"The news of the building’s closure is terribly sad. The Citadel have responded to the challenges faced by regional theatres up and down the country with bravery and resilience."
We were terribly sad to hear the news of the closure of The Citadel building. The venue is a huge part of the cultural ecology of St Helens with a history that speaks for itself. Over the years, we've been lucky to have hosted many many special events there. We've plotted projects, made friends and developed a wonderful partnership that has brought some incredible theatre to St Helens through collaborations with producers such as Live Art Development Agency, Scottee and Turned on Its Head.
The show must go on however, and we are pleased to say we'll be continuing to collaborate with our friends over at The Citadel to ensure high quality innovative family and young people’s theatre has a home in St Helens.
We'll be working together to develop a programme of activity for young people and families - a programme will build the strength of our partnership (developed through the Arts Council England’s Creative People and Places programme). We'll also be hosting the Citadel team in our offices as they embark on this new phase in their organisation's development.
Watch this space!
As our Director Patrick Fox puts it:
"The news of the building’s closure is terribly sad. The Citadel have responded to the challenges faced by regional theatres up and down the country with bravery and resilience. We fully support its strategy to continue in a new form and develop an offer for the Borough featuring the best practitioners in the field and bringing unique and quality work to audiences in a range of different spaces. We strongly believe that every community should have a stage, and we applaud The Citadel’s commitment to continue and find a new form and new stages. We look forward to the journey.”
Fay Lamb (CEO, The Citadel) went on:
“The Citadel has been overwhelmed by the outpouring of public support we have received since announcing the closure of the Citadel Arts Centre building. We are looking forward to continuing our work with Heart of Glass, and St Helens arts sector, as we embark on this exciting new phase of development for the Citadel Charity which will take our work with children, young people and families out to the public. We share Heart of Glass’s ambition to re-imagine the town of St Helens as the Arts Centre”.
For more information on The Citadel: www.citadel.org.uk
