Audiences Wales, the arts marketing and audience development agency for Wales, has published a new guide to market research. The latest ‘Learning On Demand’ guide is available free from the Audiences Wales website, and offers an overview of market research, to equip arts organisations with a clear understanding of the techniques involved and how they can apply them.
w: http://www.tinyurl.com/ofeqna

A partnership between the exam board Edexcel and the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (ISTD) means that young people taking extra-curricular dance classes are now able to use dance qualifications to help them gain a Creative and Media Diploma. It is hoped that, by recognising dance outside school within an academic qualification, more young dancers will continue to attend classes. The ISTD qualifications can be used as Specialist Learning within the Creative and Media Diploma, and as Additional Learning in all other Diplomas. In addition, the ISTD also offers four qualifications so that Diploma students can start learning to teach dance before they leave full-time education.
w: http://www.istd.org

Wigmore Hall has taken over the management and development of Music for Life, the programme of creative music workshops for people with dementia. The new commitment follows a three-year collaboration between the venue’s Community and Education programme and Music for Life. In addition to the core workshop programme, Music for Life works to build the skills required for professional musicians to interact with older people and their carers in residential and day-care settings. It will extend the base of musicians able to lead workshops, and together with partner charity for dementia will expand development projects with care staff.
w: http://www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

Pitlochry Festival Theatre, one of Scotland’s major producing theatres, is developing a new facility for production, rehearsal and education. It has just completed the purchase of part of the former Hydro Board premises on the historic Port-na-Craig House Estate adjacent to the theatre, and is now embarking on a programme of conversion and development. The project will cost in excess of £1.25m and has been fully funded by its fundraising campaign.
w: http://www.pitlochry.org.uk

The Association of British Theatre Technicians (ABTT) and PLASA – the body for those working in the live events, entertainment and communication industries – will endorse each other’s skills initiatives. PLASA Qualifications became an Awarding Body in 2008 as part of its aim to become the ‘Industry Awarding Body’, to help ensure that the industry has the right skills and professional development opportunities. The ABTT has been running its Gold, Silver and Bronze Training Awards for over ten years and in that time over 500 individuals have completed the courses.
w: http://www.abtt.org.uk; http://www.plasa.org

Royal Court Liverpool Trust has been awarded a grant by the Heritage Lottery Fund through its Young Roots programme, to allow 20 young people from Liverpool’s inner city to explore the 70-year history and heritage of the Royal Court Theatre. The group will interview a range of people who have memories of the theatre, research the history of the building through the Liverpool Records Office and the North West Sound Archive, and finally turn their research into a performance in the theatre.
w: http://www.royalcourttrust.org

Garsington Opera has won a dispute with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) over its method of calculation for recovery of Input Tax in relation to its status as a Partially Exempt Charitable Company. The tribunal supported the appeal against the position of HMRC on “all the points in dispute”. Garsington Opera was also awarded full costs of the appeal and can now claim back approximately £250,000.
w: http://www.garsingtonopera.org

The ‘Reach the Heights’ initiative has been awarded £49m to help around 30,000 11–19 year-olds in Wales to improve their career opportunities. The funding will support two projects: ‘First Footholds’, which will work with disadvantaged young people to help them tackle the barriers that prevent them from remaining in school and moving on into further learning, and ‘Routes to the Summit’, which aims to raise skills and aspirations, and expand opportunities to gain work-related skills. Both projects will be delivered collaboratively with a range of sponsors including the Arts Council of Wales, Community Music Wales, Techniquest, SNAP Cymru and Urdd Gobaith Cymru.
w: http://www.tinyurl.com/ontjnqn