A new era for a Sligo institution
THE COST OF RENOVATING THE TOWN’S THEATRE IS IN THE REGION OF € 1.1MILLION. ONE OF THE MAIN ISSUES IS ACCESSIBILITY. A MAJOR FUNDRAISING DRIVE IS UNDERWAY TO MATCH DEPARTMENT FUNDS.
WHEN the Hawk’s Well Theatre announced in February that they had been awarded a capital grant of € 550,000 from the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, the work was only just beginning. This funding has not yet been received, and has been pledged, meaning that the Hawk’s Well must fundraise € 550,000 in order to receive the full grant from the department.
Each euro raised by the Hawk’s Well will be matched by the department, so if they fundraise € 200,000, the department will then award then € 200,000.
They must have funding, and everything drawn down, signed and sealed with receipts by March 20th, 2020.
The cost of the renovation is to be in the region of € 1.1million. One of the main issues to be addressed it the accessibility.
Director of the Hawk’s Well Theatre, Marie O’Byrne, explains: “We were delighted when the department announced their capital scheme last year, we applied for it and we’re very lucky to get one of the top awards in the country.
She added: “Accessibility was our biggest drive always. At the minute our mobility impaired customers come in at the back and it’s not ideal.”
“I came here six years ago and it’s been in my head ever since. You walk into the place and you see it needs a bit of love an attention.”
Jane Parsons, who will be looking after the fundraising aspect, says it came to a point where work had to be done.
“I think it’s more than love and attention at this stage. To have a theatre that has no hearing assistance and has such poor accessibility in this day and age - and a theatre that is so busy, in Sligo that is so culturally rich. It’s crazy. We got to a stage where we realised it just has to happen.
“The building would become not fit for use eventually ( if work was not carried out). It floods, the access is desperate.
Plans for this work have been in place for a long time, it was merely a matter of funding. Without this capital grant, the Hawk’s Well would not be getting the necessary work for improvements.
“Jane has been here for two years but a year before that we kind of went to the Arts Council so kind of started fundraising scheme with them. It was then that we started putting plans together,” explained Marie O’Byrne.
“If a capital grant didn’t come there was no way of doing it. It was because we had those plans in place, when that grant got announced the window was very short. It was because we had planned it in our heads in advance that we were able to apply.”
The issue of accessibility has been a big concern for those at the Hawk’s Well for some time. It is hoped, Marie says, the entrance which takes customers up a flight of stairs and then down a flight of stairs can be changed completely.
“We see people with walking sticks, walking
THE HAWK’S WELL IS AN INSTITUITION IN SLIGO
up the stairs and the stairs are quite steep. Accessibility was our main drive. We’ve a very low roof and we want more light in the building. We just feel at this point in time the outside of the theatre doesn’t reflect what’s going on inside the theatre. A new foyer space too is what we want. The main thrust of our work is going to be the foyer and the entrance. That’s the building work as such. We have to address the flooding issues. We’ve been having flooding issues for 4/ 5 years now. We have to address that and fix that forever.”
She added: “We hire space in other buildings to run workshops which is completely crazy, we fight over space here. We’re hopeful that we can use the space that we have better.
“There’s a hope that we can use the foyer for workshops during the day.”
The Hawk’s Well suffered severe flood damage in December 2015. And while there have been plenty of short term fixes for the issue, both Marie and Jane are keen to stress that flooding is one of the main issues that needs to be addressed.
“Old drains lead to the Hawk’s Well. The Hawk’s Well is around the whole area the lowest point. The stage door is the lowest point,” explained Jane.
Aside from the essential work, they will also be improving the foyer area, putting more comfortable seating in place. As such, half of the work will be visible and half will be invisible.
Jane and Marie are keen to stress that they want to be open and honest about fundraising, and where money is going. An extra € 1 has been added on to the cost of tickets for events.
“If we can double every donation, that’s the way we’re looking at it now. No matter what you donate, it’s doubled then. Every € 100 donated to us then is actually doubled and turned into € 200 to go into the building,” said Jane.
She added: “We’re very clear about it. It’s very important that people do know what it is ( extra euro on tickets). So when you buy a ticket online, it’s clearly outlined that the euro is going towards our renovation. If anyone is ringing the box office we outline it to them too.
Although it sounds like a huge volume of money, and it is, a breakdown of income shows that the Hawk’s Well will have to fundraise around € 40,000 a year themselves for four years.
“Over the past few years we’ve been selling on average 50,000 tickets a year, so over four years so if we can keep selling at that rate then that would be € 200,000. That’s a good chunk of what we need to raise. Sligo BID have pledged us € 15,000 a year for four years. That’s another € 60,000. The County Council have given us € 50,000 this year for the fund. We are asking them to match that for four years. If they can do that then that’s another € 200,000.
“So if we can do that and we raised about € 20/ 30,000 last year. It’s looking as if we have to raise about € 40,000 a year ourselves,” Marie explained.
In order to reach their fundraising targets, the Hawk’s Well will be running events throughout the next few months.
Jane explained: “We will be running at least one fundraising event each season. We’re in a wonderful position that we have artists, and the general public are coming to us offering us ideas for events and the Hawk’s Well will run one each season.
This season we had Niamh Crowley’s gala evening which was a great success. Next season we’ll be running our Sligo Sings, which has always been a fundraiser for the Hawk’s Well. We’ll be running that again, Sligo Sings 2017. We are in the process of organising another very large event which we will be announcing very soon. We also have just announced our new Renovation Patron Scheme. It’s an opportunity for individuals or families or companies to support what we’re doing and support the future of the theatre by giving various levels, which are indications. There’s no upper limit!
“To show our gratitude for the support they give we will have a permanent display within the new building which will display their names or whatever they want it to be. We don’t know yet the design brief for that but we’ll see what concepts they come up with. We want it to be a permanent recognition of the support they have given us. We’re delighted, we launched it only in the last few weeks and we’ve already had our first patron. We are talking to lots of people that are very interested.”
The Hawk’s Well is an in- stitution of Sligo. Most people who grew up in Sligo will have, at some stage, performed on stage or gone along to numerous events. It’s because of that, then, that the Sligo people are so willing to help out when the Hawk’s Well requires help.
“What we find is that the artists of this town have been incredible. We’d never ask an artist to give us their funding or do something for free, it’s not what we do, we pay artists we don’t take from then. But they have been amazing.
“People come to us and say can they do a gig and they’ll give us half or all of the proceeds. People in general, it’s one of the really good things about this. The Hawk’s Well has been here forever and there’s a real grá for the Hawk’s Well and what it represents. We’re finding that we’re pushing an open door on this in terms of people’s attitudes to this.”
The downside of the renovation is that the theatre will have to close for a period, although Marie is hopeful that is will be as short as possible.
“We’re being very optimistic about it. We want it closed for as short a period as possible. A lot of our fundraising comes from ticket sales. We’re going to have to close because it’s the front entrance that we’re trying to sort out but we’ll try to do it at a period where, there’s very few downtimes here in the theatre, but we’ll try and do it during a downtime.
“There are downtimes for theatres nationwide so we’ll try to go maybe late August early September,” Marie said.
“It’s likely that building will not commence until 2019, when it is hoped that fundraising will be almost complete. Right now, the legal section of the grant is waiting to be signed off with the department, and then the work will go out to tender,
“Any advice or assistance from the public is very welcome,
“We need help. If people want to do anything for us, if they want to run events, raffles or anything,” said Marie.
Jane added: “If people want to talk about what we; re doing they can come talk to us, I’ll be getting out and about and I’d love to come talk to groups.”
If you want to speak to Jane Parsons about the renovation, contact jane@ hawkswell. com