One of Wolverhampton's most popular entertainment venues is continuing to defy the odds and go from strength to strength - despite council bosses pulling its annual funding of £73,000 back in 2015.
The Light House Cinema and Media Centre, based in the historic Chubb Buildings at the lower end of Broad Street, has been a much-loved and unique source of entertainment for the city since first opening in 1991.
It has played host to world cinema premieres, exhibitions, live music, comedy, food and drink festivals and talks from some of the country's biggest stars.
Since council funding was axed nearly five years ago, initial fears were that the centre would be forced to close, which prompted a public campaign to haul it back from the brink.
Chief Executive Kelly Jeffs, who had been a long-standing member of the centre's team before stepping up to accept the top role six years ago, said this week: "We are a very small team here. We only have 19 people on the books but the day-to-day operations are mostly carried out by just two of us.
"But we are doing incredibly well. We have a truly unique, quality independent venue here and we will make it work.
"Over the years we have consistently worked hard to encourage people to take risks - go and watch films that you won't ever find on the mainstream.
"And you will be pleasantly surprised. We are always pushing new ideas harder and harder and have put in place a number of ways we can encourage people - especially a lot of younger people - to get involved in this.
"Cultural education in film is one of our prime purposes here and we are looking at four immediate key points to put this across. In fact, since we launched our 'save the Light House' campaign, we have seen a 36 per cent increase in cinema audience attendances over the last year."
Going forward, Ms Jeffs said she had established four immediate objectives to build on the Light House's success, which would be pushed through in the New Year.
She said: "We want to continue to grow audiences through a number of ways. One of our key objectives is to increase younger audiences and continually strive to make them more culturally aware of the amazing array of brilliant films out there in the world.
"We are also actively engaging with the 'University of the Third Age' locally - there are so many people who have retired who have a passion for cinema and now have more time to enjoy it. They are actively supporting us and we have now formed a steering group to build on this.
"Also, we have been running an ongoing cinema-goer deal whereby people can come and see a film for just £4.50. We want young people out there to come along and embrace the broader world of cinema - and in Wolverhampton we are the best open door to that."
