Newsreel 91

A new national audience development agency is being formed out of a merger between Manchester’s All About Audiences and Audiences London Plus. Opening for business in September, The Audience Agency will provide advice to cultural organisations on growing and engaging audiences. This is the latest merger in a string of restructures undergone by audience development agencies since they lost Arts Council England (ACE) subsidy in 2011 (AP235). Endorsement for this new organisation comes in the form of two major commissions from ACE’s Audience Focus Fund. Launch ‘roadshows’ will be taking place in all English regions, from September to November 2012.

A national digital funding channel for the arts is being developed with the support of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and The Rothschild Foundation. The National Funding Scheme will allow supporters of the UK’s arts and cultural institutions to make donations via their mobile phone or tablet device using SMS, credit card, interactive voice/tone response, near field communication and apps. The system will provide a registration facility that will give all donors access to a record of their donations and, for higher rate UK taxpayers, a mechanism for making appropriate Gift Aid reclaims. Basic rate Gift Aid will be reclaimed by the charity behind the scheme and be paid over to the recipient institutions. Details of donors will be available for purchase by the recipient cultural organisation, subject to donor data opt-ins.

www.nationalfundingscheme.org

Ex-Greenwich Playhouse landlords, Beds and Bars, have illegally embarked on building works to convert the theatre on Greenwich High Road into hostel facilities for backpackers attending the Olympics (see AP248). They have not obtained planning permission and have been issued with a legal notice by the planning department at Greenwich Council instructing them to stop the conversion of the 20-year-old theatre space immediately. Ex-resident Galleon Theatre Company is urging its supporters to email Greenwich Council and Greenwich MP Nick Raynsford, to request that Beds and Bars are forced to comply with the law.

[email protected]
[email protected]

Arts organisations in Wales will have access to funds from a £15–20m pot for capital works projects between now and 2017, as the Arts Council of Wales (ACW) has reopened its Capital Lottery funding programme. A new strategy places greater emphasis on the “refurbishment of existing facilities rather than new build schemes”. Other priorities include investments designed to increase income and reduce costs; involvement in wider regeneration programmes; and public art projects, with all building-based projects expected to incorporate a public art strategy. A guide to ACW’s Capital Programme and application forms will be online from 1 August.