Moving towards a truly sustainable and accessible creative campus.

Our transformational Capital Programme will ensure that we are able to deliver increased activities for all our communities, to enhance lives and improve health through creativity. Our buildings and sites will have improved accessibility for everyone, are financially sustainable and help us on our path to net zero carbon.

We are following in the footsteps of our founders, Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, to ensure that the arts are useful and available to everyone.

Drop-in Sessions

We'd love to hear your views on the plans to achieve our vision.

Every Wednesday in February from 10.30am–11.30am in the Maltings Gallery at Snape Maltings, you can meet the team and see the proposals.

We look forward to welcoming you.

Highlights of the Capital Programme include:

1. The modernisation of the Britten Pears Building, first converted in 1979, to enable increased levels of community use and the expansion of our community and creative health programmes. A new lift will be created to ensure that everyone can use the revamped studios. Work is due to start in August 2025.

2. A series of upgrades to Snape Maltings Concert Hall, the first significant works since 1999, to improve access, audience comfort and programming flexibility. There will be auditorium seating improvements, upgraded lighting, an extra passenger lift, refurbished toilets and better kitchen facilities. Work is due to start in January 2027.

3. Britten Pears Arts will significantly lower carbon emissions by installing roof insulation, photovoltaic panels, and by connecting the music buildings to a renewable heating system.

4. Working closely with the Alde and Ore Estuary Trust (AOET) and the East Suffolk Water Management Board (ESWMB), the Snape Maltings flood defences will be raised to protect the site against a 1:200 year event. In parallel, landscape architects will design improvements to outdoor public spaces and access routes. Work is due to start in September 2025.

5. There will be a new visitor exhibition at The Red House and a Discovery Centre at Snape Maltings, to tell the rich stories about the two sites.

6. As well as improvements to existing artist accommodation at Snape Maltings and in Aldeburgh, ten new bedrooms will be created at Snape Maltings for visiting musicians, arts practitioners and visitors.

Please see full details of planning, timings and engagement within the latest press release. We are enormously grateful for the support we have already received for the programme. We still have money to raise, but these planning applications are an important step towards us realising our plan. Read more in the East Anglian Daily Times.

We will be launching an appeal to our donors and members in 2026. If you would like to contribute before then, please get in touch with Emily Stubbs: estubbs@brittenpearsarts.org or Alison de Zoete: adezoete@brittenpearsarts.org. There will be naming opportunities for various elements of the project.

Updates and information will be shared with you as the programme develops further. In the meantime, we hope you will share our excitement about these transformational improvements.

For more information please email capitalprogramme@brittenpearsarts.org.