“We want to give Halifax something to be proud of” - New Square Chapel artistic director sets out his vision for arts centre

Jonny Davenport. 38, is the founder of Wigan based Arts At The Mill, the umbrella group for Wigan organisations The Old Courts, Wigan Pier and The Royal Court Theatre.

Square Chapel will be headed up by four directors - managing director Dave Jenkins, artistic director Jonny Davenport, director of operations Michelle Mayor and sales and marketing director Rebecca Davenport.

But Jonny says the Halifax public will be central to the future direction of Square Chapel.

“We have our artistic vision which concentrates on the next quarter of the year, the next six months, the next two years,” he said

”We’ve got an absolute direction that we like to take everything we do in, but we always leave a huge amount for flexibility and the interpretation of feedback we get.

“We’ll be bringing a lot of elements of what we already do, but we’d be very naive to think that we can just bring our model to somewhere else and it just work.

“It’s about finding not just what the people of Halifax want, but what already exists in Halifax.

“We’ve got the Piece Hall attached to our building, there’s other venues in the centre as well.

“We need to be aware of what they’re doing and make strong links with them so we don’t split sales and we have not just a Square Chapel programme but a Halifax programme that happens across multiple sites.

“We’re not just trying to make Square Chapel a success, we’re trying to make Halifax a viable place for culture.

“We’d like to thank the people we’ve already had contact with, for the warm welcome to Halifax, and kudos to them for the amazing impression of the town that we’ve got.

“We try to have an open door policy as much as possible with ideas and suggestions. It’s really important to us that we have that connection with local people.

“Without them it is literally just a really fancy building and us inside it twiddling our thumbs.

“We’re not arrogant or egotistical. We genuinely thrive off making people happy with cultural shows and events.

“We want to give Halifax something to be proud of.”

Jonny is Wigan born and bred and has been a musician since he was 10 years old.He is founder of Arts At The Mill, whose background is in performing and promoting music.

“We had 15 rehearsal studios and a recording studio in Wigan, and around 2014 our lease was up for renewal and the premises we had weren’t suitable, so we decided to look for another building,” he said.

“The old court building itself came up which is the full length of a street in Wigan town centre.

“We diversified into dance, literary events, spoken word, visual art and theatre in the next five to six years, so we’ve gone from being quite well connected on the local and regional music scene to becoming a multi-art centre, which is what we’ve always wanted to be.

“Two or three years ago a funding consultant who we work quite closely with recommended we go to Square Chapel for a visit.

“He said Halifax has some similarities to Wigan but in other ways it’s totally different.

“Fast forward to as lockdown was kicking in, we found out Square Chapel had gone into administration and had a lot of dialogue with the Arts Council, who said ‘we love Square Chapel, we think it’s a fantastic building but the company has entered into administration, would you be interested in talking about how you might take it forward?’

“It wasn’t on our agenda but the more we spoke with the Arts Council and Calderdale Council, it was obvious there was a genuine desire to make a massive success of it with us involved.

“That was a huge compliment and that support has been crucial.

“We wouldn’t have taken it on if we didn’t think we had something to offer that it didn’t have before, or if we didn’t think there was momentum already.

“We just feel like it needs refining with a fresh perspective.

“We’re really big on strategies and processes, nailing down all the little details of how every single thing is done, so given all these factors, it just felt like the right thing to do and that we had the right support in place to make as good a go of it as we possibly can.”

Jonny says the Halifax public’s commitment to Square Chapel was a driving factor in Arts At The Mill deciding to become involved in the first place after Square Chapel went into administration in March.

“The biggest thing that has stood out to us so far is the passion of the staff, patrons and various stakeholders from in and around Halifax,” he said.

“We’ve read on social media ‘I hope it gets saved’, ‘I hope someone takes it over’ and they’re linking people in to try and force some momentum.

“So for us, if there was none of that visible online then we’d have alarm bells thinking ‘how wrong have we got this, do people not want it?’ but we didn’t get that.

“The biggest thing in our favour is this desire for it to be open again and to be a success.

“The building itself is an amazing space. When we first visited it was jaw-dropping walking round.

“We were like ‘wow, that ceiling!’ It’s just an amazing place.

“We operate various buildings, our main HQ is an enormous building with several venues inside, so we can deal with different spaces and logistics.

“We’re good at working over different sites - we’re currently refurbishing Wigan Pier and we’ve bought the Royal Court Theatre in Wigan, which we’re also refurbishing.

“So our next step was where else could we take this model. Halifax is an hour’s drive, so it’s not a million miles away, but it’s a new town to us.

“It just felt like a really good opportunity that we could spread what we’ve been doing.

“We read a lot on social media and read up in Halifax and Square Chapel and it reminded us in many ways of the old court.

“It seems to be very well loved and valued by the community, so that’s an incredible building block already there.

“We’ll be the custodians. Our responsibility is to involve the community, not just in events but in the next stages, to find out what the people of Halifax want from Square Chapel, listen to that and be responsive to it.”

Jonny accepts making a success of their stewardship at Square Chapel in the current climate of coronavirus will be “a massive challenge”.

“But as an organisation we’re really proactive and reactive to circumstances,” he said.

“Throughout the pandemic, over in Wigan, we’ve still programmed work online, paid nearly 400 artists during lockdown.

“A lot of our staff volunteered on a programme we set-up with Wigan Council talking welfare calls and taking food parcels.

“We love having people turning up, lights on, PA on for whatever the show may be.

“Whilst we can’t do that, we’re not tools down, we’re still serving our community in Wigan.

“It is hard but you have to adapt.

“Our aim is always big. As an organisation we want to provide the world’s best arts and culture, wherever it is we’re operating.

“We’re aiming to bring the best arts and culture in the world to Halifax, it’s as simple as that.”

Jonny is itching to begin hosting events and shows at Square Chapel, but says safety has to come first.

“I want the first show to be on last week!” he said.

“We’ve got a lot of work with our operations department, first and foremost just going round the place from top to bottom figuring out if there’s any tweaks that need to be made.

“Then we’ll look at making the building COVID safe. It might be something in our lives for the next two or three years, we just don’t know, so we’re costing out the feasibility of how we open the doors, who we open to, numbers we can have in the building.

“Taking over is just an early step in a massive amount of work, but we’re determined to have people in safely.

“Before we have large-scale events on, which I would anticipate to be in 2021, we’re going to have to have a series of test events to see how our staff can cope with these new measures and restrictions.

“And to assess what the atmosphere’s like.

“We’re not going to take anything for granted. We’ve got to start analysing people’s behaviour patterns from scratch.

“It’d be lovely to have some test events but it’s hard to put a date on it. But it will be done safely, as soon as possible.”

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