New Grants Made By Lloyd Webber Foundation

oday 28 April 2014, The Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation announces six new grants to a broad range of individuals, from young people to ex-prisoners, in order to support them with opportunities in the creative industries. These programmes are aimed at providing extensive training and professional experience in order to encourage involvement in the arts for both professional and personal development.

The range of experience these organisations provide include performing opportunities, master classes in writing, talent showcasing, along with individual mentoring and group workshops, as well as practical employment opportunities. The Foundation hopes to benefit the broadest range of people through their philanthropic work, aiming to impact local communiteis to vunerable people to artists just starting out in their careers. It is hoped that other individuals and organisations will acknowledge these programmes and also support their work.

Since the Foundation was re-launched in 2011, it has donated over £8.5million to more than 120 projects providing high-quality training, career development, professional guidance, apprenticeship and work placement schemes across the arts. All programmes have demonstrated their ability to make a real difference to improve the quality of life both for individuals and within local communities.

Madeleine Lloyd Webber, Trustee for the Foundation, says: "The Foundation is proud to announce these new donations that support high quality training and personal development. Providing opportunites and financial support for enthusiastic and focused young people from diverse backgrounds can only serve to enrich the arts and culture in this country".

The six organisations to receive funding include: £64,725 to The BRIT School, Croydon to fund "The Bridge Company" a company of 14 post sixth form students, selected and trained to run every aspect of their own theatre company, receiving master classes, workshops and mentoring from BRIT School tutors, industry professionals and practitioners.

£15,000 to Shakespeare's Globe to fund a year-long post of Music Department Assistant Trainee. The candidate will support the Director of Music, work alongside stage, technical and production managers and receive a thorough training in theatre music with the aim to being ready to move on to technical theatre training or the workplace at the end of the year.

£15,385 to Hall for Cornwall, Truro to fund their Youth theatre and Young Script Writers project providing up to 175 places for young people aged 7 to 21. Weekly workshops aim to establish performance and writing skills, develop confidence and provide performance opportunities. Hall for Cornwall was partner for productions with RSC, Stratford East, Sadler's Wells during 2012/2013 and home for five Cornish independent theatre companies to house, mentor, support and grow artistic potential.

£25,000 to the Almeida Theatre, Islington, towards their Creative Leaning Programme, Almeida Projects, which provides high-quality and innovative activity for, by and with young people, aged 5 - 25, each year through theatre based workshops and masterclasses, professional development, residencies and recognised training qualifications in collaboration with the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

£25,000 to The Old Vic Theatre Trust to support Old Vic New Voices (OVNV) Talent Programme which promotes development of new work and provides mentoring and resources to give projects and people a start in artistic life. The Programme includes Start Up Awards, providing small grants to emerging artists, often towards rehearsal fees, technical kit, script development, along with individual mentoring and group workshops.

£11,225 to Irene Taylor Trust "Music in Prisons" towards the continuation of The Sounding Our Project which uses professional musicians to train ex-prisoners in intense music writing and performing workshops, focusing on developing each band member towards a professional standard of musicianship and providing paid performance opportunities. The Foundation supported the initial project 2 years ago and out of the 7 band members involved, 2 have secured full time jobs, 2 went on to additional music courses and 1 was awarded a BBC Performing Arts Fund fellowship.

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