About Us
The Bureau Centre for the Arts is a grass roots community arts centre. We offer a wide range of arts and creative engagement programmes, activities, events and performances for people of all ages and backgrounds from Blackburn and the surrounding areas. Over the past eight years we have played an active role in the artistic and cultural life of Blackburn and Pennine Lancashire.
We are a place for people from the different & diverse communities of Blackburn (particularly those who historically face barriers to participation) to experience, share and create art and culture.
Our mission is to create a space for arts and culture in Blackburn which provides accessible opportunities for artists, participants and audiences and supports a vibrant and diverse creative community.
The team are passionate about affecting change within the borough in terms of the arts available to people, people’s perceptions of what the arts are for, and the benefits gained by their engagement.
We are experienced socially engaged artists, educators and producers who work alongside other freelance artists and facilitators and an active team of local volunteers and work experience students.
We are an arts and cultural venue which is run by, with and for our local community.
We hold exhibitions of local and emerging artists’ work and host theatre, poetry and music performances.
We are home to local dance, wellbeing and community music workshops, Bolton Music Service, Obscura Community Darkroom and Blackburn Festival of Light. We also have affordable studio, workshop and meeting spaces to hire.
The Bureau is
- a place to meet
- a place to belong
- a place to connect
- a place to volunteer
- a place to learn
- a place to experiment
- a place to perform
- a place to shine
- a place to exhibit
- a place to make a difference
Our Mission and Vision
We will offer a broad range of opportunities for people to engage in arts and culture, which is innovative, relevant to contemporary issues and to our surrounding communities. We will support the existing creative community and welcome new collaborators
The Bureau is a place of nurture, kindness and strength. We do not avoid the political impact of the power structures, policies and politics, which directly affect us as an organisation and our participants and communities.
We will behave in an ethical manner in terms of resources consumed, both in terms of the environment and in terms of people and capacity.
We will seek equitable access to our organisation, which builds on and develops existing understandings of diversity and equality.
We are part of a movement in our town aimed at making this a place where people want to stay, a place which is a vibrant and creative place to live and work.
We are members of APPL (Arts Partners Pennine Lancashire) a consortium of arts organisations in the area, and played an active role in drawing up the manifesto for the arts in Pennine Lancashire.