Since we posted in 2020 about the successful campaign to save the synagogue in the Cliftonville neighborhood of Margate, a seaside resort in the county of Kent, the red brick building, inaugurated in May 1929, has been transformed into a vibrant community arts and education center known as The Ark.
In addition to its ongoing on-site programs, it also recently launched a fascinating and informative web site on local Jewish history — Jewish History East Kent — in collaboration with Canterbury Christ Church University.
Cliftonville once was a popular resort for Jewish holiday makers, with dozens of kosher boarding houses and hotels. The web site includes detailed histories of some of them, as well as of other places related to Jewish history and experience, such as schools and shops.
The Ark developed and functions thanks to a £249,000 grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund made “to honour the space’s Jewish heritage and welcome the diverse communities that make up Margate,” and it is featured in the Fund’s recent Newsletter.
Regarding the physical building, the Fund says, “our funding has supported the restoration of original features including the wood block parquet floor, marble steps and oak-clad pillars. A new heating system, improved kitchen and accessible toilet facilities have made the space fit for purpose.”
“I think if you change the use of a building and give it additional life then that’s an amazing thing to do. It’s not so much about saying this was a synagogue and now we’re an art centre. It’s about taking that heritage into a new chapter of its life,” it quoted the Ark’s director Jan Ryan as saying.
The Ark runs programs ranging from concerts and performances to exhibits, lectures, and workshops. One goal is to welcome and include the diverse communities that make up the neighborhood, including refugees, while also focusing on Jewish heritage.
“We’re using the Jewish experience of diaspora and migration in the way that we empathise with others,” Ryan said in the article. “My grandparents, for example, came here in the late 1800s. And that shared experience informs how we work with all the communities around us.
Within a very cross-cultural programme, having really high quality Jewish events at the venue is a key strand of our work. And we’re trying to do it in a way that’s about the culture and the heritage of being Jewish, its importance and richness, and our pride in that.
Watch a BBC report on Ark and its work with refugees:
Read the National Lottery Heritage Fund Newsletter article
Read our 2020 post about saving the synagogue from demolition
Jewish Heritage East Kent web site