Street Factory CIC Photo by Lucas Matthews. c. Lucas Matthews Photography

Over £290,000 awarded to diverse-led arts organisations in the South West

Arts Council England has today, Tuesday 21 January, announced that £294,210 of National Lottery funding will be invested into three diverse-led organisations in the South West. The organisations are being funded through the Arts Council’s Elevate programme, which was developed to enhance the diversity of the arts and cultural sector by strengthening the resilience of diverse-led organisations.

The successful recipients in the South West are:

Street Factory CIC, a diverse-led hip hop training organisation working with young and disadvantaged people in Plymouth, has been awarded £96,090 for Hip Hop Rising. The project will help Street Factory build working relationships with, and learn from, other diverse-led arts organisations both nationally and internationally, through a series of exchanges and visits to arts and hip hop organisations in New York, Holland and London. This learning will strengthen Street Factory’s skills in delivering hip hop education. As part of the Mayflower 400 commemorations later this year, Street Factory will lead Roots Up! – a highly diverse, mass street dance across Plymouth.
Beyond Face CIC, a female-led performance company championing Black and minority ethnic artists in Plymouth. Beyond Face has been awarded £98,620 for Grow and Sustain, a Company Development project with staffing as its focus. The project will enable the Artistic Director Alix Harris and Producer Helen Bovey to sustain the growth of the Company alongside artistic project delivery. Beyond Face’s 2019 show at the Theatre Royal Plymouth, 2000 Stories, looked at the complex debate around the authentication of other people’s stories as part of the Mayflower 400 cultural programme.
Theatre Ad Infinitum, a diverse-led international theatre company based in Bristol developing original theatre for diverse audiences, has been awarded £99,500 for Challenging the Status Quo. The project will enable Ad Infinitum to develop new and existing partnerships, grow their organisation in the South West, nationally and internationally and develop their long-term organisational resilience. Ad Infinitum’s recent production, Extraorindary Wall Of Silence, is a bilingual performance in English and BSL combining physical storytelling with British Sign Language.

Elevate aims to increase the diversity of future Arts Council England National Portfolios, through building the capacity of diverse-led organisations to deliver their mission, develop new partnerships and increase levels of income. Half of the 40 organisations supported by the first round of Elevate in 2016 went on to successfully join the 2018-22 Portfolio.

This round of Elevate sought to specifically address the under-representation of people with disabilities and people from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds across the sector, and therefore 41 of the 45 organisations receiving funding are Black and minority ethnic and/or Disability-led.

Phil Gibby, Area Director, South West, Arts Council England, said: “After previously supporting the fantastic work of Street Factory, Beyond Face and Ad Infinitum on a project basis, we are now thrilled to be able to build on these investments through the Elevate funding programme, with thanks to the National Lottery. This new funding will help to strengthen the organisational resilience of these brilliant diverse-led organisations in the South West and better reflect the full diversity of contemporary England.”