Halifax's Square Chapel admits it owes acts money and had funding frozen as it responds to growing concerns about much-loved venue's future

Square Chapel Arts Centre has admitted there are “a number of artists” who have not been paid following performances at the venue.

A spokesperson also revealed Arts Council England at one stage froze payments to the theatre because of its concerns.

But Square Chapel says it has been working with a specialist team who have redeveloped its business plan and “found there to be an opportunity for Square Chapel to trade out of its position and remain solvent”.

"We have had a huge restructure ourselves and feel confidence once this is all resolved that we’ll be back on track financially,” said the spokesperson.

The Courier reported earlier this year how Orchestra of Square Chapel was looking to leave the venue after not being paid for four shows.

There have been increasing concerns voiced about the venue, including from Town ward councillor Joe Thompson.

He said: “As a councillor for the ward, but also a Halifax resident and someone who grew up enjoying this wonderful venue, all I want is to see it succeed, like everyone else.”

Square Chapel went into administration in March 2020 but was taken over by Arts At The Mill CIC later that year and Square Chapel CIC was formed – a non-profit organisation.

Arts At The Mill CIC (also a non-profit organisation) is the umbrella for Wigan organisations The Old Courts, Wigan Pier and The Royal Court Theatre.

A spokesperson for Square Chapel has claimed the summer concerts at The Piece Hall – which this year took place over 34 nights between June and August – caused “noise ingress” so severe, they had to cancel a “huge” number of shows.

"We’ve had many promoters cancel events due to the interference with noise which has left us substantially out of pocket,” said the spokesperson.

This coupled with Calderdale Council not renewing its funding led to Square Chapel needing £500,000 from Arts at the Mill CIC’s reserves, claimed the spokesperson.

Then structural damage last year at The Old Courts led to a legal battle and redundancies in order to keep the organisation afloat.

"Sadly, this situation has had a knock-on effect on the capacity and expertise available, for free, to Square Chapel CIC as employees who had been supporting the organisation were no longer there,” said the spokesperson.

They said all of this created a cash flow challenge – which is still being worked through – which concerned Arts Council England enough for them to freeze agreed payments whilst a review was undertaken.

Square Chapel successfully applied to join the Arts Council’s National Portfolio Programme for 2023-26 and were offered a grant of £159,000 per year, paid in installments.

Square Chapel said two of four payments have recently been released and, as a result, “a significant number of priority and artists debts which had accrued whilst the funding was paused have now been cleared”.

"Unfortunately, there are still a number of artists who we still owe money to,” said the spokesperson.

"This is incredibly frustrating as at the time of booking the programme, there were no concerns that we’d be able to meet the payments and if we’d have known that our funding was at risk of being frozen for such a long time, there’s no way we’d have made commitments to artists.

"We believed that the process with the Arts Council review would be quickly resolved which is why we continued to trade.

"We pride ourselves on looking after artists and not being able to pay them on time has been a massive blow to everyone.”

They said fresh financial and business plans have been submitted and they are hopeful the two final payments owed will be released imminently, and “the debts brought into a position where this situation is in the past”.

An Arts Council England spokesperson said: “The Arts Council is responsible for distributing public money and has a duty to ensure that it is well managed.

"All organisations receiving regular funding from Arts Council England are required to sign an agreement in respect of governance, management and finances.

"We closely monitor that agreement and funding is released in quarterly instalments as long as the conditions of the funding agreement are met.

"Since the directors of Square Chapel failed to provide adequate information to satisfy those conditions, we paused the release of funding.

"Some instalments have since been paid, following receipt of evidence that conditions had been met, however any further payments will only be approved on a case-by-case basis on receipt of satisfactory monitoring information.

“We are committed to ensuring that audiences in Halifax are able to enjoy great arts, culture and creativity on their doorstep.”