News and events
Heritage restoration expert appointed to guide next stage of Ron’s Place project
We are pleased to announce that we have engaged Kate Dickson, director of Creative Heritage Consultants, as Heritage Project Organiser on the restoration of Ron’s Place. A trained architect with 25 years in the sector, Kate will bring her expertise in the conservation and creative re-use of challenging historic buildings to develop a plan for…
Affordable flats for local artists
Central to the work of Wirral Arts and Culture Community Land Trust is the desire to developaffordable community-led housing for artists based and living in the Wirral. The house in Silverdale Road, where Ron’s Place is, will offer three flats to locally-basedartists who are looking for affordable housing. We will have two one-bedroom flats and…
Funding secured for Ron’s archive
In great news, we have secured funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund to begin to shareand preserve Ron Gittins’ heritage. Over the next year, we will recruit and train sixvolunteers to digitise a selection of Ron’s vast archive which includes source materials forhis art, sketches, paintings, sculptured objects, photographs and handwritten notes, some insecret code….
Media Coverage
Listing announcement – 2024 BBC One – Breakfast, 5 April BBC Radio 4 Today Programme, 5 April BBC Radio Merseyside, 5 April The Guardian, 5 April, p.9 Metro UK, 5 April, p.3 Telegraph.co.uk, 5 April BBC Online, 5 April Mail Online, 5 April Mirror.co.uk, 5 April ITV.com, 5 April Sky News, 5 April Standard.co.uk, 5…
Ron’s Place is the first ‘Outsider Art’ environment to be listed in the UK
We have some incredibly exciting news to announce: Ron’s Place has become the first Outsider Art environment to be listed in the UK. Over the past few days, we have been taking local and national media for tours of his extraordinary ground floor flat in preparation for today’s announcement. As followers of this website will…
To List or not to List?
Historic England’s Advisory Committee visits Ron’s Place Martin Wallace, Wirral Arts and Culture Community Land Trust (WACCLT) trustee and advocate for Ron’s Place reports: ”Despite the unusually snowy conditions in Birkenhead, today (16th January) I had the pleasure of showing Ron’s Place to members of the Historic England Advisory Committee (HEAC). This was a continuation of our…
‘All about community’ award nomination
WACCLT is honoured to have been nominated for the Community Land Trust Network‘s ‘All About Community’ award presented on 25 November. We’d like to congratulate the deserving winners Hastings Commons – as a relatively new organisation ourselves we can learn a lot from their hugely inspiring story.
Ron’s Place gets festive!
Wirral MakeFest’s Relax and Make Christmas Green 2 December 2023, 11 – 4 at the Williamson Art Gallery & Museum, Birkenhead The Ron’s Place team will be encouraging visitors to make collaged Christmas cards and gift tags using recycled materials, very much in the spirit of Ron. A selection of artefacts from Ron’s Place will be on…
PROGRESS REPORT FROM RON’S PLACE
We’re glad to report that the building containing Ron’s ground floor flat is now covered in scaffolding so that essential repairs to the roof and walls can be undertaken. This comes as a huge relief as we head into winter. Things have felt frustratingly slow since the heady excitement (and exhaustion!) of campaigning and subsequent…
INSPIRED BY RON’S PLACE exhibition
Future Yard, 75 Argyle Street, Birkenhead, CH41 6AB. Launch: 13 April, 5.30 – 8pm (RSVP below). Exhibition continues until mid May 2023. Although the doors of Ron’s Place are currently closed to the public while we hatch plans for conservation and refurbishment, we’re thrilled to announce a fabulous #InspiredByRonsPlace exhibition hosted by Future Walls Gallery at Birkenhead’s…
RON’S PLACE HAS BEEN SAVED!!!!
Just in case you haven’t heard the news:RON’S PLACE HAS BEEN SAVED!!!! We’re still a bit dazed after the thrilling events of yesterday which many of you will have read about in The Guardian or seen and heard in the news. Having handed the keys back to the landlord on Tuesday – with the horrifying…
EMERGENCY! The owner of Ron’s Place is selling!
Some of you will have seen on social media that things are a bit challenging at the moment – the owner of the building that contains Ron Gittins’ incredible art environment has decided to sell up. WE DESPERATELY NEED YOUR HELP NOW We had hoped to lease the building for a year to run some…
Get ready for IMAGINATE
Get ready for IMAGINATE, a fantastic festival of art and music for all on Sunday 25 September at Birkenhead’s brilliant Future Yard in support of Ron’s Place with Bill Ryder Jones, Beija Flo, Silent K and Dancing to Architecture; spoken word from Sam Batley and Roy; exhibitions and workshops from The Caravan Gallery, Casey Orr‘s Saturday Town portrait studio, Bluecoat’s Blue room, Convenience Gallery and Neston High School Maker Space. Our film…
JARVIS FUNDRAISER IN LIVERPOOL – ALL PROFITS TO RON’S PLACE!
Jarvis Cocker in Conversation: Good Pop, Bad Pop Fri 30 Sep 2022 PLAYHOUSE £13 – £26 Join legendary musician and broadcaster Jarvis Cocker live in conversation to celebrate the publication of his highly regarded new book Good Pop, Bad Pop. Jarvis will be discussing his unique life, Pulp, 20th century pop culture, the good times and…
News Update
August 2022 Over the last 33 months, we have continued to raise money to pay Ron’s rent and council tax with the aim of eventually purchasing the whole building through Wirral Arts and Culture Community Land Trust, the organisation set up for this purpose with saving Ron’s Place as our flagship project. We have been…
Ron’s Place on the BBC
“Legacy of colourful artist who transformed Birkenhead flat”
WE HAVE LIFT OFF!
Friday 10th Dec saw the official launch of the Wirral Arts and Culture Community Land Trust aka WACCLT at Birkenhead’s fantastic Future Yard venue. The aim was to tell people what we are about, why they should support us by becoming members, and also to guide them to our lovely new website where we’ll keep you…
Wayne Hemingway becomes patron of WACCLT
We are delighted to announce that Wayne Hemingway is now patron of WACCLT. Wayne is an English designer and co-founder of Hemingway Design and Red or Dead. He is also on the Design Council Trustee Board, and having been with the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) for a decade since its inception…
Launch celebration
Come to our special event to celebrate the launch of WACCLT. There will be music, chat, special guests, an opportunity to talk with members of the WACCLT board and a membership offer. Find out more about our plans, how you can get involved and help us create a better Wirral through creative growth. Entrance is…
Building the new website
We’ve been beavering away on the new website for a while now, getting it as ready as we can in time for the launch next month. You’ll quite probably notice a couple of gaps here and there, even after it’s fully live, but we’re on it! We will be adding more content as time goes…