us thrive. One of the challenges is the perception that Farnham is an affluent, comfortable town without need. Which is no more true than Bradford is full of people with flat caps and whippets. I worry that this attitude will lead to complacency. To a view that the world was better in 1954 and that there is nothing we can or need to do to change it. This is not a view I subscribe to. I know the world is changing and we need to adapt and be inventive if we are going to be safe and happy. I also know that we face particular challenges living, as we do, in the shadow of London. So when I see the 50 plus elders meeting up on a Monday afternoon for a regular singing for the brain session, and hear from one lady’s carer that this is now the event that shapes her week, or when I see the 300 plus young people from every part of our community mixing and performing at Spark Festival, I know we are making a difference.