Arts Council England Should Introduce A ‘National Theatre' System Across Regions, Say Equity  

Equity, the performing arts and entertainment trade union, has recommended that Arts Council England (ACE) introduce a network of ‘national theatres' across England to ensure the growth of regional arts and entertainment economies.  

The “federalised national anchor institution system” would be composed of a national, publicly co­ordinated network of regularly-funded producing theatres, opera houses, ballet and dance companies, and variety houses from every region of the UK, each of which both produces work, and receives work from anchor institutions in other regions. It would be similar to the system in Germany.

The proposal is part of Equity's submission to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport's (DCMS) independent review of ACE, which stops taking submissions at midday on Monday 30 June. 

Equity recommends reforms to ACE's current funding and governance model to prioritise the creation of new high-quality professional art and the development of regional creative ecosystems that will, in the long term, generate local creative jobs and reinvigorate England's arts and culture landscape. You can read Equity's submission in full here.  

The ‘institutional stream' 

ACE funding through a proposed 'Institutional stream' “should provide stable, unrestricted and long-term funding to large regularly-funded anchor institutions in regions, allowing these institutions to produce and tour work and to receive work from other institutions,” Equity's response says. 

“Funding in this stream should be guaranteed on a long-term (e.g. l0-year) basis, reducing the burden of continual re­application cycles for institutions that are well established and critical to ACE's national portfolio and allowing them to direct more of their funding to creating, producing and touring work as opposed to the grant application cycle.” 

Funding over the long-term period is not to remain static, the response continues, but must also reflect changing economic circumstances. At the heart of the Institutional funding stream should be the “federalised national anchor institution system”.  

“Access to this federalised national system (and the related Institutional funding stream) should be based on a clear and ambitious set of criteria, with requirements for national anchor institutions to create and produce new work, demonstrate that they are creating jobs for their local labour market, engage workers on industry standard terms and conditions and ensure that work is accessible to all.” 

The submission states that this system would not only support the Government's growth agenda, but also help in “ending regional reliance on London workforces over time, while providing creative career opportunities for local young people”.

A further benefit could also be “the pooling of some senior, non-creative, managerial functions across anchor institutions, as well as storage, systems and facilities costs, allowing individual institutions to divert additional resources to the production of artistic works.” 

Equity's ACE submission 

Alongside the Institutional stream, Equity also suggests ACE fund: 

• A 'Portfolio' stream which would continue to fund organisations that are neither national institutions nor individual projects. An emphasis should be placed on independent sector productions, new public regional theatres, small-scale touring companies and theatre-in-education companies, each creating work through engagement with local communities. 
• A 'Projects' stream, providing smaller grant funding to projects based on artistic merit. This would provide support to artists applying for specific projects outside of the work being undertaken at anchor institutions. It would mean freelancers and applicants who are not backed by a professional grant-writing team would not have to compete with large established institutions who have more resources available to put into applications. 

Equity believes that ACE should better nurture and develop the cultural ecosystem by focusing on three core principles: 

• The 'encouragement of the living artist' through the provision of sufficient professional work on union terms and conditions. 
• The growth of regional arts and entertainment economies across England, building from a federalised system of ACE-funded anchor institutions.
• Support for a wide range of artistic works based on artistic merit, through incorporating workforce voice into key decision-making. 

Equity is the performing arts and entertainment trade union. We are made up of 50,000 performers and creative practitioners. We are actors, comedians, dancers, designers, directors, puppeteers, singers, stage managers, variety performers and voice artists. For more than a hundred years we've been pushing for better pay, terms, and conditions.