WIREDGOV

Successful applicants to the first round of our new strategic touring fund were announced yesterday, with a total of just over £3 million being shared across nine recipients.

The successful projects include a three year touring programme of the Tate's Artist Rooms, Creative Arts East bringing theatre and spoken word performances to libraries, pubs and halls across Norfolk and Suffolk and a national tour of New York's acclaimed Red Baraat band, produced by Asian Arts Agency.

A number of projects also involve touring exciting new work for children and young people, and include The Play House, Birmingham, the Everyman Theatre Cheltenham's participatory show 'All Aboard' and Dance East's KINDER Dance project.

View the full list of successful first round applicants.

Alan Davey, Chief Executive, Arts Council England said: ' These projects all represent creative and innovative ways to give audiences across the country access to high quality work, often in unusual venues such as libraries, pubs, schools and outdoor spaces.

'We're really excited about the potential of these projects to get more people involved in the arts and to ensure that wherever they live, they have the chance to experience and be inspired by the arts'.

The strategic touring programme is designed to increase access to the arts, especially in places with low levels of arts engagement and those that that rely on touring for much of their arts provision. Strategic touring complements our other investments in building audiences for the arts such as The Space and the Creative people and places fund.

We will award a further £12 million over the next five rounds of the strategic touring fund and a total of £45 million of lottery funds will be awarded over the next three years.

Read more about our strategic touring fund.