Sheffield's arts venues have faced numerous setbacks during the pandemic, with closures, curfews, two lockdowns and multiple tier systems to contend with.
But they are now ready to step back into the spotlight.
Uncertainty still lingers for many artists, musicians and venue staff, as well as the venues that they perform, exhibit or work in, due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The closure of music venues, theatres, art galleries and museums, amongst others – many from as early as March – has had a catastrophic financial impact.
Sheffield Theatres, including the Crucible and the Lyceum Theatre, was even named Regional Theatre of the Year at the national The Stage awards in February – but has been forced to turn to financial support from the government due to its loss of revenue.
Dan Bates, Chief Executive of Sheffield Theatres, said: “We’re heavily reliant on income from our audiences at Sheffield Theatres - mostly through ticket sales.
"Our public subsidy is 11 per cent of our total income and so the financial impact of the pandemic has been incredibly challenging for us.
"Since March 16 the theatres have been closed, cutting off our core income overnight, as well as having to close our bars, restaurant and losing several weddings, events and conferences.”
Sheffield is famed for its arts scene, with hundreds of acclaimed artists, musicians and playwrights hailing from the Steel City.
The Leadmill is the longest running live music venue and nightclub in the city and has helped launched the careers of musical icons such as the Arctic Monkeys and Pulp, welcoming generations of Sheffield gig-goers, students and artists over the years.
The Leadmill, along with Sheffield Theatres and Museums Sheffield, a collection of Sheffield’s three largest museums and galleries, all benefited from the government recovery fund.
The recovery fund
Administered by Arts Council England, The Leadmill received £241,570, Sheffield Theatres more than £1 million, and Museums Sheffield £500,000 as part of the £1.57 billion national lifeline package.
Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner even donated a guitar to a Music Venues Trust to help The Leadmill through the bleakest period of its 40-year history, raising £128,544 from 14,408 supporters over two weeks in August.
However, Rebecca Walker, assistant manager at cultural staple The Leadmill, said at the end of September that support from the Arts Council had to come ‘immediately’ to cope with the impact of the pandemic, but even that may not be enough.
She said: "It is going to have a real serious impact on the Leadmill, the last six months has had a real serious impact.
"We are currently hanging on to the possibility of having Arts Council funding through the culture recovery scheme that the central government announced in the summer.
"We put our application in back in August and that decision will be made in the next couple of weeks.
"Hopefully we are successful with that funding, but even if it is successful, we are calling on central government for sector specific support and that support has to come immediately.
"The events and creative industries are very creative, very resilient and innovative so we will adapt once again as we have done the past six months.”
Kim Streets, Museums Sheffield CEO, agrees that the Recovery Fund may not be enough to save these venues in the long term, admitting even with the boost there is still ‘massive uncertainty’, not just at Museums Sheffield, but across Sheffield, only helping to keep the arts businesses afloat until the end of the financial year.
She said: “Some of it is about making sure Museums Sheffield can get to the end of the financial year in a robust financial condition, and some of it is about survival.
"I think the big question for all of us, is how long this will last?
“We are all working towards the beginning of December, but of course there is massive uncertainty around that and the money for a lot of arts organisations in Sheffield really has been a lifeline.
"For us, the theatres, for somewhere like the Dorothy Pax on the canal basin, or Corporation, things that you wouldn’t normally think of as “arts organisations” but are very much about the cultural life of our city.
"The recovery fund has been helpful, but that has been about getting us to to the end of the financial year and being able to make changes and adapt and to be able to think ahead, what comes after this financial year is quite unknown - the question for us this year is, will visitors come back to their city centre?
"Will they feel confident about coming back to the cultural venues, back to the theatres, back to the bars, back to hospitality, back to museums, and if not, what do we need to do to encourage people back?
"We are all going to have to adapt. that is one thing you can say about cultural industries across the board, whether that’s museums, or bars, or arts venues, is that we are typically creative and we will adapt and the positive is we will adapt and we are thinking about what needs to be done. But it is massive uncertainty.”
What happened when venues reopened?
Sheffield Theatres was able to open briefly, with the capacity of the Crucible slashed to under a quarter of its usual intake.
Two hundred and thirty seats were available out of the usual just under 1,000 capacity, and the second enforced closure due to Sheffield’s placement in ‘Tier 3’ was described by Dan Bates as ‘heartbreaking’.
He said: “We were thrilled to be able to support Off The Shelf Festival and be one of the host venues as well as opening our first production of ‘Here’s What She Said To Me’ by Oladipo Agboluaje which was a co-production with Utopia Theatre, our Resident Theatre Company.
“We were all just getting into our stride of working in a Covid-19 secure manner and having started back in the building. It was just beginning to feel a little bit more like the old days.
"However, the second lockdown was announced and we had to close our buildings once again. Putting to one side the obvious need to keep everyone safe it was still heart breaking to close again, when we had been working on the production for several weeks and having to close after only five performances was very frustrating for everyone involved."
'It is sad not being able to see it in person'
Kate Proctor, a student at the University of Sheffield, would regularly attend theatre events in the city, but is concerned about the safety once they reopen – posing a problem to the venues, as well as audiences.
She said: "I went to a lot before the virus.
"I know at the Crucible they had the ‘Here’s What She Said To Me’, but only had a couple of nights before it had to stop, and that was online anyway and because I am quite conscious about safety I have been mainly watching theatre online.”
She says that the sheer amount of cases in Sheffield has left her worried about returning, and that possibly moving events online until it is completely safe would be the best option for her.
"It might be about word of mouth and people saying, 'yes I feel safe going and it has been done well', but I think with Sheffield in particular because we have had such a high number of cases, it might also be a location thing,” she says.
"I think maybe if it had been in an area with a lower number of cases, I may have felt safer to go but I think just because of the sheer number here that influences my decision making.
"It is sad not being able to see it in person, but it has been really good seeing how places have adapted, doing stuff online, which may have made it more accessible for people.
"To go and see a show can be very expensive, and the travel costs, so there has been that benefit there.
"I hope that theatres in Sheffield can also adapt and that they can put some more online performances on and that I can support them in that way – but until that is the case it is going to be able to choose the places that have that available.”
It is not only ‘mainstream’ arts venues that are struggling on the back of the pandemic – the #SaveOurVenues campaign highlighted on a national map of venues closest to permanent closure that two in Sheffield are on ‘red alert’.
Plot 22 and Dryad Works both welcome hundreds of creatives yearly, but have had to set up Crowdfunders to make sure they reopen when it is safe to do so.
Ed Cosens, guitarist in Sheffield band Reverend and The Makers, wants the city to pull together and says their ‘future depends on people's support’.
He said: “It is incredibly difficult, from a personal view we had lots of festivals booked and a big tour but that is all gone.
"I feel more sorry for the people behind the scenes and all the crew, because whilst as artists we are not millionaires, we still create music.
"There's people behind that haven't got anything – as an industry it has been decimated.
“The worst outcome is that everybody goes under and doesn't come out the other side and what is going to happen then?
"There are people out there with money still and are they going to swoop in and take all these old, independent venues and they wouldn't treat them with the same respect.
"It has got to the point where you need to help with awareness - such as the #SaveOurVenues campaign.
“The Leadmill managed to get hold of one of Alex Turner's guitars that they sold off; all these little things.
"We all listen to music, we all go to gigs so it is on everybody to appreciate how difficult it can be and the future depends on peoples' support.”
Sheffield Theatres Chief Executive Dan Bates also believes that the key to arts venues bouncing back will be the Sheffield community, and them supporting the venues ‘to stay creative’.
“The pandemic has hit all arts organisations very hard,” says Dan.
"It’s prevented us from welcoming people into our buildings and it’s made connecting with our communities very challenging.
"We have carried on doing everything we can to be creative and to support creativity in our communities.
"There’s no question in my mind that arts and culture will play a vital part in how we all recover from the impact of Covid.
"What we ask is that we continue to benefit from government support if the limitations on our business continue beyond March next year – that will help us to be ready to play our part in the city’s recovery.
"And if our audiences can continue to engage with us and where possible, support us to stay creative, that has and will continue to make a huge difference to us.”