The Rising Sun Arts Centre, a grade II listed building located on Silver Street, offers workshops including African Drumming and Salsa and recently hosted the one day Here Comes the Sun festival which had a packed line up including children’s activities, poetry readings and burlesque troupe, The Scarlet Vixens.

About Us

 The Rising Sun Arts Centre is a small, independent arts centre, which for over 20 years, has been staffed and run by volunteers. The Rising Sun started as a squat, created by a group of intrepid artists who saw a need for ground-level arts development, for and by, the people of Reading. The centre gained charity status in the mid-90s, and has been at the heart of Reading’s cultural life ever since.

The Rising Sun creates a space where creativity flourishes and people come together to make things happen. Our programme includes a varied line up of high quality events and activities, avant garde music from some of the world’s top improvisers, ground breaking, participatory projects and the best band nights in town to name a few, all managed by volunteers without the benefit of core funding or full time staff.

How we run

The Rising Sun is a registered charity governed by a board of Trustees and managed by one part time paid worker. All the core work of the centre is done by volunteers and the centre survives on the basis of earned income with occasional funding for specific projects.