The new £7.6m Theatre at the Mill has opened in Newtownabbey in Northern Ireland. The new theatre comprises a 400-seat auditorium, foyer cafe, offices, dressing rooms, green room and the latest technical equipment.
http://www.theatreatthemill.com
BALTIC and NHS North East/Change4Life have launched a region-wide initiative to promote a healthy lifestyle by encouraging movement through art. The project, ‘Action Art!’, will include public events and a school competition with a prize fund of £10,000.
http://change4life@balticmill.com
‘Regional Spaces, National Stages: Performance beyond London 1945–2010’, a symposium at the University of Reading, is calling for papers on regional theatre. It aims to explore the relationships between subsidy, policy and practice. Abstracts of 250 words should be emailed by 31 May.
http://www.reading.ac.uk/ftt/research/
ftt-givingvoice.aspx
g.saunders@reading.ac.uk
Fifty-five arts organisation have been accepted onto the AmbITion Scotland programme, which offers support for digital development and sustainable change to encourage and improve levels of public engagement. Members can access events, networking opportunities, a knowledge base about the use of digital technologies in the arts and creative industries, and advice.
http://www.getambition.com
The Camden Theatre Consortium and Camden Council’s Arts and Tourism service are to launch an online scheme to support the borough’s creative producers in a bid to increase local audiences. The scheme will enable people to offer skills, time or donations to potential theatre projects in the area in exchange for incentives such as tickets, special event invitations or credits in the programme.
http://www.camdentheatres.com
Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre will reopen this month following the completion of its two-year, £15.3m redevelopment. The refurbishment included a new thrust stage, and energy efficiency measures which have reduced the theatre’s carbon footprint by ten tonnes per annum.
http://www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk
A new opera company is to be formed in Northern Ireland by merging the resources of Castleward Opera and Opera Fringe. Based in County Down, Opera Company NI will create more training and development opportunities for local musicians and singers.
A new report on creative learning published by Ofsted (the Office for Standards in Education) has praised the work of organisations including Creative Partnerships (CP) in developing creative approaches to learning and teaching. ‘Learning: creative approaches that raise standards’ evaluates and illustrates the work of 44 schools, including 18 which are working with CP. The report calls for the development of partnerships between higher education, business and schools, and for creative approaches to be included in curriculum planning and teachers’ professional development.
London’s West End had its most successful year ever in 2009, with box office receipts of more than £500m and audiences of more than 14 million for the first time. New figures from the Society of London Theatres show growth despite the recession, with revenue for 2009 up by 8% on the previous year, and audiences up by 6%. Play audiences were up 26% on last year, while musicals suffered a 2% decline.
The Council of Equity, the actors’ union, has signed off on two new pay deals. Agreements with the Independent Theatre Council and the Theatrical Management Association will raise weekly minimum wages to £400 by April 2011.
Weapons of Mass Collaboration
Crowdsourcing is about us problem-solving together using Web 2.0 solutions. We’d like to use this approach to create an article for our forthcoming feature on digital opportunities, edited by Marcus Romer of Pilot Theatre.
Please follow the @artspro account and #artspro hashtag on Twitter from 10.00am on Monday 18th February to get involved.