Candid founder Duncan Barlow with arts administrator Alex Beck and student Katrin Beck

• THE Candid Arts Centre is a vital space that serves the community in a very real way, with various studios for artists and gallery space, (Building site din may shut arts centre, March 15).

I have personal experience of it from attending the Poetry Shack, held there once a month, either upstairs in the cafe or in the gallery downstairs.

Apart from the fact that both spaces – which for live events such as poetry is half the battle – lend themselves very well to these; the cafe upstairs to the more intimate evenings, the gallery downstairs for the evenings when there is a well known headline act such as Will Self, Lemn Sissay, Pere Ubu’s David Thomas, or Violet Malice (and the downstairs gallery is wheelchair accessible for disabled performers).

The location of the Candid Arts Centre makes it accessible for all. It fosters up-and-coming talent as well as providing a place to host events from graduation shows partnered with institutes of higher learning to individual nights such as the Poetry Shack.

It is not just a space it is a haven for artists and poets in a world where, everyday, art is not as encouraged as it used to be, in contrast to more prosaic, more financially rewarding, occupations in a city where the ever-increasing cost of living is driving people to leave. But what of that?

Why should an arts centre remain open? What good does it do? How does it benefit society?

Let us look at it from a mental health perspective.

In A Midsummer Night’s Dream the character Duke Theseus remarks: “The lunatic, the lover and the poet. Are of imagination all compact.” – a Shakespearean way of saying all three share a similar neurology, and these days occupational therapists often recommend to those with mental health issues activities such as poetry and painting.

One can easily see the value of a place such as the Candid Arts Centre as a partner to the NHS, in that, having Candid as a venue for events to look forward to, prevents that last straw from breaking the camel’s back; it gives those of us who can’t earn our living from art something to look forward too, in the same way that Hackney Marshes provides a very real aid to wellbeing for the amateur sportsperson.

Some venues are more suited than others to the arts. They lend a certain indescribable, ineffable, atmosphere that makes the performer and audience member more comfortable than in other places.

These places are few and far between, and the Candid Arts Centre is one of the most suited places that I’ve come across in 30 years in the arts.

It should not be allowed to close.

AARON BARSCHAK, NW2