Chol Theatre, 8 Queen Street, Huddersfield (2026)

11/06/2026

👋 Thinking about applying for our Associate Co-Director role? 👋

Join us for an informal online Q&A to find out more.

We'll be chatting about:
✨ the role
✨ the Chol-Operative
✨ leadership development
✨ the recruitment process
✨ what it's like to work at Chol

There'll also be plenty of time to ask questions.

No pressure and absolutely no expectation that attending means you have to apply.

Just a chance to find out more and see whether the role might be right for you.

📅 Wednesday 17 June
🕒 7 - 7.30pm
📍 Online (Zoom)

Book your free place via Eventbrite - https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/associate-co-director-recruitment-qa-tickets-1991701863890?aff=oddtdtcreator

08/06/2026

✨ We're recruiting an Associate Co-Director ✨

We're looking for someone passionate about creativity, young people and communities to join Chol at an exciting moment in our journey.

This is a unique role combining creative delivery with leadership development, helping shape the future of the organisation whilst working alongside children, young people and communities across Kirklees.

We know leadership talent exists in many places and doesn't always follow traditional routes.

If this role sounds like it could be for you (or someone you know), we'd love to hear from you.

📍 Kirklees
🕒 3 days per week
💷 £27,300 FTE (pro rata)

Applications close: Sunday 28 June

👉 Download the full recruitment pack - https://wearechol.co.uk/work-with-us/

04/06/2026

Six years ago, Chol made the decision not to recruit a new CEO.

Instead, we began developing the Chol-Operative - an evolving approach to collaborative leadership shaped by co-creation, shared learning, equity of voice and a desire to make leadership in the arts more accessible.

A LOT has happened since then.

In our latest blog, we reflect on what we've learnt, the challenges we've encountered, and how the Chol-Operative continues to evolve in response to questions around leadership, accountability, sustainability and workforce development.

We definitely don't claim to have all the answers, but we fully believe that organisations themselves should be sites of reflective practice and learning.

Read our latest blog (link below): 'The Chol-Operative: Five Years of Collaborative Leadership, Reflection and Learning'

🔗 https://wearechol.co.uk/the-chol-operative-six-years-of-collaborative-leadership-reflection-and-learning/

15/05/2026

This week’s Creative Industries Skills Audit reflects so many of the conversations we’ve been having at Chol around access, sustainability, burnout, leadership and what the future of the arts workforce could (and should) look like.

These aren’t conversation that we’ve shied away from at Chol - they’re things we’ve been actively grappling with through our work with children, young people, freelancers, artists, schools and communities.

Over the last few years we’ve been exploring collaborative leadership through the Chol-Operative, developing youth led opportunities, creating paid progression routes for emerging creatives, and asking difficult questions about how organisations can work more sustainably and equitably in practice.

One thing we continue to think deeply about is how creative skills and leadership development happen outside traditional routes.

So much of our work is rooted in learning-through-doing: young people producing events, artists facilitating in communities, reflective practice, collaboration and paid opportunities that build confidence, experience and agency over time.

We definitely don’t have all the answers, but it feels more important than ever that organisations are able to openly test, reflect on and share new approaches - particularly at a time when the sector is being asked to do more with less.

Really valuable reading for anyone thinking about the future of arts, culture and creative education.

29/04/2026

🔊🔊 Ode to Piazza 🔊🔊

It’s strange what you end up missing.

Not just the big moments,
but the desk. The kettle. The in between bits.

Six years of building something, quietly,
in a shared room at Makerworld in Piazza Shopping Centre .

We're nomadic at Chol.
We make work everywhere -
schools, streets, libraries, out of the Cholavan.
But this was where we returned.
Our steady place.
Where ideas were tested, plans unravelled,
and small conversations turned into big things.

Alongside The Childrens Art School
it never really felt like 'shared'.
More like collective.

A kind of everyday magic,
artists, young people, conversations, chaos -
and, at times, babies perched in boxes
right in the middle of it all.

And the people who held the space around us,
who opened doors, fixed things, made it possible,
who became far more than their roles. (Shout out to our main man, John ❤)

On Monday, we turned the key for the last time.

Not everything we do happens in one place.
But places like this make everything else possible.

Not everything we do happens in one place.
But places like this make everything else possible.

On to the The Packhorse Shopping Centre.
Same people. Same energy.
New walls, new conversations, new chaos.

(Here's a very random selection of photos we’ve found.
A strange little archive of moments that don’t quite show the full picture…
but maybe that’s the point 😋)

16/04/2026

💫 Two days. 500+ children. 14 schools across Kirklees. 💫

As part of Shape North’s Creative Unity programme, partnered schools who’d been getting to know each other through letters and screens finally met in real life at the children’s symposium. We were so honoured to be there making space for imagination: creating new worlds, telling stories, and dreaming up tiny actions that could shift the future.

We started with nature and small steps. Then the children did what children do best: they turned ideas into places you could step inside.

In that world, there was The Kindness Cove - a place you could go when you’re feeling low and someone helps lift you back up.

And if that boost doesn’t arrive straight away? They created The Positivity Institute, where you can take a course, little by little, until you start to feel like yourself again.

A reminder of what comes naturally when children are given the space to dream and create - you can’t force someone to 'be positive'. You meet them where they are, and you stay with them.

This came from a group of 9 year old boys who had only just met each other that day. One tiny moment from hundreds of sparks of imagination, care, and connection across the two days.

We’re leaving buzzing. Because this is what becomes possible when creativity is treated as essential in schools, not an extra - young people don’t just take part…they lead, imagine, and shift the room.

Big love to Shape North,The Linking Network, and the brilliant teachers who made it possible.

26/03/2026

🙌 We’ve spent today at the Rotherham Reimagined symposium celebrating Children's Capital of Culture. We've heard generous, honest and inspiring conversations about what culture can look like when children and young people are truly centred in the process. 🙌

Tonight we get to share Hubris for the second time – a bold, youth-led performance exploring power, creation, and what happens when imagination pushes beyond its limits.

Inspired by Frankenstein, the piece asks what happens when we create something we can’t control, and where imagination takes us when it’s pushed too far. Moving between past and present, people and the technologies shaping their world, the story follows Mary and Percy as an experiment begins to grow beyond them in ways they never expected. 👀

There’s still time to book if you’d like to join us! Book tickets here - https://rotherhamtheatres.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows/1173665559

26/03/2026

🙌 📣 If we want a thriving cultural ecology in Huddersfield and across Kirklees, we need more spaces where young people can gather, experiment and lead. 📣 🙌

OffScript: Youth Power Week at MakerWorld brought together young creatives, artists and organisations for a week of workshops, conversations and performance - culminating in This Stage Is Ours, a powerful spoken word piece exploring power, voice and the pressures shaping young people’s lives today.

The work created this week is a powerful reminder that young people are not just participants in culture, they are shaping what comes next.

Read the blog here - https://wearechol.co.uk/what-happens-when-young-people-lead-culture-in-huddersfield/

14/03/2026

Two sold out shows.
Over 100 audience members.
One incredible Sheffield story.

What a day 🔥

Punk Suffragette filled the amphitheatre at Heeley City Farm with music, protest and powerful performances celebrating the city where the campaign for women’s suffrage began.

From brilliant songs to bold performances, today was a reminder of how alive Sheffield’s history really is.

A huge thank you to everyone who performed, came along and supported the show.

And thank you to the JG Graves Charitable Trust and Arts Council England for helping make this project possible.

13/03/2026

📣 Sheffield started the fight for women’s suffrage in 1851, and this Saturday we’re bringing that story roaring back to life 📣

Punk Suffragette tells the story of The Hot Bloods. Loud, fearless women who refuse to stay silent.

Expect punk theatre, music, protest and powerful voices in the amphitheatre at Heeley City Farm. 🔥

🎟 Grab the final tickets:
https://punksuffragette.eventbrite.co.uk

Chol Theatre

11/06/2026

08/06/2026

04/06/2026

15/05/2026

29/04/2026

16/04/2026

26/03/2026

26/03/2026

14/03/2026

13/03/2026

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