oyez arts

Coming soon to Altrincham Town Hall

“Oyez!“
We are very excited to become the preferred bidders for the Town Hall and we are now getting ready to make great things happen in Altrincham.

We aim to keep the Town Hall exactly as it should be, buzzing with community life and a place for us all to meet, create and thrive.

Our web site is currently in development.
Please check out our FAQs for some early information.

WHAT IS OYEZ ARTS ?

Oyez Arts at the Town Hall will become an all new vibrant space where we can create, experience and be together.

There’ll be plenty to shout ‘Oyez’ about..

live music, life drawing, film, festivals, craft, choir, spoken word, knit n natter, DIY, talks, literature, singing, theatre, photography, dancing, visual art, exhibition, arts trails, fairs.

At Oyez we are ready to help you celebrate and can also host your most memorable occasions from this beautiful, historic location.

WHO IS OYEZ FOR?

Well pretty much everyone. That might be you, your toddlers, your teens, your dad, mum, uncle, aunty, friends or neighbours.

WHY DO WE NEED OYEZ?

There’s plenty of great reasons to bring Oyez to the Town Hall.

Here’s our top 4.

Oyez will keep the Town Hall buzzing with activities for public use. (In a recent survey almost 2000 of you said you wanted the Town Hall to be kept available for community use).
Creative communities are positive communities. Powerfully good for heart and soul.
We support local - local creative talent, local creative enterprise, we will work with local suppliers and business across our town and region.
There is nothing currently like this model existing in Altrincham.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN AT OYEZ?

We aim to provide a high quality and highly relevant programme of activities with our community.

Of course we will need to start steadily and grow in time to meet our needs.

We think we are limited only by imagination and demand.

Here’s some of the things you said you wanted to see.

COMMUNITY GROUPS

Local creative societies set up by members of the community looking for a space to meet. What’s your creative thing.. Let us know.

CREATIVE COURSES & WORKSHOPS

Creative sessions to learn or improve skills, make new friends, discover your inner creative.

ENTERTAINMENT

Enjoying the Oyez experience, whether you choose to actively participate or support in the audience our Town Hall will be a hive of creative performances, meetings, activity.

CURATED PROJECTS

Connecting our community. We will co-create a variety of special events, festivals, art trails and performance to celebrate, raise awareness and provide safe space.

EXHIBITIONS AND FAIRS

We’ll support and showcase local talent

WHAT DOES 'OYEZ' MEAN?

The official call of any self- respecting Town Crier, ‘Oyez’ means ‘hear ye’.

We love that it represents a call to gather our community as well as a fun celebratory shout out.

Shout it out loud and it makes you feel good… “Oyez!”

DO OYEZ INTEND TO PROTECT THE HISTORIC LEGACY OF THE BUILDING?

It’s very important to us to maintain the Town Hall legacy and preserve it’s structural history. To be frank that’s why we called ourselves 'Oyez' - a constant reminder of the heritage.

Now selected as preferred bidder we are able to apply for the grants that will also allow us to restore and retain internal features and adapt the space sympathetically for our purpose.

The surveyors are currently assessing the space to see exactly what needs doing. As lease holders, Trafford Council will remain responsible for the Exterior and Structural integrity. Oyez responsible for the interior finishes and adaptation of space.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO ANY TOWN HALL ARTEFACTS?

Trafford Council will remove and protect any important unwanted artefacts and put them into safe storage or re-home them appropriately to avoid any damage to any Town Hall treasures.

SPECIAL CELEBRATIONS - WILL I STILL BE ABLE TO HOST MY WEDDING DAY AT THE TOWN HALL?

Short answer - absolutely yes! The beautiful chambers makes a fabulous backdrop for special occasions and lifetime celebrations and we’ll retain the license and make the space even better than ever to give you, your friends and family, the most perfect day. We believe your special day should be just as unique as you are and our creative and event expertise can help you make it your own.

LIFE CELEBRATIONS

The perfect environment for special occasions the Town Hall will be available for public use/hire. Gather friends and family and host your special moments.

HOW CAN I BOOK?

Sorry we aren’t quite ready to take your bookings yet. We hope to start taking bookings for October onwards from July. If you want to join a waiting list drop us a line.

The Town Hall are still taking bookings for events up to the end of August 2024.

FACILITIES, HIRE COSTS, POSSIBILTIIES

We are finalising the details at the moment.

Information to come.

Please sign up to our newsletter for more information.

WHO ARE THE TEAM BEHIND OYEZ?

Many of you may know Altrincham’s, Jo Cushing CEO from Inch Arts. Jo is our founding creative. Jo was part of the original campaign bid to rescue our Town Hall back in 2022. She saw a great opportunity to use her skills and make the Town Hall a hub for creative good and high quality experience.

Remember the Corgi Parade around Town? Or the Covid Visors? Well that was Jo!

Through Oyez, Jo aims to do much more exciting collaborations across Town using the Town Hall as a creative power house to gather great minds and make it all happen.

Beyond a daily programme of creative activity including classes, courses, workshops for learning, personal development and well-being. Jo’s vision see community gigs, recitals and talks.

Jo teamed up with Jodie Saint of Pi-Live Events. Jodie brings 30 years of creative live events experience to help realise the Oyez concept.

HOW CAN I JOIN THE TEAM

/ ANY VACANCIES?

We are not quite ready yet to recruit, but we will be looking to recruit some key roles as we develop Oyez. Why not join our mailing list and register your interest to be kept up to date.

VOLUNTEERS

As a charity Oyez will rely on a strong network of local volunteers to help us realise the vision. If you might like to find out more about us and our volunteers programme in the future, join our mailing list and we'll keep you up to date.

IS OYEZ A CHARITY ?

Oyez is being registered as a Charitable Community Benefit Society. Every pound we make together will go straight back into supporting creative opportunities in and for our community.

Being a CCBS means that we will remain inclusive, welcoming and representative of our community. We are interested in ensuring that we use the power of the creative arts to do some good stuff, making a difference in the heart of our community for our community. We think perhaps we all know someone who would benefit from a little bit of ‘Oyez’.