Theatre Deli Sheffield has announced plans to close its current venue on Arley Street, citing rising costs and the “economic reality” of running a small charity in 2024.
Though the London-based non-profit said that it will continue to operate a base in the north, its future in Sheffield remains uncertain, said CEO and Executive Director David Ralf.
He said: “We’ve gone from opening this space in March 2023 to looking at closing it at the end of May 2024 and that feels terrible. It’s awful for the team.
“The Deli as a whole is not shutting but this venue in Sheffield is.”
Founded in 2008, Theatre Deli turns empty spaces in city centres into creative hubs for communities. Though it had envisioned its current home in Highfield as a “long-term home”, Ralf said that it was no longer economically viable.
“Because of the economic reality of a small charity we don’t have big reserves,” added Ralf. “If something’s not working we don’t have a year to find that out.”
Tributes poured in for the venue on Instagram following the news.
“Thanks for making an inclusive, vibrant space while you could,” wrote one user, while another called it “one of my favourite spaces in my new home town.”
Ralf said that while the venue’s “basic model has always been more precarious than resilient”, its closure is symptomatic of an industry-wide problem he explained.
“What happens with small venues is a bellwether,” he said. “We are seeing lots of organisations that are really struggling, that are not getting the funding that they would normally be able to rely on and that are finding traditional funders turning down a lot of applications that they previously would have funded.”
Theatre Deli has been active in Sheffield since 2014. During its tenure on Arley Street it has offered affordable spaces to 89 different companies, programmed 72 different productions and supported 46 different artists with free space and research and development time.
“The impact that we’ve managed to have even though we’re having to leave the space is something that we’re really really proud of,” said Ralf. “[The future of Theatre Deli in the north] could look like anything. We’ll be letting people know as soon as we have an idea of what it will be.”
Interview by Q Cummins.
