1 Projects Funded

Save the Tower

The Venue @ St Columba ltd

The Tower Cinema was in operation from 2014 - 2023 as a cinema and arts venue. It has been widely used by Helensburgh and surrounding area residents over the years. We now hope to purchase part of the building for the community and are in the process of completing stage 2 of our Scottish Land Fund application. Once we have secured the purchase of the building we intend to re-establish the provision of cinema for the community, showing latest releases, film festivals and live theatre streaming. We will also provide live performance in the main auditorium, including bands, theatre and talks. We plan to have a community enrichment programme focussing on the many groups that are routinely excluded and marginalised from cinema and arts entertainment. Helensburgh has a wealth of voluntary organisations that support such groups and we will partner with them. We feel very strongly that in providing a location for the community to experience live cinema and events, we save many hundred of journeys to facilities in Glasgow and beyond. This in turn will bring people to Helensburgh that will spend in other businesses in the town. We are looking to host a live event with a high quality band that would have wide appeal. The typical cost of this ranges from £1,500 - £2000. The McCommitments (the commitments tribute) is an example of the standard we would be looking to book. If successful with our grant from Heart we would hope that this fundraising event would generate between £3k - £3,500 for our project.