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A new All-Party Parliamentary Group for Performing Arts Education and Training is due to start work in March.

The Group aims to support MPs in discussions relating to training, education, assessment and professional practices across the performing arts, especially drama, dance and musical theatre. It will also explore the Continuing Professional Development of practitioners in the sector and aim to highlight the wider benefits of engaging with the performing arts for students, practitioners and audiences.

The Council for Dance, Drama and Musical Theatre, which provides quality assurance and membership services to institutions delivering training, education and assessment, was the driver behind the initiative. It will act as the secretariat and public enquiry point for the Group. This will include encouraging submissions from vocational training schools, conservatoires and awarding organisations on current issues in the sector.

Among the themes to be under review are the implications of Covid-19 and EU withdrawal; the need for more connections between state and private sector teaching; and Government support for world-class professional training in dance, drama and musical theatre.

The group, which will involve politicians from both the House of Commons and the Lords, will meet quarterly, chaired by Simon BaynesMP. Conservative MP for Clwyd South since 2019, he was a Choral Exhibitioner at Magdalene College, Cambridge, Chairman of the North Powys County Youth and Orchestra Band 2005 to 2012, served as a trustee of the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod and Mid-Wales Opera, and was the first Chairman of the Holroyd Community Theatre near Chirk. He is also Vice-Chair of the Theatre APPG.

Vice Chairs will be Lord Taylor of Warwick and Jack Lopresti MP, and members will include Lord Vaize of Didcot, Sharon Hodgson MP, Lord Aberdare and Lord Clement-Jones.

The published ceiling on grants from the second round of Culture Recovery Fund (CRF) awards is an “expectation rather than a fixed requirement”, according to a DCMS spokesperson.

The department had said that, on the advice of the Cabinet Office, they were accepting grant applications for up to only 25% of turnover, and no more than half of any award received through the first CRF round.

The Museums Association and other sector organisations raised concerns that the limits ceiling on the amount applicants can request in the current round be unfair to some of those in need of support.

DCMS is now saying it could be flexible about the amount organisations in England can apply for in this final funding round, which closes on 26th January.

“Applicants can ask for it if they can set out a case (including on seasonality of income)”, but Arts Council England – which will be assessing the applications – will be “scrutinising these cases closely”, the spokesperson confirmed.  

This round of grants can be used to cover spending from April to June 2021 – beyond the March deadline set for the first funding round.

The Culture Secretary is said to be examining ways to support the music industry amid touring difficulties post-Brexit.

The Financial Times reports that Oliver Dowden has also urged musicians to lobby the EU for kinder visa and work permit rules.

Dowden told industry leaders he would consider government support for artists facing extra costs. This could include assistance organising tours outside of Europe. 

Insolvency and a programme of mass redundancies have been avoided at Eden Court theatre in Inverness with “lifeline” funding of £800,000 from the Scottish Government, in addition to the £1.25m in emergency grants it received last year.

The latest award from the Scottish Government has been made in recognition of the way it reinvented itself in response to the pandemic. The venue opened its doors as the region's main humanitarian aid centre during the first lockdown, operating as a distribution centre for food parcels for people who were shielding.

CEO James Mackenzie-Blackman described the award as "investment in our future". Writing about the theatre's programming, he said: "We have reflected that the pandemic has propelled this work in a slightly new direction that excites us, and points to a potential future strand to the artistic vision for our organisation."

A new contemporary dance initiative supported by the Scottish Government’s Performing Arts Venue Relief Fund has announced its first two commissions, with each recipient awarded £35,000 to produce new work.

#LoveDanceScotland – a collaboration between Dance Base Scotland, Dundee Rep Theatre, and Scottish Dance Theatre & Tramway – has selected the dance-theatre company Shotput and queer performance artist FRAN.K. Shotput will present a live performance and photography project, while FRAN.K will be creating a durational film installation titled Living in the Space Between.

The commissions are intended to provide much-needed support for dance practitioners in Scotland as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to have a massive impact on livelihoods. Work for 33 freelancers will be created by the two commissions.

A further five artists who were shortlisted for the commissions have received £1000 each.

Lucy Ireland and Jim Manganello, co-artistic directors of Shotput, said: “This commission allows us to continue innovating our rehearsal and performance methods. In 2020, death did a fantastic job of isolating us. Now is the time to dance together, to let death enchant our living world.”

The need for an essential electrical upgrade has put an end to plans to reopen Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery to the public after the latest Covid lockdown.

The Museum now aims to reopen in time for the 2022 Commonwealth Games and the 160th anniversary of the birth of Birmingham’s collection, with refreshed displays that “re-invigorate its collection re-interpreting it for the 21st Century”. Paintings of landscapes, historic subjects and dignitaries from the past will go and the new We Are Birmingham display will present “a vibrant celebration of the city that Birmingham has become”, drawing on new artworks as well as historic items from Birmingham’s Collections.

In the meanwhile, Birmingham City Council, which owns the museum building and neighbouring Council House, will be undertaking the electrical work to future-proof the building and make it safe for staff and visitors. More than 2150 items from Birmingham’s collections will initially need to be moved, and a further 33,000 items placed in safe storage.

During the closure, the Museum will be taking artworks and items from the collections into schools, inviting Birmingham citizens to co-produce new displays for when the museum re-opens, sharing Birmingham’s collection through digital platforms, and staging a series of outdoor exhibitions.

All historic statues, plaques and other monuments now require full planning permission and public consultation to remove.

The new legal safeguards introduced by Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden and Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick are the latest move by the Government to keep controversial public artworks where they are.

Arts and cultural workers have warned the Government's heavy hand puts the arms'-length principle of arts funding at risk.

The Secretary of State is now able to "call in" any application to remove an object to ensure it adheres to the "retain and explain" model promoted by Historic England.

Jenrick said statues will only be removed in "the most exceptional circumstances".

"We cannot – and should not – now try to edit or censor our past... what has stood for generations should be considered thoughtfully, not removed on a whim."