The Tottenham charity announced in May it would need to “pause” some of its work amid a funding shortfall.

There was also a backlash from some tenants last year after rents were increased by as much as 42%.

However, last week (September 25) the centre’s interim director Sunita Pandya-Malik held a public meeting to unveil the centre’s future plans.

Both Sunita and Geoffrey Williams, the centre’s chair, said it had “potentially moved away” over the last 12 months from a “hyperlocal focus” and this was something they wanted to return to. 

Sunita said: “The last few months have been about stabilising the business and taking stock of what the priority list is and what we need to do.”

The centre plans to reopen its cafe from December 1 to provide a local warm space and offer free ‘holiday’ and ‘festival’ programming. It also plans to improve the site’s signposting to “bring people in”. 

Sunita said: “It’s worth thinking about the London Borough of Culture (a year of events hosted by Haringey Council in 2027). I  would love BGAC to be the hub of the London Borough of Culture, being the place where tickets are sold or presenting key pieces of work such as the Tottenham Literature Festival.”

She added: “I would also love BGAC to be thought about as a destination for key London events such as London Fashion Week or the Brit Awards.”

However, she said financial pressures had curtailed some of the centre’s usual operation. 

Geoffrey said: “Doing this gives us more scope to do the various things in our local community.  We are a charity, we need to make our revenue to then be able to do charitable deeds, so I think it’s that cycle that we need to get better at.”

Sunita also confirmed a new permanent chief executive would be in place by January or February 2026 after former artistic director Azieb Pool stepped down in June.

Sunita clarified the new hire would be a chief executive, not an artistic director, “from a cultural background” who would shape the business element of the centre. 

However, tenant Black Arts Production Theatre, which had to crowdfund to remain open after facing eviction due to the increased rents last year, said the community was “upset” and felt the centre had “the wrong emphasis”.

A member of the theatre group said: “I feel there was no consultation between the community and the centre. If you know Bernie, he’s about people. So for me it’s good to hear you speak about some of these ideas, but the board needs to take some responsibility for the condition we are in because it should never be like this.”

The theatre group’s co-founder, Andrew Reid, felt tenants had been “left out”. 

He said the centre’s community tenants, like BAP, “were competing with commercial tenants” for “increasingly expensive” theatre space and requested  “subsidies” to improve accessibility and BAP’s “working partnership” with the centre. 

Sunita said she would be meeting tenants in the coming weeks “to understand how to build these relationships”.

Andrew suggested a ‘community representative’ be added to the board to which Sunita said the centre was considering creating a “community advisory board” with “a wider group of five to six stakeholders who could talk across the whole programme” to keep tenants “more updated”.

Courtesy of Enfield Independent | What’s On