August 2026 Round Up

September is here! Can you believe it? While The Pound Arts Centre may have been working at reduced opening hours over August, we wanted to assure you we haven’t spent the summer idly. Here’s what we’ve been up to …

FUEL Summer Camp

Over the course of three weeks, we opened our doors to school children eligible for free school meals as part of the HAF programme. We provided attendees with a free breakfast and lunch every day they attended while also facilitating arts workshops with the children even getting to display their work in The Pound Arts Gallery. We were delighted to have over 120 attendances throughout the camp and a further 84 attendances for a special show, performed by storyteller Gav Cross, specifically for FUEL families. We would like to say a massive thank you to all of our wonderful camp leaders who gave up their time over the course of the summer camp – you’re all incredible.

The PBS Dance Summer School

We were delighted to once again host our friends at PBS Dance as they ran their annual summer school which brought 50 young dancers through our door and culminated in a spectacular performance sharing for family and friends at the end of the week. Congratulations to everyone who took part.

The Pound Youth Theatre Summer School

We welcomed a further 30 young people to The Pound for a week at The Pound Youth Theatre summer camp. Participants spent the week playing theatre games as well as writing and devising their very own shows to perform to friends and family at the end of the week. There was a dance off, mermaids, and absolute chaos – we wouldn’t have had it any other way! A massive shout out to our camp leaders Ben and Otti for their exceptional work throughout the week.

S.E.N.D Workshops and Shows

Throughout the summer holidays, we hosted 7 workshops for S.E.N.D families, some run by us here at The Pound and funded by Inclusive Wiltshire, some run by the Inclusive Wiltshire team. Storyteller extraordinaire Gav Cross was back at The Pound and performed his show Tell Tale Twit specifically for S.E.N.D families with over 40 attendees. A massive thank you to Inclusive Wiltshire and Gav Cross for helping this all come together.

Workshops for M.O.D Families

Over August, we facilitated 3 workshops for young people belonging to M.O.D families across Lyneham, Colerne and Neston with over 50 attendances across all three workshops. Thank you to everyone who cam along and made each day extra special.

Calne Wordfest 2026

We also supported Calne Wordfest alongside Gav Cross’ cousin, Father Christmas, who has taken up a summer job selling ice cream (and telling some fun jokes and stories to his punters). In one day across three parks, Wordfest were delighted to have 228 attendees, and The Ice Queen Van gave out over 140 free ice creams! A big thank you to Wiltshire Council, Wiltshire Area Board and Calne Lions for providing everything needed to pull this off.

WOMAD Festival 2026

Pound Arts was absolute thrilled to take part in this year’s WOMAD Festival at the end of July. At our arts and crafts tent we helped festival goes create over 100 zines, a parasol for the children’s parade, 15 wonderous woven textiles and over 50 plate weaves. A huge thank you to everyone who helped out and who visited.

So, the summer programme may have been quiet, but The Pound Arts Trust was most certainly not! With a packed programme starting this weekend, with film, theatre, live music and family show, alongside a new exhibition, Touch, we're looking forward to welcoming everyone back into our building!