Mission: To create a vibrant, active and diverse community in the Fylde Coast area through positive, sustainable arts and cultural activities, tea and cake. Aunty Social wants to give people opportunities to meet new friends through positive arty activities. Aunty draws up a programmes of arts and cultural activities designed to bring people together and get them talking, whether it’s community cinema, art exhibitions, textile classes or craft nights, lets get people connecting, sharing their skills/interests and having a good time together. Cue History Lesson We started back in 2011 as a group of friends who wanted something fun, affordable and social to do. So we raided our attics, scoured our wardrobes and went off to a car boot sale to raise £30 for our first workshop. Since then, we’ve received funding from the Arts Council, Blackpool Council, Richmond Fellowship, Leftcoast and the EU Youth Initiatives but this is not the majority of our income. We really believe in sustainability and work hard to make sure than projects can pay for themselves or each-other. Fast forward 9 years and now we have a variety of projects on the go as well as online arts and culture magazine Blackpool Social Club and the Winter Gardens Film Festival. We’re still completely volunteer-run and led; we are super proud of all our volunteers who help us put on events and activities to a professional standard. We believe in paying artists fairly. So what does the future hold? Well, we’re keen to build on everything we have achieved. We want to employ someone to help us with the organisational and office work – hey, if we can do all of this on evenings and weekends, imagine what we could achieve if we had some admin help! All in all, we want to: - Offer the people of the Fylde coast even more great things to do. - Champion local creativity at all levels. - Be actively fair and equitable: using our voice to centre the marginalised.