Komedia’s Richard Daws Visits Parliament

Back in 2002, Komedia Brighton, a live entertainment venue in the centre of the city that had become a vibrant cultural and community hub, featured in a government report the then Labour Government released through a similar group called the Civic Trust. That report outlined how town and city centres needed to evolve and the presence of arts centres and community hubs acted as the catalyst for regeneration and offered masses of benefit to residents. That report inspired Komedia’s owners to look to open a second venue Komedia Bath in 2008, where they converted a derelict grade 2 listed cinema into a mixed use live entertainment venue. A business that was successfully transitioned into community ownership in 2019 with Crowdfunder UK. Daws attended the meeting and a committee room adjacent to Westminster Hall to share these experiences, the challenges Komedia had met and what impact the arts had on the cities it operated in.

The session outlined success stories from around the country, including Sunderland and Bromsgrove, where the Architectural Heritage Fund had backed projects. The common factor in all the case studies was that MP’s, local councils and the creative professionals had all worked together to create transformational change. At the end of the meeting Daws noted that alongside Komedia being at the centre of regenerations in two cities,  that he had recently been involved in the successful campaign to halt the proposed demolition of the interior of AlexandraTheatre.org Newton Abbot. He was able to thank the Architectural Heritage Fund for the development funding they have provided for the newly founded Community Benefit Society. A group formed out of the Teignbridge creative sec