ACE touring grants aim to improve access

£3m is being awarded to nine bidders to the first round of Arts Council England’s (ACE) new strategic touring fund, which was established to encourage collaboration between organisations to reach more people across England, especially those who live in places with low levels of arts engagement and those that that rely on touring for much of their arts provision.

The biggest grant, worth almost £1.1m, has been earmarked to enable Tate to present Artist Rooms On Tour 2013-15, a touring exhibition through a network of 36 associate venues. The programme will be supported by digital resources and participatory learning activities for young people, and aims to give 2.9 million people access to high quality artwork. A further £1m goes to Dance East to present ‘Kinder Dance’, a three-year project to commission and distribute dance made for children and their families across six English regions. But not all the projects are of this scale – a £40k grant goes to Faceless Outdoor Performance and Community Arts to present outdoor performances and tented creative activities for families at small scale events in 12 areas in the Wakefield District, and to provide training and event support for local volunteer organisers. The other successful applicants are Creative Arts East, Theatre Hullabaloo, Root Music Ltd, Asian Arts Agency, The Play House (B’ham) Ltd, and The Demon Barbers. A further £12m will be allocated through five more rounds of touring grants over the next three years, during which period a total of £45m of Lottery funds will be distributed through ACE’s strategic touring programme.