The Rotunda College

“The Rotunda College is the heart of the Kirkdale community; it's the hub. It gives people a second chance. We've had people coming here in despair; people with no hope of going any further. They walk through these doors into a haven.” Brenda Wheatley - Artist and Community Activist.

I've always been interested in art since childhood, but never had the opportunity to study. It was while I was working as a capstan lathe operator in an engineering firm in Bootle that management heard about my interest in art and gave me the opportunity to prove myself as a tracer (technical drawing), doing this for seven years. I worked in the civil service for 26 years, then at the age of 54, I had the opportunity to take early retirement. I decided I'd go back to school to study art. On a friend’s recommendation I came to the Rotunda, (a dilapidated building in a rundown area of Liverpool). I gained art qualifications at 'O' and 'A' level and went on to do a foundation course at the Art Centre. I gave up this course half way through, because it wasn't what I wanted, and went back to the Rotunda.
I decided to do watercolours and Pyrography (burning an image into wood), which are not on the education curriculum, and I was given a room at the Rotunda to pursue my interest. Within three months, seven of the more mature students said they would like to do water colours with me. That's when the 'RAG' - the Rotunda Art Group - was formed; it is a leisure group for retired people. It's been very successful, and we always have a waiting list of people wanting to join.
I have had an exhibition of my own with two of the artists from the Rotunda - Ted Ready and Peter Crichton; in the Atrium on the ground floor of the Royal Liver Building. It was very professionally displayed and a great success. We were promoted as the Rotunda Trio, because we had financial support from the Rotunda College to hire the boards to display the work. I sold eight paintings, Peter two and Ted one.
In the Rotunda we have single mothers, grandmothers, dads and granddads. We've had people coming here in despair; people who previously had not a single qualification have left the Rotunda College and gone on to university to achieve degrees in all manner of subjects; a feat thought unobtainable, undeserved and unwanted. The first thing everyone says about the Rotunda is that the people are so friendly; it's the ambience. We are desperately in need of funds, which you can see as you look around the building. Everybody who comes here forgets that because it's the people who make it. If they ever did this building up, and hopefully they will, we will fight to maintain that ambience.