News: Gosforth Civic Theatre – 10th Anniversary

Gosforth Civic Theatre marks a major milestone this year as the UK’s only public‑facing theatre founded and led by people with learning disabilities celebrates its 10th anniversary. Since opening its doors in 2016, the Newcastle venue has grown into a vital cultural hub, welcoming more than 324,000 visitors and hosting over 115,000 attendances at performances ranging from live music and theatre to comedy, dance and storytelling.

Run by Liberdade Community Development Trust, GCT was created to give performers and creatives with learning disabilities the space to shape their own artistic futures — and that founding principle still drives the organisation today. Company members continue to play a central role in its governance and direction, ensuring the venue’s commitment to inclusion is lived rather than stated.

The anniversary year, running from April 2026 to March 2027, brings a packed programme of events, including GCT’s much‑loved Beer Festival, folk and roots weekender Beyond the Moor, and Freedom Moving, the company’s flagship performance platform for artists with learning disabilities.

Across its first decade, GCT has become a home for ambitious touring work and sell‑out gigs, and was named Best Museum or Cultural Venue at the 2025 North East Culture Awards. Beyond the stage, the venue has also built a reputation as a distinctive wedding space and a welcoming community hub, with its café bar alone serving more than 130,000 customers.

Its impact reaches far beyond audiences: since 2016, GCT has delivered 2,191 SEND sessions and welcomed nearly 24,000 SEND attendances, alongside almost 2,000 wider community activity sessions involving more than 54,000 people.

Rob Huggins, founder and CEO of Gosforth Civic Theatre, commented, “It’s fantastic to celebrate 10 years of Gosforth Civic Theatre, and to have maintained this thriving arts venue throughout challenges like the pandemic and the cost of living crisis.

“Gosforth Civic Theatre is a truly unique  place, with an ethos of community and inclusion fundamentally built into everything we do. Over the past decade we have not only been a cultural cornerstone of the local community – bringing fantastic theatre, music and art to the region – but also a real driver of influence and change, led and shaped by people with learning disabilities. 

“Gosforth Civic Theatre is a nationally important model that shows that if you enable people with learning disabilities to provide something of value to the wider community then by association the local community values them more.”

“I can’t wait to see what change the next 10 years will bring, and how we will continue to use GCT as a tool to show how people with learning disabilities contribute to the community and build the world they want to live in.”