The UK’s best outdoor arts companies will be helped to promote and export their work around the globe as part of a new three-year strategic programme.
NOW - derby feste - Kevin Ryan
Manchester-based XTRAX will be delivering more showcase events in the UK and abroad following a £300k award from Arts Council England’s International Showcasing fund. The money will be used to create Platform 4:UK, a programme that will develop new international markets for some of the best UK shows through involvement in UK and international festivals.
XTRAX has been delivering showcase events for outdoor performance in the UK for 14 years and is currently partnered with Greenwich+Docklands International Festival in London. The grant will allow it to form a new partnership with Out There Festival in Great Yarmouth, and a number of partnerships with international festivals will be announced in early 2016.
Outdoor performance is “thriving” across Europe and beyond, according to XTRAX founder and Director Maggie Clarke, but the UK is “currently under-represented”. She said: “Whilst we can’t influence the exchange rate, this grant will help us to compete more effectively, by enabling us to broker partnerships, develop expertise and share knowledge that will help us launch even more of the best outdoor artists from the UK on to the world stage.”
The latest figures from the DCMS reveal a growth in the value of exports from arts organisations that far outstrips any other area of the creative industries. £704m of music, performing and visual arts services were exported in 2013, a 146% increase on 2009.