Education

African theatre company Utopia Theatre has secured dedicated new premises for its recently launched Youth Academy in Sheffield.

The Youth Academy launched earlier this year and will move from its current home in St Mary’s Church to the new venue in the coming months. 

Utopia Theatre will use the new space to host workshops and performing arts classes for young people of African and Caribbean descent, as well as those from other minority groups. It will also offer a mentoring and training programme. 

The new venue is a 171-square-metre former hairdressing shop unit, located on The Moor. It was secured with the help of Hammond Associates, a Leeds-based company that specialises in making empty commercial property available to artists, arts and community-based charities.

The new premises, which are being offered rent and service-charge free on a temporary basis by landlord NewRiver Retail, will be fitted with workshop and rehearsal spaces.

The theatre will also maintain its base at The Crucible Theatre, where it is a resident company.

“It’s important that our Youth Academy members, alongside our brilliant team at Utopia Theatre, feel a sense of belonging and ownership and I’m confident this will provide a fantastic collaborative, supportive and vibrant workshop and rehearsal space,” said Mojisola Kareem-Elufowoju, Chief Executive and Artistic Director of Utopia Theatre.

“It’s also important for us to be able to play our part in the regeneration and re-use of The Moor in Sheffield, so bringing a new lease of life to this area of the city is a real bonus. 

“We are immensely proud of our Sheffield roots and it’s brilliant to be able to play our part in shaping the future of the area by making use of commercial space which is otherwise unused.” 

Leaders from across the UK’s screen sectors are set to work together through a Skills Task Force that will address skill shortages in the industry.

The body features more than 20 senior representatives from major broadcasters, studios and streaming platforms, including the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Netflix and Sky.

Three focused workstreams have been established: industry training and investment, improving access to the Apprenticeship Levy and pathways to industry from further and higher education.

The immediate focus of the task force will be skills in physical production across film, high-end television, scripted comedy and drama, unscripted production including entertainment and factual entertainment genres, and children’s TV.

Animation, post-production, and visual effects will be addressed in a second phrase of work via a dedicated workstream.

Where appropriate, the task force will make recommendations to the government.

Chair of the project Georgia Brown, former Head of Amazon Studios, said: “If we want to accelerate growth and build a sustainable industry, we must accelerate change by creating a robust framework to develop, support, train and ignite the next generation of talent.

“It’s an honour to work collaboratively with colleagues from across the industry to lead this important work.”

A performing arts franchise in Swansea is under new ownership following a six-figure funding package from HSBC.

Swansea’s Stagecoach Performing Arts franchise includes eight schools – three main, four early and one further stages school - and caters for around 400 performing arts students aged four to 18.

It is part of the Stagecoach Performing Arts network, which was been operational for 26 years, and is the largest network of part-time performing arts schools in the UK.

The Swansea franchise has been acquired by teacher Kelly-Marie Rosina Williams and her husband Benn.

The HSBC funding will facilitate growth and expansion plans, including the creation of a new school and early-years class.

Williams, Principal at Stagecoach Performing Arts Swansea, commented : “Students are the heart of the Stagecoach Performing Arts school, and it is my goal to ensure they continue to thrive throughout this seamless transition which simply wouldn’t have been possible without the support of HSBC UK.”

The world’s first degree in Intimacy Practice will launch in September.

Intimacy on Set and Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts have partnered with the University of East Anglia to offer the two-year course, led by intimacy practitioner Ita O’Brien.

The degree will prepare students to enter the industry as intimacy coordinators for film and visual media, including theatre and live performance.

O’Brien pioneered the role of intimacy practitioner and has worked with production companies and organisations including the BBC, Netflix, Amazon, Apple TV, Channel 4, HBO, Sky, ITV, the National Theatre and The Royal Opera House.

Her company, Intimacy on Set, is launching the new course in response to the growing industry demand for intimacy practitioners.

“I am delighted that we are today launching the world’s first training in Intimacy Practice at MFA level, and specifically with Mountview where I taught movement some years ago,” O’Brien said.

“Intimacy Practice is a young profession, and whilst awareness of its existence has grown considerably in the last few years, deep understanding of good practice is missing.”

To further develop the profession, “we need to be able to train talented individuals who can navigate the both physical and emotional journey that each actor will go on, and can responsibly and safely deliver the intimate content as envisioned by the director, the storytelling and each character,” she said.

She added that the goal of Intimacy on Set is to eventually ensure that bespoke guidelines are adopted by the industry worldwide.

“Our course will grow an expert network of practitioners, ensuring the provision of safe rehearsal and performance practices and encouraging further research in this area,” said Sally Ann Gritton, Principal of Mountview.

A new scholarship programme is set to offer full-tuition scholarships and living expenses support for students from diverse backgrounds studying at Sotheby’s Institute of Art.

The Culture Leaders Programme, a joint initiative from arts and culture charity Culture& and Sotheby’s Institute, is the first of its kind in the contemporary art world in the UK.

It will be available to three students from under-represented communities per year from 2023/24 to 2025/26, with the first recipients set to benefit from September.

The scholars must be enrolled on one of the institute’s one-year, full-time Master’s programmes in either contemporary art, art business or fine and decorative art and design.

Each student will also receive a bursary to cover the cost of living in London.

The initiative builds on one of the key recommendations from a 2022 report co-authored by Culture& on ethnic diversity in curatorial roles, which called for specific initiatives that lead to curatorial employment.

“We are delighted to be partnering with Sotheby’s Institute of Art on this ground breaking initiative to nurture the next generation of diverse talent,” Culture& CEO and Artistic Director Dr Errol Francis said.

“Extending the backgrounds of the students who study at this centre of excellence will bring fresh perspectives and creativity into the commercial art sector.”

Sotheby’s Director Dr Jonathan Woolfson added: “We greatly look forward to welcoming a new generation of diverse students into our community. I am confident that in so doing we will be preparing the ground for a new art world of tomorrow.”

The Office for Students (OfS) has awarded £9.6m to 15 specialist higher arts education providers across England to develop their performing arts courses. 

The funding will be made available for academic years 2022-23 to 2026-27 and has been designed to improve teaching and access for contemporary music, drama and dance courses.

It will cover the provision of specialist equipment, development of partnerships with other higher education providers and access to performing arts education for students from underrepresented groups.

Of the 15 recipients, six - the Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford, BIMM Institute, the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance, Leeds Conservatoire, the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts and Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance - have been awarded the highest amount of £1m per annum.

Susan Lapworth, Chief Executive of OfS, said the “OfS’s investment will ensure that current and future generations of students – whatever their background – are able to succeed during their studies and into their careers”.  

“The small size and highly specialised approach of the institutions we are funding play an important role in their educational experience of students, and this funding will ensure they can continue to deliver a high quality experience.”