Arts Council England unveils major scheme to assist regional touring

Arts Council England has launched a new initiative called Incentivising Touring, aimed at bolstering touring theatre and dance productions across England.

The scheme will provide repayable grants to help producers tour larger-scale productions to regional venues. This new funding model, developed in consultation with over 65 organisations, seeks to address financial challenges in regional touring and aims to increase public access to theatre and dance across England.

The Incentivising Touring scheme offers grants of up to 25 per cent of a production’s initial capitalisation costs, with a maximum cap of £500,000 per production. This model intends to reduce financial risks for producers, encouraging boards and investors to back touring productions and attracting additional investment. The programme’s total budget of £5 million will be split across two funding rounds, with the pilot phase intended to test the model’s viability for a longer-term rollout.

Tours supported by the scheme must visit at least four venues in England outside of inner London, though additional stops in London, other UK regions, and international venues are permitted.

If a supported production achieves commercial success, producers are expected to return the investment to Arts Council England, which will then reinvest the funds into other tours. This “recycling” of funds aims to create a sustainable funding mechanism to support more large-scale touring projects in the future. Feedback and evaluation from the pilot will inform the development of a potential longer-term programme.

In addition to the launch of Incentivising Touring, Arts Council England has commissioned a study to examine the current touring landscape for theatre, dance, music, and combined arts in the UK. An external reference group will contribute to this research, with plans to co-author findings with sector representatives by 2025. This study is expected to provide valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities within the touring ecosystem.

Hannah Lake, director of touring at Arts Council England, said today: “As the national development agency for arts and culture, an important part of our role is to have close dialogue and work with the many different parts of the sector to develop ways to best support their work.

“Touring high quality work at scale is a vital part of our arts and culture ecology, enabling exciting theatre and dance productions to reach more people. Listening to the industry, we’ve heard just how tough touring is right now, so we’ve worked together to create the Arts Council‘s first repayable grant scheme. The scheme will incentivise productions to tour at scale, shoulder some of the risk that touring entails, and deliver more great work to more people, in more places.”

Kate Varah, executive director and co-chief executive of the National Theatre, continued: “Touring is essential for the National Theatre. It allows us to bring people together, spark imagination and share stories with audiences across the UK. Yet, rising post-pandemic costs make touring nearly unaffordable, for all but the most commercial propositions. The Arts Council England’s Incentivising Touring Scheme offers an innovative new way forward, providing vital support and empowering theatres and producers to create, tour, and present a broad range of high-quality productions to audiences nationwide.

“This support also delivers significant economic benefits to organisations, artists and employees. Recent research shows that the National Theatre’s War Horse generated £9 million for the Greater Manchester economy during a run at the Lowry, underscoring the positive impact of a strong, sustainable touring ecosystem. By strengthening the touring network, this much needed funding from Arts Council England will power quality drama and help bridge cultural and economic divides across the UK.”

The scheme complements the Arts Council’s existing National Lottery Project Grants dedicated to touring, which have allocated over £27 million across 257 projects since November 2021. This new funding model offers additional support, specifically tailored to larger-scale productions with commercial potential, as a means of expanding audience opportunities and supporting local economies through the arts.

Kash Bennett, managing director of National Theatre Productions and President of the Society of London Theatre, continued: “Everyone deserves access to theatre no matter where they live. As SOLT President I look forward to continuing to work with UK Theatre, Arts Council England and other colleagues to learn from this innovative programme and ensure that touring becomes more sustainable.

“I started out in my career being a stage manager on touring productions, and now I deliver touring shows for the National Theatre. I know firsthand that touring is a vital, but fragile, part of our theatre ecosystem. The Incentivising Touring scheme is a great initiative that can alleviate some of the financial risk of touring larger-scale productions and ensure audiences across the country have the opportunity to experience world-class theatre.”

Birmingham Hippodrome’s artistic director and chief executive, plus joint president of UK Theatre, Jon Gilchrist concluded: “From my role as Joint President of UK Theatre, from our members and the members of SOLT, I’m conscious that there is no shortage of brilliant work which would resonate with audiences across the UK. All that’s needed is a little support to unlock it.

“Birmingham Hippodrome has been at the heart of the city for 125 years, providing world-class cultural experiences for people of all ages. We rely on our relationships with extraordinary companies and producers to curate a diverse theatre programme for West Midlands audiences. But this is getting harder and harder with rising costs, a difficult touring climate and a funding landscape that is already stretched. I welcome the wider report into touring and the pilot Incentivising Touring scheme which is a critical intervention to support artistic excellence and stimulate economic growth.”