Hull wins funding boost for the arts

More than £3m of grants are being awarded to three arts organisations - Hull Truck Theatre, Freedom Festival and Artlink - over a three year period from April 2015.

This is on top of the £2.5m awarded to Joining Up the Humber - a consortium made up of the museums services of Hull, East Riding and North Lincolnshire.

Councillor Steven Bayes, portfolio holder for Cultural Strategy, including UK City of Culture 2017, welcomed the news, while Pete Massey, the Art Council’s North Director, said these were “exciting times” for Hull.

It is a boost for Hull Truck Theatre which earlier this year had to be given a £400,000 bailout from Arts Council England, together with Hull Council, to ensure “business continuity”.

The theatre’s annual Arts Council funding will rise from £540,680 to £790,680 for each of the next three years - an increase of 44.7 per cent increase.

Artistic director Mark Babych said: “In the context of the arts landscape it is incredible news and shows a great deal of faith in the vision we put forward.

“It enables us to be more resilient and do some key strands of work that will rebuild and strengthen the audience and build on our community links and really deliver on the promise of City of Culture.

“I am under no illusion that the hard work begins now. Getting this far has taken a supreme effort. There is a lot of expectation and we need to deliver.

“We must not make ourselves vulnerable again and make sure work is of a quality and relevance and excites people.”

However, it was not all good news. Before yesterday’s announcement there were 80 National Portfolio Organisations (NPOs) in Yorkshire and now there are 75.

Among those that lost out is Huddersfield-based Dark Horse, an innovative theatre which provides opportunities to actors with learning difficulties.

It will lose all of its Arts Council funding as of next April. So, too, will Leeds-based theatre company Red Ladder.

Artistic Director Rod Dixon admitted he was “bitterly disappointed” but claimed this was not the end of the road for them.

“We put in what we believed was a hugely exciting programme of work to 2018, and it is disappointing to know that those plans will not now come to fruition,” he said.