A little over 3 years ago Nick Giles left Donmar Warehouse to become Director of Shoreditch Town Hall. His pitch to the venue’s board was simple and ambitious - inject the architectural gem with an artistic programme to match: “Saving the building was not enough – we needed to give it a life, and audiences and our local community compelling reasons to come through our doors.”

The not-so-traditional theatre space inspired Giles to seek out the not-so-traditional theatre and performance makers. The venue’s recently announced third season features daring artists at all stages of their career: from Vincent Dance Theatre – getting ready to celebrate its 21^st birthday in style, to Fringe First winners curious directive and their futuristic piece Pioneer. The ambition goes beyond curating; over the course of 2014 the venue “worked with 143 artists, programmed 56 productions, presented 10 world or UK premieres and commissioned 4 new works”.

Add to this the £1.8m Capital Programme and the fact that Shoreditch Town hall is a non-revenue funded organisation and the 3-year arc becomes even more impressive. We talked to Giles to find out what’s in store for the future.

Run Riot: Can you guide us through your curating process? How did you shape this season?

Nick Giles: Probably as much as 75% of our seasons are shaped by our ongoing relationships with companies, artists or specific pieces we are supporting. But, of course, it’s also inevitably an intuitive and subjective process. We consciously think about balance, scale and variety, and increasingly our commissioning and development cycle – when pieces are coming to fruition and ready to present to an audience. We often work with artists over the long term, so a discussion two years ago, as in the case of Greg Wohead’s The Ted Bundy Project, might only lead to inclusion in a presented programme now. But, working in this way we aim to programme work that is unique, bold and innovative, particularly where the artist can benefit from or respond to our varied non-traditional spaces. Work that’s being made in new and exciting ways and which on the whole, has had little to no exposure in London. As a rule we programme very little traditional script-based work, unless we are working with a specific partner, and whilst we are open to projects involving new writing, we generally do not have the capacity to read unsolicited scripts.

Run Riot: Vincent Dance Theatre is celebrating its 21st birthday in Shoreditch Town Hall - can you tell us more about this collaboration?

Nick Giles: I have been fortunate to build both a professional and personal relationship with Charlotte Vincent and her unique brand of dance theatre over recent years, and it’s been hugely rewarding. My first major supported and commissioned piece in a previous role at the Corn Exchange, Newbury was her brilliant If We Go On, and I find the particular mix of black humour, inventiveness and fierce intelligence in her work utterly compelling. She is just so fearless, and the work so bold and varied. When Charlotte and her producer first started talking to me about a 21 year celebration of her work eighteen months ago I really wanted to be part of it. I was especially excited as this was going to include Underworld, a durational piece originally performed in The Arches in Glasgow, here receiving its London premiere, and which also includes a score by Gavin Bryars – a composer I really admire.

Run Riot: What role do emerging artists play in the season and your overall curating model?

Nick Giles: They are essentially at the heart of it. At least 50% of our day-to-day work is centred around giving space, providing support and investment to new work in the building – made in Shoreditch. This then feeds directly into the presented programme, with the rhythm of new work being made and completed – ready to present to an audience – very much shaping our artistic seasons. curious directive’s Pioneer, playing at the Town Hall in April, is a perfect of example of a show that was developed in the building last year and is now part of our next artistic season. At the same time, whilst On the Run’s So It Goes wasn’t developed directly with us, this amazing debut show still plays just as pivotal a role in our next season, giving this young emerging company a crucial London platform.

Run Riot: The Town Hall is smack in the middle of Hoxton and Old Street. How is the local community reflected in the venue’s present and your plans for the future?

Nick Giles: The Town Hall is only a charity and non-commercial venue today because of the local community, and we still have one of the original ‘Save The Town Hall’ campaigners on the board, along with four other Hackney residents. In this sense I hope we're always conscious of our place locally as a resource and arts venue. In the 1990s when the building had fallen into disrepair and was closed for public use hundreds of local people got behind the campaign, so in one sense the participation of the local community has always been and will continue to be a driver for what we do. Over the past two years we have gradually built - resource permitting - a fledgling creative participation programme. Much of this has been connected to workshops and activity around our arts programme, but increasingly, with projects such as Tea Dances, Dance Classes and Town Hall Tales, we are trying to develop strands of activity that give local people opportunities to come into the building and enjoy taking part in something creative, active or social. We will never be able to be all things to all people, but this is one key way I think we can be of value to those people who live or work close by. But we've also tried to do practical things like increasing opening hours, investing in facilities - such as digital connectivity - and reducing hire rates for Hackney residents, so it's easier to use the building for activities like meetings or classes.  We absolutely want to do more, and are currently planning how we grow our programmes - to offer more for young people and families for example, as well as further investment in the buildings accessibility and flexibility. But, we are proud to have made a strong start: last year over 18,000 audiences - 70% of which came from our local community - and 5,000 active participants, from the over 65s to school children, engaged with our work - activity we weren't even running 2 years ago.

Run Riot: You are currently in the process of increasing the Assembly Hall’s capacity to 750. What new initiatives or curating strands will this change bring?

Nick Giles: Being able to operate at a higher capacity is at the centre of our plans for the next stage of the Town Hall's development. It will not only mean we will be able to stage larger scale and more ambitious theatre and performance, but also develop a music and comedy programme in particular, reaching a much larger and more diverse audience. It will also enable us to host larger commercial events, and because of our business model this is going to be crucial to ensuring we can generate enough income to continue investing in the building and the programme. The Assembly Hall was originally one of six high capacity Music Halls in the square mile around the Town Hall, and it is now the last remaining one of those larger spaces – in fact, the largest purpose built auditorium for miles. I am very mindful of the considerable investment and effort the original councillors of what was then The London Borough of Shoreditch, put into incorporating a full scale auditorium into their new Town Hall in the 1860s and their ambitions for the space to be used for ‘entertainments and amusements’. They really wanted the local community to have a reason to come into the building for reasons other than paying bills or taxes. So for us there is also something of honouring them in getting the Hall back up and running regularly as a performance space – as well as returning to East London one of its largest original music hall auditoriums.

Run Riot: Funding cuts have been a trademark of the arts in the last 4 years. What are your hopes and expectations for Shoreditch Town Hall and the arts in general after the 2015 elections?

Nick Giles: We are very fortunate to run a building that can, by virtue of its sheer size and location, generate reasonable earned income to fund most of our immediate overheads. It certainly doesn’t cover everything, but it has challenged us, often in positive ways – to be nimble and entrepreneurial about the way we run our business. And while I would be lying if I said it hasn’t sometimes been very difficult to make ends meet, this is the first time I have run an organisation that is not revenue funded from either the local authority or Arts Council, England, and for once - for us specifically that is – it will continue to be an advantage I think. But, it’s really important to make a distinction between our position, and the vast majority of artists and organisations where operating in this way would be impossible or inappropriate. And in common with them, we will always need to be able to apply for contributions from funders, such as Arts Council, England, towards projects, because without their support three years ago, there is no doubt we would have lacked that vital seed funding to move the development of our artistic programme forward.

In terms of the bigger picture, the uncertainty around investment is a huge challenge for many brilliant artists and cultural organisations, and I worry that the whole arts and creative industries ecology could be undermined by further deep cuts. I completely appreciate during lean times that Governments need to take difficult decisions, and I am also generally supportive of the idea of encouraging more philanthropy and entrepreneurship. But what often seems to have been missing is an acknowledgement that this move to increase individual giving is not a panacea; it should never replace proper investment, and requires a huge cultural shift, one that could only happen over many years – not the lifetime of a parliament. Above and beyond that, the cultural industries – their growth, their huge role in tourism and UK Plc. brand building, and their complex and interwoven relationship with the wider success of the creative industries as a whole, has been a huge success story of the past 25 years contributing millions of income back to the exchequer in revenues – certainly quadruple or more of the 0.7% of total investment of Government spending it currently costs. I don’t think there can be any doubt that has been achieved by sustained investment in the long term in some of the enormous creative talent we have in the UK.

I don’t think this has gone unnoticed in Government, but I worry that the fragility of the creative eco-system may be being underestimated – the connections that have built up over years between education, venues, tourism, film, etc. And you only have to look at the sheer number of high quality productions in West End theatres that emerge from the subsidised sector – The Nether (The Royal Court / Headlong), Our Night with Reg (The Donmar), The Scottsboro Boys (Young Vic), The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (The National Theatre) or that tour around the world; or more recently with a phenomenon like the poppies exhibition at the Tower Of London – designed by Tom Piper whose great artistry has been nurtured by the RSC amongst others - to see how Government investment has and continues to be vital to the vibrancy and diversity of the UK's cultural scene. Government investment in the Arts is miniscule in spending terms, but its returns massive – in enriching people’s lives, educating and encouraging a healthy and questioning culture, and yes, in terms of revenues generated and our position on the world stage. So my hope would be that this fact doesn’t get lost in the complex and challenging situation any government will find itself in after 2015 – and that it’s recognised that pulling at the threads any more could result in the whole thing unravelling very quickly and being lost forever.

Shoreditch Town Hall
shoreditchtownhall.com