The York Theatre Royal’s site-specific production of The Railway Children at the National Rail Museum has been named ‘Best Tourism Experience of the Year’ at the 2009 White Rose Awards for Tourism. The production won ‘Best Visitor Experience’ at the York Tourism Awards for Excellence earlier this year, and sold over 26,000 tickets in 2008/09.
Arts About Manchester and the Audience Alliance are in the process of becoming the new audience development agency for the North West. The new agency will support arts and cultural organisations across the five North West sub-regions to develop their audiences.
http://www.aam.org.uk
The Crafts Council has launched ‘Crafts Council Collective’, a programme of support for craft makers. It will provide makers with a range of opportunities and resources, including an award scheme that will make a maximum of five awards of up to £10,000 (plus a compulsory 25% investment by the recipient) each year to makers who submit proposals to change or further their craft practice.
http://www.craftscouncil.org.uk
A review of stage managers’ tax status is being undertaken by HM Revenue and Customs. Equity is asking its stage management members to complete a short survey by 30 November. Most of Equity’s stage management members are self-employed taxpayers, which enables the deduction of expenses from gross profits, thereby reducing taxable income.
http://www.tinyurl.com/yzvtfll
West End theatre members of media and entertainment union BECTU have agreed to an interim pay deal. From October, rates of pay for staff covered by the Society of London Theatre’s agreement with BECTU will increase by 2.5%.
http://www.bectu.org.uk
A new website, ‘Never Seen Live’, has been launched by audience development agency Audiences South, to allow Hampshire residents a chance to ‘test drive’ culture free of charge. Twenty venues are already offering free tickets, including the Salisbury Playhouse, New Theatre Royal Portsmouth, the Anvil in Basingstoke and the Lights in Andover.
http://www.neverseenlive.com
Reality TV shows searching for a star for West End musicals have encouraged theatre-going amongst television viewers, according to research into the ‘Saturday Night TV Effect’ by The Society of London Theatre (SOLT). A second piece of research from SOLT, which analysed audiences for West End productions that have and have not been featured in such TV casting shows, found that audiences for productions featured on TV remain demographically similar to those for other West End shows.
http://www.solttma.co.uk
A lack of continuity, transport barriers, and a lack of useful one-to-one support and mentoring, are the main issues affecting how Deaf and disabled artists in the South West access professional development, according to ‘Here and Now’, a new report from Arts Council England. Forty-four per cent of Deaf or disabled respondents spent more than £200 a year on their professional development, but 24% spent nothing, reflecting the constraints of travel and finance.
Fundraisers worldwide predict that arts, heritage and culture organisations will suffer “the most severe negative impact” as a result of the recession, according to a survey conducted by The Management Centre. The survey explores the views of 126 leading fundraising directors and sector experts across the world about the impact of the financial crisis on the not-for-profit sector. Fifty per cent of respondents reported a decline in income over the past year, and only 33% saw an increase.
http://www.managementcentre.co.uk
A new venue, the Cardiff Arts Institute, will open in November, to host live music, club nights and arts events. The Institute is a collaboration between 508 Limited, creators of the Field Day Festival and Cardiff’s Something Creatives.
http://www.cardiffartsinstitute.org