St Swithun's, Worcester

Sound & Art at St Swithun’s is an exciting £2.8m project that will conserve, repair and adapt St Swithun’s church, creating a distinctive arts and cultural space in the heart of Worcester.

St Swithun’s is a Grade I-listed church in the heart of Worcester’s city centre and is a Georgian gem in a city renowned for its Georgian architecture. St Swithun’s is considered one of the most complete early Georgian churches in England, its airy interior is packed with original features, including a decorative plaster ceiling, box pews, gilded triple-decker pulpit and mayor's chair with sword rest.

Our vision is to create a truly inspirational space, which will creatively use sound and art to engage, enthuse and inspire our visitors.

In October 2017, St Swithun's was awarded a grant of £1.6m by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Made possible by money raised by National Lottery players, the funding will help to secure the future of the building. This project would not be possible without the Friends of St Swithun’s and all our partners, funders and supporters.

The Sound & Art at St Swithun’s project will:

• Repair and conserve a nationally significant building
• Install new heating, lighting and toilet facilities
• Interpret its heritage in new and accessible ways using sound, light and touch in an immersive way;
• Deliver an exciting programme of learning activities;
• Sound & Art at St Swithun’s will support and collaborate with emerging talent, giving new artists a creative space to trial new arts and enterprises and showcase work;
• During the conservation work and afterwards we will provide training apprenticeships and work experience in traditional craft skills and business administration to students and job seeker

Sound & Art at St Swithun’s will open in 2022. The impact and effects of CV-19 have meant we are delayed on site but our contractor and our professional team have been pulling out all the stops to keep things moving on. We are now looking at a deficit of approximately £374,000. We are still fundraising and every donation really helps get a step closer to completion.

Working with the local community and a diverse group of partners, we have ensured the future plans for the site are part of the wider cultural and heritage strategy for Worcester.

Email [email protected] if you would like to know more about the project, or get in touch directly with our Regeneration Team. When we relaunch there will an exciting programme of activities, events and performances. To keep up to date Follow us on Twitter , Facebook and Instagram.