Granite outcrops at Rough Tor with Brown Willy behind, Bodmin Moor. Photo: Paul Glendell
the arts on your doorstep
. . . rural touring agencies
Every county in the south west has at least one rural touring agency.
Procession
with Karen dancers and musicians at Uffculme, Devon, as part of the
Villages in Action Raise The Roof project. Photo: Deborah Price
Funded by Arts Council England, South West and Local Authorities, these agencies provide subsidised performances (dance, music, theatre) within community halls in rural areas via a network of local “promoters”.
The “promoters” are all volunteers, typically individuals or members of local groups who want communities to have the benefit of performances on their own doorsteps and the possibility of raising money for local groups via box office takings.
All the agencies offer the “promoters” practical support and guidance to help them mount and market successful events.
benefits
Some example projects in this category include:
Woodland Vale – Beaford Arts
Devon, Beaford Arts in Devon employed an artist to work with the clients, visitors and staff of Woodland Vale to create an artwork to be installed in their garden in June 2006.
Sensing the Land – Take Art
The Sensing the Land project celebrated the River Parrett Trail post the 2001 outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, in which Take Art employed Penny Anne Windsor, a disabled poet, to work with groups of disabled people in South Somerset in 2003.
Back to the future – Trilith: rural media agency
Operating throughout Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire, Trilith works with groups in rural areas to create projects that increase community participation and involvement in media – film and video, television and radio.
It is also dedicated to creating and preserving an archive of historic films that have recorded changes in rural life over past decades, including farming, occupations, markets, celebrations and pastimes.
Blind Ditch – Take Art
Take Art in Somerset worked with Blind Ditch to create an interactive media film school with youngsters from Teignmouth, and to tour the work using a mobile film van.
Setting
up Beaford Arts mobile film service. Photo: Beaford Arts
Blind
Ditch Van Land, a mobile media multi screen facility. Photo: Take
Art
Who
Wants to be a Hero Now? Multi media performance by Blind Ditch, produced
in partnership with the HEFCE/DTI Business Fellow and Dartington
College of Arts. Photo: Blind Ditch
Blind
Ditch Gangs of Morton film project in Teinbridge. Photo: Blind Ditch
Audiences are often able to enjoy locally sourced food and drink at these events and many will go on to the village pub to complete their evening.
This has a positive environmental as well as economic impact, reducing both the need to take cars into the nearest town for a night out and the number of miles it takes to get food from the producer to the plate.
Socially these events provide great opportunities for communities to come together and provide inspirational experiences from other places and cultures.
As an added bonus, the informal network of “promoters” created by these schemes can provide useful links into communities, invaluable during any consultation process (for an example of this see Your Call).
Above all, however, events that take place within rural communities allow them to take stock, bond and re-connect with their sense of place.
facts
best estimate based on figures available for the year 2004-05
total number of participating communities: |
426 |
total number of performances: |
690 |
total audience numbers: |
45,741 |
total contribution to local funds*: (profits from box office and local merchandising) |
£88,641 |
rural touring extras
Most of the rural touring agencies offer a range of other services including mobile film services, visual arts exhibitions, community project management and artists’ residencies. Residencies are where artists are employed to work with rural communities over a period of time, typically six to twelve months. This type of residency work can be particularly effective for research with specific target groups or for bringing communities together.
further
information
Cornwall |
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Devon |
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Devon* |
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Dorset |
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Gloucester |
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Gloucester |
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Somerset |
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Wiltshire |
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Trilith |
* West, Mid, East Devon, Teignbridge & South Hams