ACE National Portfolio 2023-26: Transfer Programme explained

12 Oct 2022

What's the plan for London-based arts organisations earmarked for relocation once Arts Council England announces its next National Portfolio later this month?

Dance's unique place in the arts touring ecology

Dance consortium
21 Sep 2022

Dance Consortium has just embarked on its 50th tour. Its Chief Executive Joe Bates shares how the universal language of dance engages international audiences.

Creative Scotland reopens touring fund

31 Aug 2022

Creative Scotland’s Touring Fund for Theatre and Dance has opened for a seventh round, inviting applications from companies, producers and venues touring from September 2023 onwards.

The £1m fund supported by the National Lottery is open for applications until the end of October this year.

Works of all sizes are eligible to apply for funding but to offset gaps in provision from previous rounds of funding, priority will be given to works that will tour to mid-scale venues with an audience capacity of 150 to 350 and/or large-scale venues with a capacity of over 350. 

“This funding will provide vital employment opportunities for artists, producers, companies, venues and all the talented people who work hard behind the scenes to make the theatre a magical experience for audiences, after what has been an incredibly challenging and disrupted period,” said Laura Mackenzie Stuart, Head of Theatre at Creative Scotland.

The fund will support artists and producers to tour “innovative, quality work” and “encourage more audiences to re-engage with their local venues”, she added. 

“Supporting work through this fund allows more artists to share their work and gives audiences greater choice."

Accommodation costs pose 'major threat' to the Fringe

30 Aug 2022

Eight of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe’s biggest producing venues have issued a collective statement decrying soaring accommodation costs as the biggest risk to the festival’s future.

Assembly, Dance Base, Gilded Balloon, Just the Tonic, Pleasance, Summerhall, Underbelly and ZOO – the venues behind EdFest.com – collectively sold 1,965,961 tickets in 2019, the last edition of the festival before the pandemic. This year’s combined sales are forecast to reach fewer than than 1,500,00.

“The forecast number of tickets we’ve collectively sold is down 25% compared to 2019, which is a major threat for everyone involved in the festival”, a spokesperson for EdFest.com said.

The ticket sales were achieved “despite the very real continuing challenges to our industry, including the cost-of-living crisis, the lingering effects of coronavirus, the cost and uncertainty of international travel, the recent train strikes and more,” the spokesperson continued. 

“Chief among these, however, is the soaring cost of accommodation in Edinburgh in August – audiences and artists alike are being priced out of town, out of experiences.”

The spokesperson said that the lack of safe, affordable housing is a year-round problem that affects the artists, staff and audiences who live in Edinburgh, as well as visitors to the city. 

It is “imperative that local and national government, landlords, the universities, Fringe venues and the Fringe Society all come together to find a lasting solution for this issue, or the future of the Fringe is in very real danger”, the spokesperson added, anticipating that restoring the event to normality may take several years and require public support.

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society released figures showing that Edinburgh residents accounted for 39% of all ticket sales, up 4% from 2019. Overseas audience attendance also increased, accounting for 10% of all tickets, up 2% from 2019.

Organisers acknowledged that “audience patterns have changed, industrial action caused significant disruption to rail travel and refuse collection and affordable accommodation in Edinburgh was at crisis point”.

“This year’s festival is the first step in what will be a long road to recovery and renewal,” said Shona McCarthy, CEO of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society. 

“We recognise the significant amount of work that is still required to support the long-term sustainability of this phenomenal Festival… Collectively we will work to advocate for greater support for those at the heart of the Fringe – our artists.”  

Drop in British artists booked for European festivals 

15 Aug 2022

The number of UK musicians booked to play festivals in Europe has fallen, according to analysis by Best for Britain.

The campaign group calculated the average number of British bands playing three major European festivals - Benicassim in Spain, Sziget in Hungary, and Lollapalooza in Germany – between 2017 and 2019, and compared it to the number booked to play the same festivals in 2022.

The analysis found a decrease of 45%. While noting the small sample size, Best for Britain said the statistics remain “sobering” and enough to raise “concerns on the impact that Brexit might be having on the next generation of British musicians”.

The analysis follows calls from across the music industry for the UK government to do more to support UK musicians touring the EU post-Brexit.

Government urged to increase support for EU tours

image of two musicians performing
20 Jul 2022

A cross-party group of MPs and peers set out a roadmap for making EU touring simpler and more financially viable for musicians and crew.

Theatre digs: call for cross-sector alliance to solve issues

Woman walking at night
13 Jul 2022

Producers, venues, unions, arts organisations and accommodation providers must work together to agree minimum acceptable standards for theatre accommodation, stakeholders say.

Edinburgh Festival director calls for visa-free travel for artists

11 Jul 2022

The outgoing director of the Edinburgh International Festival has called on government to simplify visa to allow musicians and artists to travel overseas more smoothly.

Fergus Linehan, who directs his last international festival next month, said the UK’s post-Brexit visa rules have stifled collaboration, making it harder for British artists to tour abroad, labelling the situation a “disaster”.

He has called on government to introduce visa-free travel for artists and address logistical problems affecting companies importing touring equipment into the UK.

“Clearly, when musicians go to perform [in another country], they’re not going to set up home," he said. 

"That’s not what it’s about. So visa-free movement for people. We’re part of an ecosystem. The idea of discouraging collaboration is a disaster in our industry."

 

Touring allowance rises to £300 a week

04 Jul 2022

The minimum touring allowance rate will rise to £300 after a deal between performers' union Equity and UK Theatre was accepted by Equity members.

Under the terms of the agreement minimum touring rates will rise by 13.2% from £265 to £300, with the minimum subsistence rate also rising by 13.4% from £172 to £195. 

Both rates will be backdated to 4 April 2024. Meanwhile, minimum rates of pay under the agreement will rise by 4%.

In a ballot on the proposals, held on 30 June, 98.5% of members taking part voted to accept the deal.

Equity General Secretary, Paul Fleming: “It is testament to the importance of this win for Equity members that it has been backed by over 98% of those voting on a record turnout for ballots on this agreement. 

"The solid result represents not only a rise of over 4% for Equity members, and the substantial rise of touring allowance to £300 - both backdated to April - but a normalisation of the industrial relations process after Covid.

"Many were anxious that terms would return to pre-Covid norms, and our deputies and staff have delivered that even in this uncertain economic climate.

"But those pre-Covid terms are clearly not what our members need in the face of the cost of living crisis or what our deputies, activists and staff aspire to for the sector."

Visual arts face serious challenges

Turner prize 2019 Tai Shani, DC Semiramis
21 Jun 2022

While much has been written about the impact of Brexit on the performing arts, Şenay Camgöz shares insights from a new report on the challenges for the visual arts.

Orchestras fear updated touring provisions unworkable

a woman plays in an orchestra
10 May 2022

Dual registration for hauliers will offer visa-free touring for some, but problems persist for smaller-scale tours and orchestras with specialist equipment.

Jazz venues 'hanging by a thread'

a jazz band plays to an audience
21 Apr 2022

An absence of ringfenced funding for grassroots venues and promoters will likely lead to further closures, musicians say.

Trucking stopgap to save UK tour legs

20 Apr 2022

The temporary allowance will ease post-Brexit restrictions on touring, DfT says, but a better long-term solution remains elusive.

Music venues take cut of merch sales

19 Apr 2022

Academy Music Group (AMG) venues are taking a 25% cut from merchandise sales at live events, according to an investigation by The Guardian.

An undisclosed amount then goes to Universal Music Group (UMG), owners of the world’s three largest record labels, even if the artist in question is not signed to UMG.

In March, post-punk band Dry Cleaning hosted a pop-up merch store away from their gig at London’s O2 Forum, owned by AMG, to retain their profits.

“We probably sold the same number of units, but as we were able to retain 25% it worked out better for us financially,” Band Manager Helena Watmuff said.

Over 380 venues nationwide are included in the Featured Artists Coalition's (FAC) 100% Venues directory, a public database of venues that charge zero commission on artists' merchandise sales.

FAC CEO David Martin said these venues are making selling merchandise at gigs worthwile for artists: “[This creates] a fairer and more sustainable touring circuit, particularly for grassroots and emerging talent.”

Brexit scuppers British Phantom run

07 Apr 2022

A decision to replace a British production of Phantom of the Opera with a Chinese one "speaks volumes about the impact of the Government’s approach to supporting touring creatives".

The statement from DCMS Committee Chair Julian Knight comes after Jessica Koravos, President of the Really Useful Group, told MPs it was "more straightforward and less expensive" to tour the Chinese show in the EU.

Knight said this exemplifies the damage done to arts touring by Brexit.

"The mask has well and truly slipped on the true extent of the problems faced by the UK arts sector.

"The current EU visa arrangements are proving economically disastrous for our cultural industries by forcing them to play second fiddle to their international competitors, while having a hugely detrimental effect on the ability of the UK to exercise soft power by promoting Britain abroad post-Brexit.”

UK tours in EU ‘too expensive’

31 Mar 2022

Theatre company Really Useful Group has brought in a production of The Phantom of the Opera from China to tour the EU, because Brexit red tape made it “too expensive” to use a British one, a DCMS Committee has heard.

Really Useful Group promotes Andrew Lloyd Webber’s shows around the world. Its president, Jessica Koravos, told the committee she “would not dream of sending a UK production into Europe” under current circumstances.

She said it was “more straightforward and less expensive” to bring in a production from China 5,000 miles away.

The comment formed part of a DCMS Committee session on promoting Britain abroad, held earlier this week.

DCMS Chair Julian Knight said the situation “means that the mask has well and truly slipped on the true extent of the problems faced by the UK arts sector”.

“That one of the all-time great British musical impresarios would not now dream of taking a production rich in West End heritage into the EU from Britain speaks volumes about the impact of the government’s approach to supporting touring creatives.

“The current EU visa arrangements are proving economically disastrous for our cultural industries by forcing them to play second fiddle to their international competitors.”

Touring musicians fund offers £250k

30 Mar 2022

A £250,000 fund aimed at supporting touring musicians has been opened by Help Musicians.

Musicians can apply for grants up to £5,000 to put towards touring expenses and international administration fees such as visas.

The music charity is also funding broader access to immigration and visa specialists Viva La Visa, offering musicians 30 minutes of free telephone advice on the bureaucratic requirements of touring in Europe.

Help Musicians says it will support the advice service, previously available to Incorporated Society of Musicians and The Musicians’ Union members, for the next 18 months.

“My plea to the government is to use the 18 months of cover that this service provides to negotiate and put in place all that is needed to ensure friction-free touring for musicians in the EU,” Chief Executive James Ainscough said.

Taking art to rural Europe

Magnitudini by Michela Paolini
01 Mar 2022

A unique organisation that works in the rural communities of Somerset has expanded its horizons to Europe. Ralph Lister shares the story.

Touring exhibitions need local focus

21 Feb 2022

Amid Covid, Brexit and climate change, new touring models that prioritise collaboration with communities and other institutions provide a way forward, funders say.

Cabotage limits cost orchestras thousands

an orchestra rehearses in an auditorium
08 Feb 2022

Industry experts say the Government must adapt its plans for overseas touring this summer amidst a shortage of haulage trucks.

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