penzance school of art, museum and science school

PZArts CIC – Our Story

Born from a shared belief that these fantastic buildings deserve a bright future.

A little background on how PZArts CIC got started with a carosel of updates on the project to Save Penzance School of Art buildings.

In April 2025 the owners of the buildings announced that they planned to sell the buildings. Having studied and taught in the buildings for many years, two tutors knew the potential of the site…and so they developed a proposal, spoke to other projects in Cornwall about their journeys (and to find out if the ideas they had were even possible) and formed a CIC in a bid to save the buildings from going to the open market. The buildings’ owners loved the idea and agreed to not put the buildings on the open market while the CIC worked on developing the project and raising funds for the purchase.

main studio Penzance School of Art

The buildings house some spaces that are operational in a basic sense, however to deliver a truly outstanding community offering there is a lot of work to do. Right through from immediate remedial work to the fabric of the build needing attention to internal reconstruction to comply with fire regulations. This is not just a case of buying a set of buildings and away we go, but it is a long term project that involves consulting with professionals, planning for a future and securing funding to make it happen. All to ensure that these wonderful buildings do not end up in the same situation in a year after purchase.

Community led purchase is a long road – no one is going to just hand over a whole load of money with out hard evidence of a well thought out plan of how their investment can make a difference to a community.

Successful, sustainable, sympathetic, community heritage regeneration takes time.

It’s difficult to show all that goes on behind the scenes here – we reassure you that despite us all having jobs and families, we are working flat out, voluntarily to make this project happen. When we embarked on this project we really had no idea about the amount of work, how many new skills we’d need to acquire and how hard big projects like this can be – despite it all being a great idea. We hope that the little carousel below will give you a flavour of some highlights of what we have been doing (scroll though using either the arrows either side of slides or the dots below).

April 2025 - proposed sale of buildings
May 2025 - meeting held with buildings' owners and proposal put forward
Jun 2025 - PZArts CIC formed
Late June 2025 - crowdfunder launched
June and July 2026 - presented to Penzance Town Council and Arts and Culture Committee
August and September 2025 - first interview with BBC - made to to radio, tv and web
July - September 2025 - various grant expressions of interest and full applications submitted
October 2025 - Ceramic bust sculpture launched
November 2025 - application for AHF project viability submitted
February 2026 - Presented project to West Cornwall Arts Society
February 2026 - Acceptance and onboarded for AHF Project Viability Grant
May 2026 - building condition survey complete
May 2026 - Phase one of work with architect
Mid May 2026 - alternate bid submits proposal to purchase the buildings which prompts a deadline for final offers
June 2026 - with thanks to volunteer Kat new website launched
June July - Filming and editing a piece all about the project and the buildings
July- August 2026 - Updates coming soon!
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What these buildings stand for and what they promise …

Heritage

Built in 1880 the first art school west of Bristol. In 1886 an Art Museum (later to become the town Library) was added – the Newlyn artists has their first exhibitions here. in 1889 a Science School was added.

Education

From 1880 – 2025 These buildings housed arts and crafts education in all forms. The science school taught local people metallurgy and metal from mines was assayed here. Part of the buildings became the town library which supported education in Penwith in many ways. We are on a mission to bring this back.

Community

This trio of buildings are a place of deep civic pride for Penwith. They have served our community for nearly 150 years. The have the potential to offer the community a unique blend of reinvigorated art education, practice, celebration and community spaces.

Creative Opportunities

In a world that is increasingly moving towards tech tools we know that a space to learn, practise, celebrate, connect and thrive in the old way is needed.

A future full of possibilites.