Culture Northumberland Research Interviews #12
Claire Venus with Katy Taylor at Queens Hall Hexham
Good afternoon all.
Claire here. I’m aiming to publish more of the behind the scenes of our current research into the possibilities for Culture Northumberland. You can find our previous posts here.
This week, I meet with the CEO of Queens Hall Hexham.
I was keen to catch up on Katy’s strategic plans and hear more about how she’s making the venue work in a cost of living crisis.
Hexham is extremely well served by public transport. It’s accessible from Newcastle too. Katy told me that people travel nationally and internationally for certain shows.
Although it’s on the east coast mainline and just a 45 minute train journey from Newcastle, train tickets are comparatively expensive and departures infrequent and so it’s a challenge to commute.
Tourism was also high on my agenda for our conversation as too was understanding how Katy is steering the ship with a part time/ freelance team…
If you are unfamiliar; the Queens Hall Hexham is a receiving and producing house theatre with programme of visual art and shared cultural office space too. Based in the centre of Hexham, it’s a creative hub for community engagement projects, a varied arts programme including award winning festivals and for the creative people of Hexham.
They say;
Our Mission
Our mission is to be the creative heart of the community, delivering great arts experiences and supporting professional and aspiring artists.
The creative heart of the community...
A welcoming and stimulating environment for all to experience a broad range of arts activities.
Theatre, studio and gallery spaces and other resources at Queen’s Hall Arts Centre for the presentation of work to the highest possible standard.
A focal point for cultural organisations where links and partnerships can be developed.
Engagement with the full diversity of our community.
Resources that can be easily accessed by a large rural catchment.
Katy and I talked about;
Money, income and ‘deals’
Current pressures on the cultural sector especially venues. Queens Hall programme over 700 events a year.
Cost of Living crisis. Queens Hall’s utility bills have gone up from £30k a year to £110k a year which has meant priorities have shifted and there is a focus on bringing in more income through donations and sponsors to cover the ‘basic’ costs. They are working on diversifying their income streams where ever possible.
Partnership explore ‘full cost recovery model’
Working smarter not harder although Katy did say it’s incredibly hard work at the moment to keep a ‘Victorian’ venue running and maintain the ambition they have.
Audience nervousness post covid but higher ticket sales
Investment
New website has brought in more ticket sales
New friends programme has brought in more income
Audience development and engagement
Festivals bring in large audiences eg Festival of Flame brought in audiences of over 4000 over the weekend.
Part time engagement manager means high levels of schools engagement currently. Katy talked about delivering with schools not ‘to schools’ and a strong focus on strategy for schools engagement for schools who are not yet engaging. Recent model project here - https://www.queenshall.co.uk/get-involved/projects/beneath-our-feet Schools are already booking for the Christmas shows and Katy is trying a new model of commissioning Kitchen Zoo to make both the family and the under 5s show.
Gallery programme features local artists and is free to the public - asks for donations. 18-24month long planning cycle.
In her role as rep for the North East Cultural Partnership, Katy is working to ensure culture is understood and on the agenda. We all have a responsibility to reference culture in the conversations around wellbeing, sense of place, identity and mental health.
We talked about the potential of sharing resource for schools engagement and/ or audience development and Katy had some great ideas about not adding to the noise of socials - I’ll write a separate post on this.
Queen’s Hall have been partner hosts for Culture Northumberland co-working for a year or so. Katy speaks about this as a hugely positive addition to the programme and has noticed cross over of ticket booking from the attendees.
Read more, see dates and pop along to join in;
Thanks for reading. We’d love to here more from you in the comments or in reply to this email.
Claire
Claire Venus
Culture Northumberland