FIRSTSITE has made a profit for the first time after a bumper year which saw almost 156,00 people come through the doors in the last 12 months.

It represents a massive step forward for the art gallery, in Lewis Gardens, Colchester, which in 2016/17 made a £243,000 loss at the time its accounts were filed.

The fresh figures shows the gallery made a profit of £37,496 in the 2017/18 financial year and it welcomed 155,979 visitors - its largest ever audience.

READ MORE: Firstsite has turned a corner... despite £243k loss

The last time the gallery saw any more than 145,000 visitors was as long ago as 2012, while its lowest ever annual figure was 91,000, in 2014/15.

Gallery director Sally Shaw has put the turnaround down to Firstsite’s most successful ever show, Grayson Perry’s The Life of Julie Cope, as well as a number of community events which it either hosted or partly hosted.

Mrs Shaw said: “We are really happy with the impact the community events have had for us.

“On a number of occasions people spoke to me personally and said they had actually felt intimidated by the building and when they attended an event here, their perception completely changed.”

The director cited events such as Pride in Colchester, Big Sunday, the Festival of Rice and Spice and the Goulash Festival as major drivers.

She added: “We are an enormous resource sitting right here for people.

“We are actually a community centre built by the public with public money and we should be used by the community as a resource for the town and I would love to have more people who wouldn’t necessarily have set foot in the door actually come through the door.

“It is about giving people ownership of their own building.”

The director added: “Even since the Grayson Perry exhibition, we are not getting the same level of visitors but that exhibition did so much for us, including bringing people in from around the country to Firstsite.”

The gallery’s accounts also show a huge uplift in income from its cinema partnership with Curzon.

The so-called auditorium programme saw a jump from £57,000 in 2016/17 to £182,000 in 2017/18.

Tim Young, Colchester Council’s portfolio holder for business and culture and the council’s representative on the Firstsite Board of Trustees, added: “We are pleased with the result.

“Obviously, getting a major show such as Grayson Perry will certainly have helped but it just shows the significant progress which is being made under Sally’s leadership.”