About

The Rising Sun Arts Centre is an independent arts centre firmly rooted in the community. The centre has brought ground breaking, high-quality arts to the town for 25 years. We have a strong commitment to making participation work and to making the centre as inclusive as possible.

The Rising Sun Arts Centre is a register charity governed by a board of trustees and has one part-time paid worker. Volunteers do all the core work of the centre and it survives on the basis of earned income with occasional funding for specific projects.

The Rising Sun Temperance Tavern was built in 1877 among the then massed ranks of pubs and other houses of ill repute on Silver Street. It was built to the design of Alfred Waterhouse (also responsible for the far grander Natural History Museum in London) and is now listed as a Grade II building by English Heritage.

After some years spent as a shop, the building eventually fell out of use and into disrepair, when it was squatted by artists in 1990. The group founded The Rising Sun Arts Centre, which gained official charity status in 1997. It has been at the heart of Reading’s cultural life ever since.