The Rockfield Centre Project

In the opening statement of the business plan, it states that The Rockfield Centre will be:

“a cultural hub, which will operate as a social enterprise, celebrating culture and heritage whilst also embracing enterprise and community wellbeing“.

This statement reflects the input from the local community and the things that are important to all of us.

Let’s break it down a bit and explain what a few of these terms mean in this context.

Hub: The Rockfield Centre won’t be just one thing – it’ll be the place where lots of different things come together. It’ll be more than the sum of its parts.

We expect the Centre to be home to lots of different groups, enterprises and organisations. It will be a meeting place and a social space, somewhere to exchange ideas and plan collaborations.

Social enterprise: The Rockfield Centre will do some things that generate income, such as running the car park or renting out space to other organisations. Being a social enterprise means that any profit that’s made will be reinvested back into the Centre for the benefit of those who use it and for the wider community.

Culture, heritage, enterprise and community wellbeing: These are the four big themes that came up again and again when talking to the local community. Let’s take them one by one.

Culture: The narrow definition of culture usually means “the arts” – visual art, music, dance, literature. We’re using the wider definition of culture – it’s sometimes said that culture is all the things that exist around you that make you who you are. So it includes the arts, but also crafts, traditions, language, food, hobbies and more! The Rockfield Centre will be a place to explore our local culture and to experience other cultures.

Heritage: History can seem like a distant thing – heritage is more up-close and personal. It’s the local history that relates to us, to our town and communities, and they way they lived in the past. Culture and heritage are sometimes combined into something called “cultural heritage“, which can include tangible things like old buildings but also intangible things, like memories, oral history, old songs and craft techniques.

Enterprise: In some ways, this is another word for business and links into economic regeneration. We hope that The Rockfield Centre will be a home for small, local start-up businesses, where individuals or groups can take an idea and develop it into something that creates jobs and wages for people in the local community.

Community wellbeing: This includes our physical and mental health, and also includes things like happiness, loneliness, isolation and confidence. We believe The Rockfield Centre can have a positive impact on each of these things.

As well as all of the above, The Rockfield Centre will see a historic building preserved and revived for the use of the local community. There will also be lots of benefits to local tourism, which has knock-on benefits for the town.

The Rockfield Centre is offering something new and exciting for Oban:

A welcoming community space for all

Spaces to be creative with arts & music

All-weather heritage exhibitions

A place to support wellbeing for everyone

Performance spaces for visiting artists

Co-working spaces for creative industries

Office space for small organisations

A venue that opens doors to help young and old to learn, enjoy and be part of, for many generations to come!

Have a look at our website and Facebook page to see what's happening.