A message from Matthew Bannister
An update on the campaign. PLUS: can you help with fundraising?
Hello everyone, Matthew Bannister here.
I just thought I’d update you on the progress of our campaign. Thanks so much for all your messages and support on Facebook and Instagram. If you’re not already following us, just search for @savenottinghamnewtheatre.
Media coverage
I hope by now you’ve seen the widespread media coverage we’ve managed to generate about the sad loss of the theatre and its significance not only to past, present and future students at Nottingham University, but also to the creative industries which are such a massive success story for the UK.
As Richard Morrison wrote in The Times, the decay of the Nottingham New Theatre is symbolic of the wider crisis affecting higher education across the country and the apparent neglect of the arts and humanities at many universities.
Political lobbying
We are now moving on to alerting politicians, both local and national, to the closure of the theatre and its implications in the hope that they will add their voices to our campaign.
University response
But still Nottingham University won’t change their position. Here’s a quote from the latest email we received from Chief Operating Officer Chris Hunt:
“I am sorry we are not able to commit to prioritising the reopening of the former New Theatre. I understand the deep connection you and others have for the building but in the current financial climate we are having to make difficult decisions about where we focus our resources, assessing their contribution to our teaching and research activities and the needs of all our students.”
This echoes previous statements issued by the University and the letter we received from the Vice Chancellor.
Estates Masterplan
We know the University are working on a new Estates Masterplan, which we believe is due to be discussed at their Council meeting in September. Our first objective is to keep putting on pressure for the renovation of the New Theatre to be included as a priority in that plan.
Fundraising?
We are sympathetic to the massive financial pressures facing the university, so we offered to join with them in a fundraising campaign. We suggested that they could bring their charitable status, contact with the wider alumni community and fundraising expertise, while we could bring our committed and high-profile supporters and ability to generate media attention.
Frustratingly, they turned this offer down, saying they don’t have the resources to support such a campaign; yet another indication of their financial situation.
We have seriously thought about whether we could raise the money for the theatre alone, but there are many obstacles in our way: we are not a registered charity and therefore don’t have access to tax advantages or grants from trusts and foundations, we are not experts in fundraising and we don’t have access to the University database of alumni contacts.
Help needed
This is why we would really welcome some expert advice, so if you, or someone you know has experience of running fundraising campaigns we’d love to hear from you. Please email us at: savennt@gmail.com
If you have any ideas which we might have missed about how to move the campaign forward, again, please let us know. Finally, if you know someone with a spare £2 million that they’d like to invest in the next generation of creative talent, feel free to put them in touch.
Nottingham New Theatre at the Edinburgh Fringe 2026
The current Nottingham New Theatre students are staging two shows at this summer’s Edinburgh Fringe: Miss Thing by Molly Squires and If I See Him by Holly Howell.
Both are at Fringe venue 53, theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall, from 24th to 29th August. So, if you are at the Festival that week, please do drop in to show your support.
We’re all just as passionate about saving the Nottingham New Theatre as ever and we’re determined to keep working tirelessly to change the University position and explore every avenue to bring this vital creative resource back to life.
Spread the word!
Matthew