Community event & exhibition at Brindley Theatre

Published: 22nd Oct

The Danny Steam Tugboat at the Brindley

School and community events and exhibitions

The Danny is back in Runcorn, with an event-filled November at the Brindley Theatre. The volunteers who saved the Danny have always wanted to put on a ‘thank you’ event for the support the Danny has had from the people of Halton and from Halton Council. We are also keen to celebrate the Danny’s historic links with Runcorn, and to demonstrate our intention to make the Danny work as a community resource for the area.

Throughout most of November, the Brindley gallery is hosting an exhibition that offers a short introduction to the Danny’s history and showcases the artworks produced during the first encounter between local schoolchildren and the Danny.

On Monday, November 12^th, at the Studio theatre in the Brindley, the children will be hosting an event at 2pm presenting their take on the Danny as well as showing people round their exhibition.

In the evening, the volunteers are hosting a community event which starts from 5pm, when the exhibition and the bar are open to the public. At 6pm, the audience are invited into the studio for an introduction to a one-hour screening of the Danny film, which is a moving testament to the people behind the saving and restoration the Danny steam tugboat, the last one of her kind. After the screening, there will be a Q&A with the volunteers and an opportunity to see the exhibition with them.

Tickets for all events are available from the Brindley box office on 0151 907 8360.

The schools were recruited to the project through the Halton Primary Arts Network, which seeks to improve opportunities for children in the borough to create and showcase their artwork, building their confidence and self-esteem in the process. Thanks to funding from the Big Lottery, we were able to work with professionals to support the children’s creative development, the exhibition and to build the arts skills of our volunteers.

Throughout the project, children from Gorsewood, St Martin’s, Our Lady’s, Fairfield and Westfield Primary Schools have delighted the Danny volunteers with their curiosity, enthusiasm and creativity as they explored the Danny and its history, the waterways, geography and ecology of their area and learned different artistic techniques for recording their experiences. The Danny volunteers felt great fulfilment in reaching the new generation with the Danny’s story. As our skipper said at the end of one of our school cruises: ‘This is what we saved the Danny for. This is what has made it all worthwhile.’

The Danny was able to extend the learning opportunities for the children by working in partnership – volunteers from the New Cut Heritage and Ecology Trail provided expertise in ornithology and the Canal and River Trust supported us with dredging programmes, berthing facilities and willingness to explain their jobs to the children.

The Danny team are delighted with this first major project with local schools, and is committed to continued engagement with local communities. We are running four free family Festive Sundays in November and December, developing a community programme with a focus on wellbeing for next year, as well as a full schools’ offer, student placements and of course our usual cruise and hire opportunities for individuals, groups and local businesses.

Notes:

The Danny exhibition is free to visit at the art gallery in the Brindley Theatre in Runcorn daily from 10.00 – 17.00 from November 8^th – 23^rd (except Mondays)
Tickets for the Danny Project schools’ event at 14.00 on November 12^th and the community event and screening at 18.00 on November 12^th are FREE and can be booked via the Brindley Theatre Box Office on 0151 907 8360. Access to the exhibition for the evening programme is from 17.00, and the bar is also open from 17.00 – 20.00.
To find out more about education or community programmes, contact Learning and Participation Manager, Cathriona Bourke at , and/or go to our website
To find out more about our commercial programme for next year, or to make an enquiry about hiring the Danny, contact
Background to the Danny’s story: Fourteen years ago, a group of volunteers saved the last steam tugboat of the Manchester Ship Canal fleet (The Danny) from the scrapyard in 2004. Lots of them had lived and worked locally to the tugboat base in Runcorn all their lives, and they wanted this part of their history preserved for future generations. They were ambitious – they wanted to her eleven steam engines running again and her elegant Art Deco saloons restored to their 1930s finery. And they succeeded, with 150,000 hours of volunteer time to restoring the engines and £3.8million Lottery Heritage Funding to complete the restoration. The Danny is now fully operational, running cruises, talks and tours, private hires, community events, school programmes and a programme of external talks and exhibitions.
Photos are attached, with more available on request.