Sue Pritchard Loving tributes have been paid to a woman who worked tirelessly to bring the arts to Dorchester. Sue Pritchard, the first paid director of Dorchester Arts Centre, has died at home in Oxford aged 71. Until the mid 1980s, professional arts activity in Dorchester consisted of a programme of classical chamber concerts in Dorset County Museum and little else. Unlike most towns and cities across the UK, Dorchester had no arts centre building or coordinated programme of events and exhibitions. Sue was determined to make sure Dorchester had a substantial arts offering. Her husband Alan said: Sue s generous vision, tenacity and entrepreneurial vigour served the citizens of Dorchester and Dorset very well and she has earned their long-standing gratitude.
A MUSEUM has received a huge funding boost to support its bid to buy an internationally significant Roman mosaic discovered in Dorset and stop it from being exported. The Association for Roman Archaeology (ARA), a charitable organisation dedicated to fostering an interest in Roman archaeology and art among the general public, has awarded its largest ever grant of £10,000 to Dorset Museum to boost the venue s efforts to purchase the mosaic. As previously reported, the museum launched an appeal back in October to raise £135,000 to buy the piece which dates back to the 4th Century AD, and was discovered in the grounds of a Roman villa in Dewlish, near Dorchester, in 1974.
TWO performance and arts venues may be better than one – according to Dorchester councillors. They have welcomed a £1.5m cash injection which will help meet the cost of redeveloping the Thomas Hardye School Theatre and the town’s Municipal Buildings. Additional payments to the projects will come from the town council, Dorchester Arts and the school. The £1.5m comes mainly from developer contributions through the Duchy development at Poundbury, but also from other larger building projects in the town over recent years. Local councillor Andy Canning said the fact that the two schemes were going ahead was important for Dorchester, especially after the failure to attract Arts England backing for the proposed £12m arts venue at The Maltings in Brewery Square.