THE vacant Marks and Spencer unit on Andover’s High Street is set to be given a new lease of life thanks to a visual arts charity.

Marks and Spencer closed in April 2018 as part of the company's programme to ‘modernise its UK store estate to better meet the changing needs of customers’, and since then the prominent unit has remained empty.

Now, the Advertiser can reveal that Chapel Arts Studios has taken on the lease of the unit and has plans to transform the building into a community arts hub.

The hub will feature a studio space for artists and craftspeople to use, art classrooms and workshop space, and an exhibition area.

The charity says that the large space will allow it to develop and expand its programme of courses and events.

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Creative director Susanne Hasselmann said: “It’s about developing our small existing services, but particularly with young people and adults with, we’ve got a big neurodivergent programme that we want to develop further, mental health challenges, and general ill health and disabilities.

“The other thing we really want to do is provide a much-needed creative and cultural space for Andover, which is something people have been crying out for.”

She continued: “I think Marks and Spencer and the building itself is such a centrepiece of Andover’s Upper High Street that I think we need to make sure that it makes the street scene flourish.

“So, we are thinking about what we are going to do, especially around the shop windows, to create something really exciting.”

Due to the size of the building, Chapel Arts is also planning to set aside space on the ground floor for other charities to use.

Susanne explained: “We already work with a lot of charities and it’s a huge space.

“We’re not going to use all of the downstairs and so we have offered it out to other charities if they want to come in and use the space. So, the door is open to them.”

She concluded: “The whole point of having a lot of that space is to bring creative people together, and that is around the studio spaces - creating a community of creators, creating a home. But at the same time, using the classrooms, along with some of the quieter rooms upstairs, to provide and extend our programmes.”

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The charity had previously applied to Test Valley Borough Council to transform the former Thomas Cook unit into a arts and community centre.

In 2009 Test Valley Arts Foundation (TVAF) reopened the previously derelict St Mary’s Chapel in Andover as an artists' studio. This was supported by TVBC granting a peppercorn rent for this endeavour.

In 2018 Chapel Arts Studios (CAS) was formally launched when it became a company limited by guarantee and a National Portfolio Organisation of Arts Council England. In 2019 it became a charity.