News

A report examining how diversity characteristics are translated by audio describers has created a "blueprint" for organisations looking to adopt more active policies. The Describing Diversity report has been produced by theatre audio description specialists VocalEyes in partnership with Royal Holloway, University of London. It aims to support those wishing to describe the personal characteristics of characters that appear on stage, including the visible, physical markers of race, gender, impairment / disability, age and body shape. The findings will form the basis for developing a common understanding and rationale for any proposed changes to the practice of audio description.

Square Chapel Arts Centre, which went into administration in March, has been taken over by the team at Arts At The Mill. They have formed a new company, Square Chapel CIC, to run the venue.

Arts At The Mill is the umbrella organisation for Wigan organisations The Old Courts, Wigan Pier and The Royal Court Theatre, and has been supported in its take-over by Arts Council England and Calderdale Council. Dave Jenkins, Managing Director, said: "There will be every opportunity to input into the future planning and as new custodians of the arts centre, we are very much ready to listen and support the ambitions of the community, freelancers and artists who have been severely impacted by the Covid-19 Pandemic.”

Manchester City Council is pressing Culture Minister Caroline Dineage to see for herself the scale of the problems still facing the cultural sector in the city. Their invitation to her follows letters sent in July to the Secretary of State for Culture and Chancellor of the Exchequer asking for additional support for the culture sector in Manchester, to which no direct response was received. Councillor Luthfur Rahman, Executive Member for Culture, Leisure, and Skills, said the city's cultrual organisations "need direct intervention and additional support right now to keep them breathing until they’re allowed to open up their doors to audiences again, as well as a proper plan put in place that tells them when they can do this, and under what terms. "

The Mayflower Theatre Trust is to take over the Studio 144 building in Southampton, formerly home to the Nuffield Theatre which went into administration earlier this year. Southampton City Council is granting £500k over two years and a new 35-year lease to Mayflower Academy Limited, the company created to operate the theatre, which is now named MAST Mayflower Studios. The move coincides with the commercial launch of Southampton's bid for the City of Culture 2025 title, which aims to "finally give people a reason to come to Southampton rather than go through it".

An open letter protesting that “multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multilingual workers from low-income backgrounds” are about to be cut out of the arts sector has been signed by 300 artists, including several former Turner prize winners. The letter, in support of  Tate workers who are on strike over the 313 job cuts across Tate Enterprises, is demanding that the organisation uses 10% of the £7m it received from the government to stop redundancies.

Dance group Diversity, which won the talent show Britain's Got Talent in 2009, has attracted 15,500 complaints to Ofcom, the communications regulator, for a TV performance based on the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in the US. Ofcom told The Guardian: “We are assessing this content against our broadcasting rules, but are yet to decide whether or not to investigate.”