Tŷ Pawb opening just days away – what can we expect inside?

Wrexham is now just days away from the official opening of one of the biggest projects and investments that the town centre has seen in years.

Tŷ Pawb, based in the former People’s Market, will see for the first time locally the merging of the OW Wrecsam and traders under the same roof in to what has been described as ‘a new cultural community resource for Wrexham’, consisting of arts, market stalls and community spaces.

So for those interested in finding out more about Tŷ Pawb, what can you expect from your visit to the development in the coming weeks?

The former market hall is unrecognisable from 18 months ago, with the area now spilt into several sections, including two galleries, a flexible performance space, a 100+ seater theatre space, individual market stalls, food and drink offerings, offices/studios and the art shop.

Visitors will see permanent and pop up market stalls, offering everything from arts and crafts, jewellery, hair and nail boutiques, haberdashery, vintage clothing, sweets and treats and more.

There will also be the chance to sit and enjoy a variety of food and drink from the Tŷ Pawb food stalls, with local vendors selling Welsh tapas, desserts and artisan coffee.

There is an huge new glass entrance from Market Street and refurbished access from Chester Street through the South Arcade and leading you through to Tŷ Pawb development.

The arts offering at Tŷ Pawb has seen the release of a programme of events for April – June; with ‘Is This Planet Earth’ kicking off the start of a series of exhibitions at the facility.

Made up of the work of ten different artists, the exhibition will explore what the earth might look like in future, with a strong focus on environmental and ecological changes. The exhibition will feature Wrexham-specific artwork, along with some pieces looking at global themes.

Wal Pawb is a large scale public artwork which has been created by Newcastle-based artist, Katie Cuddon, to ‘celebrate the coming together of the arts and market’ – and will be unveiled in April 2018 running through until March 2019.

Regular events and classes for the public will also take place, with back to basics drawing, life drawing and a Saturday art club currently scheduled to take place.

A soft launch and formal opening for Tŷ Pawb will take place on Thursday 29th March, but the main official opening event, Dydd Llun Pawb, is taking place on Easter Monday (2nd April) with a day-long celebration, parade and carnival taking place to mark the official public opening – with invites posted out to every house in the county borough.

The development has been more than four years in the making, with Wrexham Council announcing back in March 2014 that they had secured over £10m in Vibrant and Viable Places funding from the Welsh Government; some of which was allocated to developing the arts in the town centre.

There is often some confusion about the funding of the Tŷ Pawb development, with over £4.5m being invested from several sources – the largest chunk of the investment comes from Arts Council Wales who provided £2.3 million after a successful funding bid. £1.5 million has been provided by Wrexham Council and £700,000 from the Welsh Government Vibrant and Viable Places scheme.

The above pictures are from last month – and the below video is from December – and after peering through the windows in the South Arcade things have progressed well since then, and all will be revealed to the public shortly!