Falmouth’s arts and cultural centre, The Poly, is celebrating after being awarded two grants from National Lottery funding to support several community projects this summer.

The Poly said it would use the Art Council funding to deliver a community pottery project, take its Guild makers shop and exhibition spaces online and launch a heritage project to collect Poly stories.

Sue Radmore, chair of trustees, said: "We are so pleased that we have been given the opportunity to connect with our community in these strange and difficult times. This has only been made possible thanks to public funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

"We hope to reach hundreds of individuals of all ages and backgrounds through these projects. We’ll be providing free access to a creative outlet through our community pottery project, promoting the brilliant work from our local arts community, and connecting with our members and audiences to preserve their memories of The Poly."

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The BFI FAN Covid-19 Resilience fund will also allow the organisation to hire an additional administrator to help support an audience survey and focus groups to look at what the community would like to see when the cinema doors are reopened.

Further updates on these projects will be posted on The Poly’s website – see www.thepoly.org for the latest.

The Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society (The Poly) is a charity that promotes engagement in the arts, sciences and Cornish history through film, live events, exhibitions, lectures and workshops.

The Poly’s roots are in artistic and technological innovation and local industry and it is based in an iconic listed building in the heart of the town.

It is the guardian of locally, nationally and internationally significant collections of heritage archives and many of the works of Henry Scott Tuke.