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The Royal Exchange, Manchester's former cotton exchange and host of countless theatre productions staged in the round featuring famous faces such as Helen Mirren, Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant, and David Tennant, is also one of the largest recipients of funding from Arts Council England in Greater Manchester.
It aims to educate, inspire and “create a sense of belonging in the arts.”, but can this ambition be realised as clearly as it is in Manchester in other boroughs? Against the backdrop of the milltown Rochdale perhaps?
A local exchange programme created by The Royal Exchange in 2019 aims to develop long-running creative partnerships across Greater Manchester towns by establishing a community programme for and by the people in those towns. This year the chosen town is Rochdale and the programme, FestiDale.
An eco-friendly mobile theatre ‘The Den’ set up camp at Kingsway Park High School from Thursday 8th August where it has fostered community artistry with a pay-what-you-can pricing model and will continue to host events until Sunday 18th August. This is a festival for the people, by the people, with businesses such as Touchstones and the Rochdale Development Agency supporting, and all hands on deck with young ambassadors such as Eleanor Evans. Eleanor heard about the festival through their drama teacher and reached out to The Royal Exchange to support the programme with highlights including creative workshops, music performances and cultural takeovers. With a passion for combating the negative press around Rochdale, Eleanor feels the festival is about “illuminating the negative sources and filling them with positive ones.”
“This festival can genuinely make a difference to make people feel proud. There are so many different cultures involved and so much to take away. The festival really hands the information to you to show you that we’re actually amazing here. It’s one of my favourite things ever, seeing people come together.” Eleanor told me.
“With people so quick to judge you in high school, it is important to create a sense of belonging in the arts, whether in music, art, drama, it is important to have a space to be yourself” - this is the wisdom of a young ambassador who has been crucial to creating a programme of events representative of the people of Rochdale.
A sense of belonging is also shared by Daisy Silva, New Pioneer's Project Lead who became involved with the theatre after visiting The Den last year in Beswick and wanted to create new experiences for those that wouldn’t otherwise engage with the arts. One way Daisy has done this is by working with the men who attend Heywood’s Maverick Men’s Lab - a support group for men who suffer from isolation and poor mental health.
Daisy took the men to see A Taste of Honey at The Royal Exchange thanks to free tickets provided by the theatre to enable the men to feel welcome in an otherwise daunting space and to experience the beauty of the theatre themselves. This trip was the catalyst for providing further opportunities in collaboration with The Royal Exchange.
Daisy believes the arts can affect real change and through her work with refugees, the Men’s Lab and residents for whom English isn’t their first language, she has seen the impact thatcreative practice can have. When asked why the arts matter in Rochdale she said: “If you are happy you are more resilient, and more equipped to find work, to go college, to feel more confident, to tackle social isolation and the arts help people to be more human.”
The Den also offers a Front of House training programme where volunteers receive practical experience in order to gain employment. Three men who worked with Daisy last year now work for The Royal Exchange through this programme. She has also been able to take those who would otherwise not be able to afford to attend events out to theatre trips and for family activities.
When asked why the arts were needed in Rochdale, Emily Oldroyd, festival organiser with The Royal Exchange told me: “What’s the consequence of not having it in their lives? Whether it is music, theatre, art, dance, you see more versions of humanity in the arts than you do in your own little bubble. The breadth of what you experience is so huge in terms of empathy and being able to develop yourself, to make choices, to be a good citizen.
“Some benefits are also about careers. There is no job or experience that isn’t benefited by knowing who you are, by being able to communicate, by knowing more about humanity. In terms of mental health the joy and surprise it brings, the emotions you feel, that ‘wow’ moment you experience, you don’t have that in everyday life.”
The FestiDale festival has collected stories of more than 200 people and created 30 hours of audio, with 30 community performers and four professional actors involved.
For those who would rightly question whether theatre spaces in the centre of Manchester are infact benefiting those throughout Greater Manchester, the local exchange programme at The Royal Exchange would be a good opening argument.
