Past Projects
Square Chapel’s outreach programme has been running for over eight years and has delivered a broad range of projects and events with people of all ages and backgrounds. We have built up a strong reputation in the local community for delivering work that is high quality, achieves its aims and meets people’s needs. We are proud of our achievements – our main aim being to use the arts as a tool to promote social inclusion and to develop Square Chapel’s audiences to be more inclusive. Here are some of our past projects:
The July Project 2007 - 2009
The festival was conceived as an opportunity for the young people of Halifax and Calderdale to get involved in activities, mainly arts based, that they wouldn’t normally get the opportunity to participate in. The project began when Square Chapel Centre for the Arts and Eureka! The National Children’s Museum realised the need for a festival in the area and with Halifax bank coming on board as the sponsor, the project was secured.
In 2007, the first year of the festival, 54 events were held over 15 days at 19 venues and over 8,500 young people and their families attended and participated in the events. For the second year Calderdale Council came onboard as a partner and brought with them a range of sporting events. These, combined with an increase on the already established arts events lead to the festival increasing to 94 events at 28 venues over 14 days, in this second year there were over 11,000 attendees and participants. 2009 saw over 17,500 attendees and participants at 88 events and 29 venues over 12 days.
This short film that was made during The July Project 2009 gives a flavour of the festival: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5sQwlKC3GY
Square Circle 2003 – present
Square Circle is a long-running project – an arts and crafts social club for older people. With regular two hour sessions, offering three different arts activities, held on Monday afternoons at Square Chapel, people have had the chance to try their hand at calligraphy, tapestry, ceramics, weaving, oil painting, printmaking and acrylic painting.
Square Circle has proved hugely popular and a great place for older people to try new skills and make new friends. The project has spawned numerous exhibitions and has also supported satellite projects out in the community.
For details and dates, click on the Community link on the right hand side.
All Dressed Up 2008
artreach supported Imran Waheed and Ruban Devaasirvadhan from Style 6 to deliver this fashion show, which raised £423 for Hope Village India and the Forget Me Not Trust in Sept 2008. Combining catwalk displays of Asian and Western fashion, as well as exciting Bollywood dance from Spice Entertainment, the evening was enormously successful and enjoyable.
Supported by VAC, HBOS, Simply Bridal, Spice Entertainment, Harveys, Calderdale TV, Calderdale Libraries and Museums, Phoenix FM 96.7, The Mill Group, Whiteleys Borough Market, Kamran Balti House and many volunteers.
Luxurious Landscapes 2008
Led by Jane Gamble, this 12 week course in watercolour painting, in partnership with Age Concern, resulted in some magnificent landscapes from the 14 participants. Many hadn’t painted since their school days, but with Jane’s guidance and the support of their peers, each person developed both in skill and confidence. An exhibition of work was held at Square Chapel in September 2008, and work will be exhibited at future Age Concern events.
Opportunity Rocks 2009
A “school of rock” project for young people aged 16 – 30 with mild to moderate learning difficulties. It ran for a year and followed on from the very successful two-year, Musical Youth project. Led by the fantastic musicians, Julian Coburn-Hough and Mark Ruston, Opportunity Rocks provided weekly workshops in all aspects of music-making, from learning instruments, song-writing and singing, to working collaboratively and forming a band. The project spawned two very different bands – the musically diverse The Bash and the altogether more punky, Eccentrics on Holiday. Both bands recorded CDs in professional recording studios and they also performed to the public on numerous occasions. Some of the band members have now joined other bands and all of them gained skills and displayed a marked increase in confidence and self-esteem.
Funded with a grant from the Co-operative Foundation.
Legacy of Hope? 2009-2010
A project developed as part of the Open Door Schools Programme. Square Chapel worked in partnership with Parkinson Lane primary school and Calderdale Theatre School, to produce a performance piece about issues of genocide and the impact on families, linking in to Calderdale’s week-long schedule of events to commemorate the Holocaust. Over a period of four months, Year 6 children studied different genocides from the 20th Century, including Armenia, Bosnia and the Holocaust. This represented their history topic for a term, but the subject was also taught in a cross-curricular way, so that it fed into literacy and music lessons too. Workshops led by Louise Clarke from Calderdale Theatre School enriched their learning, by leading workshops at the school, sharing her experiences of visiting the Terezin concentration camp in Prague – helping the children to empathise and explore the impact of genocide on families.
The result was a powerful and moving piece of drama, with original songs, poems and music, performed to a packed house at Square Chapel on Holocaust Memorial Day itself: Wednesday 27th January. The audience for this event was truly representative of our socially and culturally diverse community – we were especially pleased to welcome the whole Year 6 group from Mount Pellon primary school, who were very impressed and moved by the performance.
“At Parkinson Lane we always endeavour to give children outstanding learning experiences. Our children have got a lot out of the partnership. They were thrilled to be given the opportunity to perform in a professional theatre.”
Akhtar Hussain, Teacher, Year 6, Parkinson Lane.
“Excellent at so many levels. Well done everyone.”
James Clegg, Governor, Warley Road School, Halifax.
“I would just like to say how blown away the children, staff and myself were at the “Legacy of Hope?” performance. We were totally impressed and amazed at the professionalism of the children and how well the message of community cohesion was interpreted and communicated to us. Back in class we have had so many discussions about what is happening in our own school community between different groups and on a worldwide level. We have also started greeting each other in the different languages we speak and making more effort to choose people to work with who we might not normally pick – it has been enlightening.”
Sally Price, Year 6 class teacher, Mount Pellon Primary school, Halifax.
“I was fortunate enough to attend the performance the children from your school put on at Square Chapel on Wednesday. I just felt I had to write and say how impressed I was with it – the whole thing was very moving. You have every right to be proud of your school.”
Audience member (aged 82), Halifax.
