Threatened Arts Centre Worth Additional £400,000 Per Year to Huddersfield

Posted By: Christopher Morganon: May 07, 2024In: Current Affairs, Innovate & Inspire, News, Regional News

Photo credit: Laura Mateescu

Reading Time: 2 minutes

By Joshua Robinson –

According to new research, the work of artists, community groups, and new business startups in the Piazza Arts Centre generates at least £400,000 per year for Huddersfield.

The arts centre is due to be demolished by Kirklees Council as part of Phase 2 of the Our Cultural Heart development. However, an analysis by Huddersfield-based think tank Same Skies has found that renovating the remaining Piazza buildings as a venue for the arts, community groups, and new business startups could prove a more cost-effective option.

Same Skies began researching the Piazza in 2020 and adopting their proposals rather than Our Cultural Heart could already have saved Kirklees Council £5 million in consultant fees alone when the council has been facing a £30 million budget shortfall.

Over the past four years, the Piazza Arts Centre has been home to numerous activities including Worst Album Covers, the town’s most successful ever art exhibition which gained national media coverage and has gone on to tour venues around Britain. It has also housed Dark Horse Theatre, a theatre company for adults with learning disabilities, and the Ame music venue that attracted performers from all over the world to Huddersfield, among many others.

This activity creates additional value for Huddersfield in several ways, Same Skies says:

the ever-changing, high-quality programme draws recurring footfall and dwell time in the town centre, with long-established arts organisations such as Huddersfield Art Society reporting greatly increased attendance
the quality of events generates positive publicity for the town in the wider region and nationally, for example, one small weekend exhibition was covered twice in two days by BBC Radio Leeds
organisations can apply for funding independently, with one group alone bringing in a £250,000 grant
new businesses are being created, with at least four business startups happening because of the Piazza along with support for numerous sole traders

Same Skies also points out that the Piazza even helps the council to deliver its services, with adult social care, community cohesion, economic development, and the museum and library services all benefiting from the Piazza Arts Centre.

The findings of the Same Skies research are supported by policy advice from national think tanks. The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts advises councils not to spend hundreds of millions of pounds on cultural “white elephants”. Instead, councils should focus on developing unique local initiatives such as the Piazza Arts Centre.

“Our latest figures show how the Piazza Arts Centre could be a national success story for Huddersfield,” says Andrew Wilson, Huddersfield resident and co-director of the think tank, which covers the whole of West Yorkshire. “Its success is down to the architecture of the Piazza which has proved to be a revolutionary design for an arts, culture and business startup venue.”

Andrew Wilson added: “Our Cultural Heart is a project of the previous leadership of Kirklees Council. The scheme has already been drastically scaled back and Phase 2 faces years of delays and uncertainty, while our continuing research demonstrates there is a viable, cost-effective alternative.”

“The council has a new leader and a new chief executive, and they don’t have to be bound by decisions made by their predecessors. I’ve shared our research with Councillor Cathy Scott, the leader, and Steve Mawson, chief executive and I trust they will begin a conversation to consider all the options for Huddersfield.”