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Set up in May 2002, the Northamptonshire Touring Arts Agency is one of the newest touring schemes in the country.

It is an unusual collaboration of all the eight local authorities in Northamptonshire and New Perspectives Theatre Company, which manages the one full-time member of staff, says Fiona Clayton. The agency is financially supported over three years by the East Midlands Lottery Programme and is a member of the National Rural Touring Forum (NRTF) the umbrella body that represents 35 touring schemes throughout England, Scotland and Wales.

We have a broad and ambitious remit. The steering group involved in its inception was keen for us to become an integral element of the arts infrastructure of Northamptonshire, working with a wide range of partners and encouraging communities to experience the arts as audience and participant. We sit naturally within New Perspectives, which has grown from producing touring theatre into an arts development organisation with offices in Mansfield, Rufford and Daventry. The company believes that involvement in the arts can increase understanding between individuals and communities. It aims to bring people together in a shared experience, to create a sense of belonging, to enhance relationships, to raise confidence and to develop community spirit. This may happen via an evening of theatre in a village hall, at a singing workshop or creating a community garden. While our key role is to co-ordinate the touring of professional theatre, music and dance, this too is integrated with a participatory programme that can involve any artform.

Community touring is not a new concept in Northamptonshire: a number of theatre and music companies have been performing in village halls, community centres and churches throughout the county for many years. These companies have established strong relationships with the places they visit. We have a role to support this existing work but also to increase the number of events taking place and to encourage a more diverse programme of touring product. We have a responsibility to develop community touring where none has taken place previously and where opportunities to experience the arts are limited. In a diverse county such as Northamptonshire one of the challenges is to ensure that a community centre in the middle of Corby, for example, has as much opportunity to host touring product as an affluent village in the south of the county. Touring schemes rely on a network of voluntary promoters who choose shows from a ?menu? and promote the event to their community. This can be quite a daunting task and in some areas promoters are easier to find and more readily skilled than in others. We put as much emphasis on developing the skills and confidence of promoters as on audiences. So we organise information evenings, training events, showcases and schemes which encourage promoters to see shows in other venues.

The first tour will take place next Spring, made possible by the relationship between promoter and performer. Throughout the county people will have the opportunity to see high quality art including theatre, classical music, folk, puppetry, storytelling, world music, jazz, comedy and dance in a familiar venue. People of all ages will come together to have fun, be entertained, inspired and moved. They will pay no more than £5 for their ticket and travel the short distance to their local community centre or village hall. They will probably know the person on the door, the person behind the bar and the one selling raffle tickets. By the end of the performance they will feel they know the performers too.

Fiona Clayton is Manager of Northamptonshire Touring Arts Agency:
t: 01327 701655; e: {fionaclayton@newperspectives.co.uk;}
w:http://www.newperspectives.co.uk