Theatres Trust responds to ACE NPO and Capital Funding announcement

We’re pleased to see building based Royal Court Theatre Liverpool, The Yard Theatre and Blue Elephant Theatre in London and Z-Arts Manchester have been added to the Arts Council National Portfolio: 2018 - 2022. The announcement also brought good news for the Manchester International Festival, in preparation for the new Factory theatre and arts venue.

We’re also pleased to see well-deserved funding increases for Derby Theatre, Theatre in the Mill Bradford, the New Wolsey Ipswich, Plymouth New Theatre Royal, Northampton Royal & Derngate Theatres, The Tricycle Kilburn and The Bush in Hammersmith.

The freeze in funding received by most organisations does represent a real terms cut, which will be felt over the next four years. Theatres operate lean business models and with inflation set to rise, theatre organisations will need to be resilient and adapt their models to adjust to rising costs. The 14% cut given to the Hampstead Theatre will impact on their ability to produce, grow and sustain their theatre building, and we will monitor these organisations carefully over the coming years to protect the theatres for future use.

Arts Council England also announced the recipients of the round five of the Capital: Small Grants programme. Many of these projects improve accessibility of their theatres, restore elements of historically significant theatres, increase sustainability and improve the spaces for theatre use. Recipients include the Ludlow Assembly Rooms, Tobacco Factory Bristol, Tamworth Assembly Rooms, Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, Stockton Arc, the Luton Hat Factory  and the Lyric Hammersmith, London.

Making theatres fit for the future is a key objective of Theatres Trust and we hope that these proposals are developed in a way that opens up theatre for more people and strengthens the organisations behind them.

Image credit: Royal Court Liverpool