Christmas at Chapter Arts Centre #gofullcircle

This blog post is the latest part of our Winter ‘Go Full Circle’ campaign, which is promoting the role of – and encouraging consumers to support - Welsh social enterprises, co-operatives and other community organisations in the run-up to Christmas.

Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff is one of the most popular community arts venues in Wales, but did you know it was a social enterprise? Megan Price, Chapter’s Marketing Manager, has told us what Christmas at the venue is all about, as part of the Winter Go Full Circle campaign:

Chapter is one of the largest arts centres in Europe. We pride ourselves on a programme of ground-breaking, boundary-pushing, high quality international arts, but we never forget that the community is at the heart of everything that we do. Chapter is about people. Walk through our doors on any day of the week and you’ll see babes in arms experiencing their first live performance (Theatr Iolo’s sold out Out of the Blue – a theatre show for 6-18 month olds), young people rushing to one of the numerous dance classes that happen in our hire spaces, creatives meeting up to brainstorm their next big idea, the next generation of filmmakers sharing their work at our monthly MovieMaker screening, retirees taking in a matinee cinema screening, and that’s just the start.

Our Caffi Bar is a popular meeting place which has won numerous Observer Food Monthly awards and plays a key role in supporting the rest of what we do – every penny that we make from every coffee, burger or pint of ale goes straight back in to our programme, from the world class visual art in our gallery through to the film workshops we run in local schools and everything in between.

Christmas at Chapter is very different to Christmas at most other arts venues you will have been to – no thigh-slapping panto or blockbuster musical – but we do like to get in to the spirit of the season. We love classic cinema (naturally!) and you can join us to celebrate with Christmas favourite It’s a Wonderful Life (http://www.chapter.org/it’s-wonderful-life-u) and in the theatre we’re offering something a little out of the ordinary with Shock N Awe Performance Company’s adult only Christmas review (http://www.chapter.org/beauty-and-beasts) and Leftfield Theatre Company’s alternative take on A Christmas Carol (http://www.chapter.org/leftfield-theatre-company-humbug).

One of the things that we really love to do at Chapter is support and promote local artists, craftspeople and small businesses and so we’re kicking off our festive activities this weekend with some great Christmas shopping opportunities. On Saturday it’s all about unique handmade gifts at our Oh So Crafty Christmas Fair (http://www.chapter.org/oh-so-crafty-christmas) where you’ll find a host of lovely independent traders selling jewellery, ceramics, textiles and vintage clothes and on Sunday we host our annual Festive Food Fair (http://www.chapter.org/festive-food-fair) when we’ll be joined by local food producers. Our Festive Food Fair is also co-hosted by Green City events who will be running crafty workshops and a pedal-powered disco as well as welcoming a very special guest – Farmer Christmas!

We’re looking forward to a busy festive season and all the exciting opportunities that every New Year brings with it and we’d like to wish you the happiest of Christmases from the bottom of our hearts. Nadolig Llawen!

The organisation featured in this blog post is just one of many that you can support. Many more can be found on our Go Full Circle directory. Happy Christmas and ‘buy social’ J