Mount Pleasant Media Workshop, which has over 30 years of developing community visual arts, says it won’t be able to continue beyond March in its current form because its grant is to be cut by the council.

“This is disappointing, but understandable in the face of local and national pressures on public finances,” Mount Pleasant Media Workshop says on its website.

MPMW is based at Mount Pleasant Junior School, and works city-wide offering arts projects to community groups, as well as open-access darkroom and computer facilities. It’s revenue funded by Southampton City Council, but says it makes 40-60% of its income from paid project work.

“We will have to close our community resource base and open access sessions, and stop other activities that the council fund,” says MPMW.

“We are currently exploring what we can continue to deliver that meets our aims as an organisation, which is financially viable, and which continues our 35-year contribution to the visual arts in the community in Southampton.”