Vision of culture for town (From Free Press Series)

Vision of culture for town

A VISION for Monmouth as a thriving town of art and culture for all has been put forward by Monmouth Partnership Forum.

The group's dream is to have a thriving community arts programme and an institution of higher education to help keep young people interested in staying in the town.

The partnership, now in its third year, and representing most of the important groups in the town, is keeping to its vow of looking up from mundane issues to pursue ideas that will make Monmouth one of the best places to live in the UK.

The ambitious visions for the future of Monmouth were discussed by the forum at their recent meeting where one of the most intriguing proposals was to bring higher education in some form to the town.

Chairman David Evans said: "Monmouth is already a town dedicated to education, it makes sense to complete the picture with an innovative establishment of higher education.

"This is just a wonderful vision for the future, our own campus providing higher education for our own young people, but you could be part of making this long-term vision happen."

At the same meeting the members of the forum decided that it was very important to build on the community spirit engendered by the bridge party, which proved that big community events are something that brings the whole town together.

The forum are looking at how the town of Monmouth, which owns one of the biggest archives of Nelson material in the UK, can come together to celebrate the anniversary of Trafalgar.

Mr Evans added: "A spectacular re-enactment is probably a bit ambitious, but perhaps this might be possible."

If you have some good ideas, or are just interested in helping the Partnership, contact Alastair Robertson on 01600 71578 or e-mail qwest@btconnect.com