Funding Dependent on Touring

The Stage reports that in the future the Irish Arts Council will require its funded companies to tour.

The strategy, to be implemented over the next six years, is intended "to ensure that regional audiences have access to high quality art forms".

The council says its new policy will be based on four elements

• Schemes that offer once-off funding for individual touring projects in specified art forms
• Technical supports aimed at improving the work of production companies and assisting venues.
• Ensuring that touring is undertaken by selected production companies "as an integral part of their funding relationship with the Arts Council".
• Ensuring a proportion of Arts Council funding of regional venues is used to present a programme of professional touring work.

Emphasising the importance it attaches to the new strategy, the council says it "will allocate financial resources to support the policy of touring in relation to its overall resources". But those resources were reduced by almost 10% in the state allocation for this year, from €204m to €185m, and face the likelihood of further cuts because of strains on the national finances.