Bury Sculpture Centre

I've just returned from the opening of the Bury Sculpture Centre.

Sculpture Centre Floor

I can honestly say, it is stunning. It is a large white space with spectacular flooring. I heard tonight that the under lit glass tiled floor, set into a parquet floor, had been discovered when the carpet had been taken up. It was covered in 10mm of screed that had to be carefully removed. The underside had been painted so it was quite a restoration job.


There has been a lot of controversy about the Sculpture Centre, as the floor space was part of the library. Changes to services had to be made due to Government cuts, and Arts Council England gave Bury a huge grant towards setting up the centre. Bury was seen to be ideally placed for such a project, not least because of its proximity to The Irwell Sculpture Trail. Tonight there were protesters outside, but I would say "give it a chance". The space was being changed anyway and I truly believe it will attract more visitors, which has to be good for the town.

Text Festival

The opening exhibition is The Text Festival. Along side this is The Drawing Shed, where visitors can use a variety of old  typewriters, with their writing later being incorporated into the exhibition space.

I listened to speakers from Arts Council England and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park (one of my favourite places) speak about how they were working with The Sculpture Centre, and how the people of Bury should be proud to have such a centre on their doorstep. It may take a while, and I'm sure critics will be doubtful about the opening exhibition. However, I visited Musee du Quai Branly in Paris last October and I found The River, which was a moving display of text, amazing.

I love art and sculpture, even though I know nothing about it! For years I took Mr Tottington Life

The Drawing Shed

around fabulous art galleries wherever we visited. A turning point in our relationship came when we were coming down the steps after visiting a gallery in the centre of Cologne (I think it was Museum Ludwig). I had been in awe of the huge Andy Warhols. He declared he actually hated being taken to places like that, he always had done, and only tagged along to keep me happy! Since then I've tried to limit art gallery visits (we still go) but sculpture tends to keep us all happy because such a lot of it is outdoors.

I really hope The Sculpture Centre is a huge success. People don't realise that this isn't the first innovative art idea for Bury. For over a year art has been taken to exhibitions as far away as China. The people at tonight's opening show that there is interest and Bury is being taken seriously. This is this week's article in the Manchester Evening News.

I Will If You Will

In January, during a visit to the new Children's Centre in Tottington, I saw a poster for an I Will If You Will Burlesque class.

In May 2013, Bury was named by Sport England as the location for an intensive year-long sporting experiment to get more women and girls active and tackle the gender gap in sport. £2,383,778 of National Lottery funding was secured, with the council beating competition from other towns. I'd seen a few changes being made throughout the borough. Outdoor gyms were being built in some areas, but unfortunately not in Tottington. However, Tottington did have an outdoor table tennis table constructed in Town Meadow playground.

I thought it was all a great idea, but I never thought to give any of it a go. Seeing the burlesque class advertised though changed all that, and I turned up for the first lesson in January, dragging a neighbour along with me! It was brilliant. Great fun, good company, and good exercise thrown in too. The Bury Times even came along and wrote an article on the class (here is the article). I publicised the classes on Twitter and more people did start to turn up. I was delighted when I was asked to be an I Will If You Will Champion, to encourage others to join in and become more active. Here is a link to my webpage on the I Will If You Will website.

Unfortunately I haven't been to burlesque for a few weeks as my job changed, meaning I wasn't at home as much during the day when the class was on. I already had the bug by then though. I can honestly say that whoever does the I Will If You Will PR is doing an amazing job. I invested in a super duper pedometer that I always have with me. If I've had a particularly sedate day I'm much more likely to go out for a walk later on to get my steps up. I get a big thrill from hitting the sought after 10,000 steps during a day.

The biggest change was that I re-joined the gym. It took me a few weeks to take the plunge, but I haven't looked back. I haven't lost even a pound, but I have re-discovered cross trainers and exercise bikes. I have also progressed from the small, lovely and warm leisure pool to the 23 metre proper pool and regularly have 25 minutes in there. The gym has better showers than my home one so that is an extra reason for me to go!

I'd encourage anyone to give it a go and attend one of the I Will If You Will sessions. There is something for everyone, from walks, jogs, pilates, boxercise, yoga; all levels of fitness are catered for. A mobile pool has even opened at Broad Oak Sports College, with women-only sessions and swimming lessons.

On the 12th and 13th April, there was a fitness party at the Castle Leisure Centre. There were free events for people to try, and even a crèche to give people the chance to join in. For more information click here.

The next Fitness Party is at the Longfield Suite on Fairfax Road, Prestwich on Sunday 11th May 1pm-3pm.

Have a look and see what you fancy. It can't do any harm, and I can assure you it is great fun!