The 2011 UK Arts Index Report

 

In order to download a copy of the Arts Index report you need to become a member of the NCA. The report gives a full breakdown of the data collected across 20 indicators, including in-depth anaylsis of the regional, national and UK wide picture. If you are a member, simply log in and then follow this link.

This week also saw the Lords discussing the support available for theatre in the regions. Earl of Clancarty, Nicholas Trench, asked the Government about the support available for local theatre, citing Northcott Theatre in Exeter as a local theatre threatened with closure. He expressed concern that cuts to local theatre would prevent the future creation of award winning productions such as War Horse or Jerusalem, which would not have been possible without public subsidies and regional support.

We need to build a body of both quantitative and qualitative evidence from case studies, personal stories and statistical data in order to make it difficult for policy-makers and statutory funders to ignore the unique contribution that drama and theatre, within the context of access to a broad spectrum of cultural activity, makes to young people’s lives.

The Manifesto is a call to action to young people, parents, teachers and theatre practitioners to unify their efforts and ensure that young people have access to drama and theatre.

The Drama and Theatre Manifesto recognizes a common sense of purpose and a shared belief in the contribution drama and theatre makes to the quality of children’s lives in school and beyond.

The Manifesto has been endorsed by these organisations and associations:

Action for Children’s’ Arts (ACA), Equity,   National Association of Teachers of Drama (NATD), National Association of Youth Theatres (NAYT), National Council for Drama Training (NCDT), National Drama (ND), National Operatic and Dramatic Association (NODA), Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), Theatre Education Forum (TEF), Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) England

If you are an Organisation, you can send the manifesto on to your members and invite them to incorporate it into their practice and policy and to disseminate it to their students, participants and colleagues.  .

The Manifesto is a call to action to young people, parents, teachers and theatre practitioners to unify their efforts and ensure that young people have access to drama and theatre.

The sense of unity within the sector that the Manifesto represents is only the first step to its usefulness as an effective tool for drawing support and funding to the sector. At a time of cuts, we need to be able to advocate with clarity the successes achieved by the sector as a whole and be able to evidence why our community is of such vital importance to the UK’s cultural, educational and economic life and to the lives of individual children and young people who see or make theatre and drama

Download a copy of the Drama and Theatre Manifesto here

Visit www.dramatheatremanifesto.co.uk for more information

The first commissions have been announced for the London 2012 Festival; the 12 week festival that is the culmination of the Cultural Olympiad.

Yesterday, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport announced which projects were to be axed as part of a range of cuts totalling £73 million.

Arts Council England (ACE) today outlined how it would apportion the £19 million in-year budget cuts. In brief, it has been able to use £9 million of its historic reserves to mitigate the cuts to RFOs and cap these at £1.8 million, a 0.5% reduction across the board. This means that the average cut to arts organisations is £2,000, with the range varying from £142,000 to £105. 

On Thursday 10 June 2010, the NCA and Arts & Business launched a new forum to represent the UK’s cultural sector in the debate on how best to reanimate private sector cultural funding in this period of economic difficulty.

The NCA was in attendance at Toynbee Hall as Munira Mirza unveiled the Mayoral Cultural Strategy for 2012 and beyond. Topics addressed during the presentation included education, environmental sustainability and the improvement of arts provision for London’s outer boroughs.

Following the rather gloomy news from the Treasury we can, perhaps take some small comfort from two recently announced consultations which may pave the way for new avenues of funding for the sector.

Andrew Dixon, Chief Executive of Creative Scotland, the organisation set to take over the reins of Scotland’s cultural stewardship from the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen, has announced that he wants to see Scotland in the top 10 ‘cultural nations’ within five years.

The NCA attended the new Secretary of State’s inaugural speech to the arts community, themed ‘Arts and Philanthropy’, at the Roundhouse on Wednesday, 19 May. Accompanied by his Minister for Culture, Ed Vaizey and Jesse Norman, the new Conservative MP for Hereford and South Herefordshire (whose father, Torquil, was the driving force behind the Roundhouse’s restoration), Jeremy Hunt outlined his central tenets on the arts.

On Thursday 20 May, the Conservative/Lib Dem Coalition Government published the full text of the agreement that forms their programme for Government.

Two weeks ago, the NCA launched its Cultural Workforce Survey in order to gather data from everyone who works in the cultural sector, including CEOs, Chairs, Board Members/Trustees, Employers, Employees, Freelancers, Interns and Volunteers. With this data, we hope to create a snapshot of what the cultural workforce looks like today and find out how people really feel about the work that they do.

A reminder that if you work in drama and theatre and with children and young people, there are opportunities to get involved in the consultation sessions to develop a statement of common purpose that could unite the sector to advocate for its work at the highest level.

This week the deadline passed for nominations for candidates in the General Election and so too did the deadline for them to withdraw their candidature. The list of people standing for election is now fixed and the NCA took this opportunity to get in touch with all Parliamentary candidates asking them to pledge their support for the arts, the arts manifesto and, crucially for supporting funding for the arts at current levels.

In their paper ‘A Private Sector Policy for the Arts’ Arts & Business (A&B) outlines recommendations on how to best adapt the mixed economy funding model for the arts to the current situation. 

The Arts Council of Northern Ireland (ACNI) held a seminar for arts groups on lobbying in the wonderful surroundings of the newly refurbished Crescent Arts Centre in Belfast on 21 April. 

A reminder that if you work in drama and theatre and with children and young people, there are opportunities to get involved in the consultation sessions to develop a statement of common purpose that could unite the sector to advocate for its work at the highest level.