Britten Pears Arts’ £13.8 million capital program is set to deliver increased activities and sustainable practices for Snape Maltings.

This process is the next step towards the realization of the organization’s plan to create a sustainable and accessible creative campus. This will ensure that Britten Pears Arts’ buildings and sites have improved accessibility and comfort for everyone, are financially sustainable and help the organization on its path towards becoming net zero.

This work will also be transformative for Britten Pears Arts’ Community and Creative Health programs and will answer the call to  expand existing programs by adding new strands and collaborating in knowledge exchanges and partnership work. The first planning request will be submitted in mid-December and after a validation review by the Local Authority.

The application currently includes the modernization of the Britten Pears Building to enable increased levels of community use, an expansion of the Britten Pears Arts Community and Creative Health programs, and the installation of a new lift in the revamped studios. This work would start in Aug. 2025.

This would be followed by upgrades to the Snape Rooms in Snape Maltings and Aldeburgh, which would begin in late 2026.. Ten new bedrooms will be created at Snape Maltings for visiting musicians, arts practitioners and visitors.

Starting in Jan. 2027, is a series of upgrades to Snape Maltings Concert Hall. These upgrades will improve access, audience comfort, and programming flexibility, and will help reduce carbon emissions. There will be auditorium seating improvements, upgraded lighting, an extra passenger lift, refurbished toilets, and better kitchen facilities.

Flood Defense is also a top priority. The Alde and Ore Estuary Trust and the East Suffolk Water Management Board have secured funding from the Environment Agency for the Snape Maltings flood defense works and also to benefit the upper estuary communities of Snape, Iken and Aldeburgh. In parallel, landscape architects, Untitled Practice, will design improvements to outdoor public spaces and access routes. Work is due to begin in September 2025.

Britten Pears Arts’ Chief Executive Andrew Comben commented in a press release, “Our founders Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears believed in the power of the arts to connect and be useful to communities. Their vision for Snape Maltings as a Creative Campus is a magnet for visitors, audiences and artists from around the world and we want to make sure it can have an even more vital and sustainable future. Our Capital Programme will mean that existing buildings will be fit for purpose, efficient and help the organisation to achieve its mission. Not only will these works help more people enjoy our sites, as visitors, audience members or artists and performers, but they will help protect the future of this organisation, safeguarding existing jobs and creating new ones. We are enormously grateful for the support we have already received for the project and we still have money to raise, but these planning applications are an important step towards realising our plans.”

Britten Pears Arts intends to hold a number of open days for the public to be able to see the proposals in more detail at Snape Maltings. These events are planned for every Wednesday from 10.30 -11.30 am in Feb. 2025.

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