Open Today

Councillors had their private viewing of the new Canolfan Crefft/Craft Centre on Friday and the Centre welcomed selected locals for the first time on Saturday. And now it’s the turn of the general public, in five hours’ time in fact.

We thought we’d commemorate this occasion as best we can. After all, nothing appeared in the local newspapers. Instead, The Free Press actually chose to lambaste Rhuthun’s prestigious diadem. Let’s hope the next issue makes amends.

It’s been 16 months in the making, it over-ran slightly and it cost £4.4mil, including a grant of £3.15mil from the Arts Council for Wales. As such, Rhuthun has benefited from what is the largest arts grant made in North Wales—ever. The Welsh Assembly Government contributed £680,000 and Denbighshire Council some £480,000.

The ageing former Craft Centre needed repairs in excess of £¾ million. The likelihood of a grant for refurbishment was slim, which meant owners Denbighshire council would ordinarily have had to meet the bill. Proposals for a new centre resulted, and thankfully were well received by the WAG and the Arts Council of Wales. The result is an all-new arts space around an inviting focal courtyard.

The new Canolfan Crefft features three galleries, a retail gallery and two residency studios. There’s an educational facility, for which funding’s now in place for an education officer. There are six studios for rent and the centre welcomes back Neil Dalrimple in one of them.

The centre will also feature Wales’ second ‘Cultural Gateway’. The other’s in Aberystwyth and a third’s planned for Caerdydd. There are short audio-visual presentations within the gateway, promised to be novel in nature, plus an information point. This isn’t the tourist information centre we once enjoyed but we’ve had time to get used to the idea of a reduced tourist info point during the sales gallery’s temporary relocation to Well Street.

The café, known as Café R, is to be managed by Crown House who’ve relinquished their manufacturing facility at the rear of the Eagles to prepare food for both their sites at the Craft Centre. Café R’s expected to offer food at something of a premium compared to Well Street and, unlike in town, not all the food available will be prepared in house. This is understood to be owing to the size of Café R which, at over 70 covers, makes it the largest in Rhuthun and over double the previous centre’s café.

If you want to learn more about the Craft Centre, you can visit it between 10.00 and 5.00 daily, from today. It’s expected to feature on Radio Four’s arts programme Front Row, either tonight or on Tuesday evening, both at 7.15 p.m.