Last month, The Public in West Bromwich experienced its busiest ever month with 42,633 people visiting the venue – up 44% on May 2012.
The much loved and increasingly popular arts centre, widely used by the whole community, attracted visitors from across Sandwell and further afield.
Throughout the Whitsun break, The Public’s hands-on, creative workshops were enjoyed by hundreds of families from across the region, with participants having fun exploring new artistic techniques and learning new skills. Activities ranged from computer game design and video making, to playing with giant building blocks, painting and drawing.
During the month the Black Country venue saw the return of the Now We Are Weekender, attracting music fans from across the country, and welcomed award-winning comic, Robin Ince. Members of the local community flocked to The Public to attend regular events such as the fortnightly Tea Dance, Arts On, a health and wellbeing community arts group, and West Bromwich Writer’s Group.
The Public also welcomed a diverse range of community-wide events during the month, with Sandwell Council holding a ‘Living with Dementia’ open day, and the Murray Hall Community Trust launching SHIELD – Sandwell’s new emotional wellbeing service.
May also saw the opening of new exhibition, Ordinary/Extra/Ordinary, providing an exciting opportunity for Sandwell residents to see highly acclaimed work by internationally recognised artists such as Tracey Emin, Martin Creed, Jeremy Deller and David Shrigley.
Linda Saunders, Managing Director of The Public said: “We are absolutely thrilled to be able to announce a record breaking number of visitors this May. It’s fantastic to see how many regular supporters we have from Sandwell as well as increasing numbers of people from all over the country who are visiting for the first time.
There aren’t many places locally or nationally where visitors can come along and see comedy, music, get creative, or get to see their work displayed alongside Turner Prize winning artists.
This June we are on course to attract our one millionth visitor, marking a huge milestone for us. We look forward to the opening of the New Square Development this summer, when thousands of more people will be able to discover West Bromwich and The Public.”