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The National Lottery Heritage Innovation Fund has announced 17 organisations that will benefit from a share of £1.17m of funding to explore how challenges facing the sector’s workforce can be overcome.

The grants, worth between £50,000 and £75,000, will support a staff member for up to 12 months to test solutions for issues ranging from recruitment and retention of volunteers and heritage skills shortages to attracting young people to the sector and improving digital products and capacity.

This testing phase is the second of the programme’s three stages, which started with 34 organisations. Of these, 17 will progress to the test phase, while a third phase is planned for late 2024.

Projects moving to the second stage include the British Film Institute, which will test new entry routes to film conservation and the role of formal accreditation in professionalising the practice.

Meanwhile, Hampshire Cultural Trust will look at different approaches to creating paid career pathways for volunteers across heritage organisations.

Eilish McGuinness, Chief Executive of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: "I'm delighted to see these 17 projects progress to the next stage. The cohort approach has already led to some impressive development of skills, confidence and capabilities – I'm excited for what they come up with next.

"Investing in innovation supports organisational sustainability, one of our four investment principles, and will ensure that heritage is valued, cared for and sustained for everyone, now and in the future."
 

The Royal Opera House has announced a three-year programme of work in Bradford ahead of its tenure as City of Culture in 2025.

Beginning with a Christmas concert at Bradford Cathedral in December, the Covent Garden-based company will partner with organisations in West Yorkshire to provide a range of events, performances and activities for young people and local communities.

Working with schools across the region, the Royal Opera House will bring some of its existing educational initiatives to the city, including Create & Sing, Create & Dance, and Create & Design programmes, offering students and teachers free resources, workshops and shows.
 
It will also roll out its talent development program for aspiring ballet dancers, Chance to Dance, to local primary and dance schools. 

The Royal Opera House is the second Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation to announce a cultural collaboration this week after the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra unveiled a three-year programme of concerts, community events and educational activities in the Cumbrian port of Barrow-in-Furness.

Alex Beard, Chief Executive of the Royal Opera House, said: “We believe the arts have the capacity to change lives, and I hope that this partnership and the many events, performances and activities that come out of it, alongside the work we will be doing with teachers and schools across the region, will inspire imaginations across this great city over the many years ahead.”

Proposed cuts to English National Opera's (ENO) chorus will cause "profound anxiety" to freelance singers and have "repercussions" that will "ripple across the entire UK opera workforce", according to members of performers' union Equity.

Equity's Singers and Opera Deputies Committees have released a joint statement expressing its concern over the impact of job losses and pay cuts to ENO’s chorus.

According to Equity, the proposals include reducing the chorus' contract length from 10 to six months of the year and a 40% cut in salary. It would also see a reduction in the size of the chorus on the new six-month "permanent" contracts to 36 singers, down from its current membership of 37 and three fixed-term fellowship positions. 

The cuts emerged alongside plans to downsize ENO's orchestra and cut some of its technical staff.

In the statement, the committees were critical of ACE's handling of ENO's core funding. It said: "These cuts have not occurred in isolation. Arts organisations are looking to rebuild after the pandemic with insufficient public funding.

"When Arts Council England removed ENO from the National Portfolio in November 2022, it did so seemingly without any strategy or rationale behind how funding decisions were made.

“Meanwhile, cuts were also made to other companies, which have reduced the amount of work available for singers, both in terms of the amount of opera produced and the number of singers engaged, putting the workforce under strain.

"Towns and cities such as Milton Keynes and Liverpool will be deprived of large-scale touring opera, running directly counter to the aims of bringing opera to new and regionally diverse audiences.

"Regular work, underpinned by good terms and conditions, is vital in ensuring that those from all backgrounds can access, and remain in, a career in opera.”

The committees have urged ENO to find “a sustainable solution” that would “protect the employment” of chorus members “with a viable income” and called upon ACE to develop a strategy to “provide funding for the public provision of Opera for all, including its dedicated workforce."

ENO has said the cuts are necessary following a reduction in its funding from ACE. The company, which has until 2029 to move its headquarters out of London under ACE plans, has said that following negotiations with the funding body, it was “no longer facing mass permanent redundancies” but was reevaluating employment levels “across every part of the organisation”. 

An arts charity which helps children and vulnerable people has announced that it will close due to financial pressures and falling volunteer numbers.

The Bridge Centre for Visual Arts (The Bridge) in Darlington said it will close permanently on 31 March 2024.

"The last few years have been challenging ones, as they have been for many charities," a statement issued by the charity said.

"Even with financial support from various grants provided, the current income falls well short of the core costs of operating The Bridge. As a registered charity, the Trustees would be irresponsible to knowingly let the charity run into bankruptcy."

The statement added that a "rapidly dwindling" number of volunteers able to give the time and effort needed to keep The Bridge in operation was also a consideration in the decision. 

"The few remaining were finding it an increasing burden and, for a variety of understandable reasons, are unable to increase that personal support," it said.

Multi-arts venue Summerhall has announced it is setting up a charity in a bid to become “Edinburgh’s leading arts organisation”.

The company said that the action had been planned “for a long time” but that the charity’s launch was “now urgent and necessary at a time of drastic cuts in the arts and culture sector”. 

The new venture, called Summerhall Arts, will be based within the Summerhall venue but governed independently from the organisation’s existing commercial operations, which will continue to be run by Summerhall Management Ltd. 

Summerhall Arts will offer a year-round theatre programme as well as independent cinema, live music, spoken word and exhibitions. A key focus of the organisation will be providing a platform for new work and emerging talent across multiple arts with commissions and access to free development spaces. 

Housed in a sprawling former Veterinary College, Summerhall already hosts a diverse range of artistic activities and performances, as well as private hire events, and has become a key hub during the Edinburgh Festival. During its 12-year history, it has never received public funding.

According to a report in The Scotsman, the new charity will be seeking support from Creative Scotland in its next major funding round, as well as approaching supporters, philanthropists, trusts and commercial sponsors to fund its work.

A talent development organisation has launched a fundraising appeal to support the next generation of jazz musicians.

The Tomorrow’s Warriors charity aims to raise £100,000 through its #IAMWARRIOR appeal to help sustain its free-to-access Young Artist Development and Emerging Artist Programmes. 

Music Week reports that the organisation relies on the support of funding and donations to continue to deliver its learning programmes that provide music education to the next generation of jazz musicians, with a focus on young women and those from diverse and low-income backgrounds. 

Mercury Prize winners Ezra Collective are among jazz musicians to have previously benefitted from the programme.

DJ and broadcaster Gilles Peterson said: “Tomorrow's Warriors occupies a unique and vital space in our cultural landscape. Their work in helping positively shape future generations is of critical importance, especially in light of the tribulations we currently face." 

Manchester City Council is calling on residents and cultural organisations to have their say on a new decade-long plan for culture.  

The local authority has said it is keen to understand what types of creativity residents are interested in. It is seeking "ideas big and small" across everything from art, performance, galleries and museums to more hands-on art and craft opportunities.

The current 10-year strategy runs until 2026. The consultation on the new strategy will be open until 30 November 2023.

Luthfur Rahman, Deputy Leader of Manchester City Council, said: “Manchester has a global reputation for arts and culture, bolstered in no small part by the opening of Aviva Studios recently. 

"We are renowned for our nightlife, music and museums and we want to make sure that culture is an integral part of our communities over the next 10 years.  

“This conversation involves everyone – your ideas could be big, they might be small. But they will all help guide culture in our city."

Scottish Opera's plans for its new location on a former industrial estate have been released.

The regeneration project, currently in the consultation stages, will see the Glasgow-based company relocate its head office from the city's Charing Cross area to new premises on Spiers Wharf.

The new premises will sit between the existing Edington Street production studios and the canal towpath. Plans for the mixed-use development will incorporate rehearsal and performance spaces as well as film facilities, office and production space and two student accommodation blocks.

Scottish Opera’s new home will include an education and outreach hub with adaptable performance spaces that can function as a recording studio.

The consultation proposal states that the submitted development plans would “help to secure Scottish Opera’s presence within Glasgow for the next 60-plus years by rationalising and consolidating three of our current scattered five premises under one roof to demonstrate measurable economic, business, and artistic advantage”. 

Scottish Opera will submit its complete planning application in early 2024, with construction expected to begin in early 2025.