New focus and less cash for touring

Arts Council England (ACE) has reduced its budget for touring after just over £10m of the £45m budgeted for its 2012-15 Strategic Touring Programme was left unspent. Only £35m is available for the 2015-18 programme – including £2.25m in Lottery funds that is ring-fenced for international touring – £10m less than the previous three years. £6.6m of this has already been awarded following a “real upturn” in the number of applications, which could leave the fund oversubscribed. 

During the 2012-15 programme 410 applications requesting a total of £85m were assessed, but just 40% of these were successful, and only £34.4m was awarded. The majority of applications were received and 43% of funds awarded during the first year. During the latter two years the number of applications fell, but the success rate rose from 31% to 48%. A spokesperson for ACE told AP: “The main aim of the Strategic Touring programme is to develop audiences across the country… We didn’t receive enough applications that strongly met these objectives, and this affected the number and value of the grants given.” They also speculated that the national portfolio application process in 2014 could have led to a drop in applications towards the end of the programme.

ACE cites a drop in its overall budget for strategic funds – from £153m in 2014/15 to £104m in 2015/16 – as the reason for the cut-back in its new programme, which has also been refocused. The 2012-15 programme encouraged applications for projects involving work by and for children and young people, and people from diverse backgrounds: this year it is looking to fund work that “reflects the diversity of local communities and/or contemporary England,” as well as more inbound international work and more mid-scale theatre.

Theatre was the most funded artform last year, receiving 37% of funds. ACE last year issued a call for more literature and dance-based proposals, and is carrying on this focus this year. Literature and dance received the smallest share of strategic touring funds in 2012/13, but this increased last year, leaving visual arts the least supported with just 9% of the total funds awarded.

Of the £10m that was left unspent during the 2012-15 programme, £8m has been carried forward to the current programme, while £2m has been redirected to the Grants for the Arts programme.