Birmingham Arts Marketing (BAM) is extending its remit to serve the whole of the West Midlands and has been renamed Audiences Central. The new agency will have a regional brief to develop the marketing and audience development capacity of arts organisations, encourage joint working and undertake research.
A festival showcasing children?s performance art from across Europe will take place at South Hill Park Arts Centre in Bracknell from June 9-13. The Children?s International Arts Organisation (Ciao!) festival will conclude with a conference addressing key issues in programming international work for children. t: 01865 351053; w: http://www.ciaofestival.org.uk
Y Dance, formerly Scottish Youth Dance, has launched a new interactive Dance CD-ROM to encourage children to take up dance. 321-GO, which is hosted by a frog called Gorf, is designed for teachers and youth leaders. w: http://www.ydance.org
Sheffield Theatres have joined forces with South Yorkshire bus operator First to offer return bus tickets to and from the theatres for £1. t: 0114 249 6000.
Estelle Morris will launch Fast Track 2004 on April 1. The ITC-administered scheme is designed to improve the representation of Black and Asian people in arts management. t: 020 7089 6826.
Northern Ballet Theatre and Mencap are establishing a number of projects across the country to generate increased dance opportunities for children and adults with a learning disability. w: http://www.northernballettheatre.co.uk
A new website to create a cultural atlas of Northern Ireland has been launched. The site will attempt to draw together information on all cultural activities in Northern Ireland and will cover 300 separate towns, villages and rural communities.
w: http://www.culturenorthernireland.org
In a joint initiative, The Arts Council of Northern Ireland and The Arts Council of Ireland have established a website to provide listings information of cultural activity throughout Ireland. The website has been designed to promote the island of Ireland to external investors as well as providing information for tourists and residents. w: http://www.artslistings.com
As part of Liverpool?s Biennial, a conference on March 27 at John Moore?s University will focus on the relationship between international and local artistic production. t: 0151 709 7444;
e: l.woodsmoses@biennial.org.uk; w: http://www.biennial.org.uk
A new arts award for young people, constructed along similar lines to the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme, is being piloted by Arts Council England. The scheme crosses all art forms and the pilot project is designed to establish the award?s equivalence to other qualifications and its value to employers.
e: artsawardregister@artscouncil.org.uk; w: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk
Visiting Arts is compiling a database to provide an online directory of Scottish arts and culture organisations. The Scotland Cultural Profile will be designed as a resource for international promoters and presenters. t: 0131 524 5715;
e: scotlandculturalprofile@britishcouncil.org
The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra?s schools? concerts played to over 13,000 primary age schoolchildren over the course of one week earlier this month. The orchestra ran two concerts a day at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall during the week of March 15 to tie in with Key Stage 2 of the National Curriculum.