A Review of Touring Theatre and Dance in Scotland: Strand 1: Data Analysis of Creative Scotland Funded Touring 2012 – 2016 Contents
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A Review of Touring Theatre and Dance in Scotland: Strand 1: Data Analysis of Creative Scotland Funded Touring 2012 – 2016 Contents Introduction 4 Key Findings 6 Section one: Creative Scotland’s support for touring theatre and dance companies through project funding Profile of Touring Productions 9 1.1 Overview 9 1.2 Genre of work 9 1.3 Production size and scale 10 1.4 Audience focus 11 1.5 Number of companies 12 1.6 Location of company 12 Funding 14 2.1 Total funding by year 14 2.2 Amount requested and amount awarded 14 2.3 Amount awarded and total estimated project costs at application stage 15 2.4 Actual project costs 16 2.5 Funding by art form 17 2.6 Analysis of unsuccessful touring applications 2013-17 18 Profile of Tours 20 3.1 Length of tour 20 3.2 Number of shows 20 3.3 One night stands / Performances per venue 22 3.4 Number of venues 23 3.5 Scale of venues 23 3.6 Most popular venues 25 3.7 Geographic location of venues by local authority 26 3.8 Map of toured venues 28 3.9 Calendar of tours – by month 29 3.10 Calendar of tours – by days of the week 29 Section two: Touring activity of Regularly Funded Organisations 2015/16 30 4.1 Background 30 4.2 RFOs which have toured work 30 4.3 Venue profile of RFO touring – Scottish venues only 30 4.4 Geographic profile 31 4.5 Attendance data for RFO touring 32 4.6 Calendar of tours 33 4.7 Note on the Edinburgh Festival Effect 34 Section three: Map of all touring in Scotland supported by Creative Scotland in 2015/16 35 5.1 Introduction 35 5.2 Number of venues and performances supported in 2015/16 (Scotland only) 35 5.3 Venue profile 36 5.4 Number of performances per venue 37 5.5 Geographic profile 37 5.6 Calendar of tours 40 Methodological Note 41 Appendices Appendix 1: 43 Appendix 2: 46 Appendix 3: 47 A REVIEW OF TOURING THEATRE AND DANCE IN SCOTLAND APRIL 2017 04 Introduction Background Creative Scotland is the public body that supports the arts, screen and creative industries across all parts of Scotland on behalf of everyone who lives, works or visits here. A core ambition of Creative Scotland is that everyone can access and enjoy artistic and creative experiences. This is reflected in the key priority ‘to strengthen presentation, touring and distribution of work, including through digital platforms and encouraging collaboration.’ Creative Scotland funds touring theatre and dance through both Open Project Funding and Regularly Funded Organisations (RFOs) supporting both producers (theatre and dance companies) and promoters such as venues and touring networks. The Arts Strategy 2016-17 identified that ‘Touring, exhibition and other means of distributing and sharing work is a concern for organisations as highlighted in the Sector Reviews. This is especially true for the performing arts (theatre, dance and music) where a growth in audiences remains a priority. This is key for increasing opportunities for access and delivering greater financial contribution to the viability of venues and producing companies. While working digitally can complement this, the live experience is still fundamental for many.’ The project Creative Scotland attends the Scottish Touring Forum which is facilitated by the Federation of Scottish Theatre (FST). This network has voiced a number of concerns around the health of theatre and dance touring in Scotland of which perceived diminishing financial resources for both promoters and producers is paramount. Discussions through the forum identified a need to better understand how the sector operates, how it has changed in recent years and gain a better understanding of the impact of Creative Scotland’s funding in this area. While this report focuses on touring within Scotland, there is a broader context within which Scottish artists and productions also tour to international markets and networks, and a further commercial touring circuit which is not covered here. Through in-depth consultation with a sub group of the Federation of Scottish Theatre’s Touring Forum, Creative Scotland identified research questions which were developed into a research approach with four strands of enquiry (detailed below). A REVIEW OF TOURING THEATRE AND DANCE IN SCOTLAND APRIL 2017 05 Strand Research Methodology Quantitative analysis of the data currently held by Creative 1. What does the touring Scotland and partner agencies. Carried out by Creative environment look like? Scotland’s Knowledge and Research Team. Online questionnaire of venues and producers using FST 2. What are the fees / funding database. Carried out by Creative Scotland’s Knowledge arrangements? and Research Team. 3. Do promoters and producers Qualitative data analysis through managed focus groups think touring in Scotland is and one to one interviews with key people. Conducted by successful? Lisa Baxter 4. How does touring in Scotland Desk research and feedback from focus groups. now compare with other models? Conducted by Claire Dow Quantitative work (Strands 1 and 2) was carried out by Creative Scotland’s Knowledge and Research Team. Qualitative Research and a Literature and Practice Review (Strands 3 and 4) were carried out by external researchers, Lisa Baxter and Claire Dow respectively, who together pulled all the findings of the Review into this Final Report. There are five reports in the review which can be accessed on theCreative Scotland website: Final Report: A Review of Touring Theatre and Dance in Scotland Strand 1 Data Analysis of Creative Scotland Funded Touring 2012 – 2016 Strand 2 Industry Survey of Producers and Promoters Strand 3 Qualitative Research into Touring Theatre and Dance in Scotland Strand 4 Literature and Practice Review Background to Strand 1 Creative Scotland supports touring of theatre and dance through a number of different sources: • Funding of touring companies on a project by project basis. Delivered through the Open Fund since mid 2014/15 and previously through dedicated funds of Touring Festivals and Arts Programming (TF&AP) and the Quality Production (QP) funds and through targeted funds. • Regular Funding of arts organisations which tour theatre and dance. • Creative Scotland also supports venues and promoters through both Regular and Open funding. This ‘indirect’ funding is not included in the data analysis for this report. This report presents an analysis of the available data on touring theatre and dance touring supported by Creative Scotland. The report is divided into three sections: Section one is an analysis of Creative Scotland’s funding for touring theatre and dance companies through project funding. It provides for the first time detailed analysis of venues, tour dates, and type of production. The data has been collated through a manual identification of relevant grants awarded and then analysis of both application and end of project monitoring forms for each applicant and in some cases filling data gaps with online research of tour histories. Section two provides an analysis of the data provided by Regularly Funded Organisations through their returns to the Annual Statistical Survey. Finally, section three presents an analysis of data for productions funded through both the Open Project Fund and the Regular Funding route to gain an understanding of the full reach of the touring supported by Creative Scotland. A REVIEW OF TOURING THEATRE AND DANCE IN SCOTLAND APRIL 2017 06 This project has been managed by Maggie Page, Research Officer, Creative Scotland and data collation has been carried out by Natalia Janossy also of Creative Scotland. Lorna Duguid and other members of the Theatre and Dance team at Creative Scotland have input their expertise toward identifying relevant grants and advising on data criteria. Key Findings: Overview – key themes • Across all three sections there is a clear seasonality in the touring circuit with peaks in spring and autumn. • The geographic spread across local authorities is uneven with the main cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow along with Highland receiving the most toured work. The suburban central belt areas are some of the least well served. • There is a high number of one night stands – where productions are only performing once at a venue. This is around 70 – 80% across the years and providers. Section One: Project funding 2012 - 2016 Profile • A total of 136 awards were made through Creative Scotland project funding to tour theatre or dance productions between 2012/13 and 2015/16. This included performances at 1,282 venues. Theatre productions accounted for 75% of all grants and 82% of all venue performances. • New work accounts for the vast majority of activity supported through project funding, comprising 75% of theatre productions and 94% of dance productions. • Productions aimed at adult audiences accounted for nearly 70% of theatre productions and 82% of dance productions. • Creative Scotland supported a total of 103 companies to tour work in Scotland from 2012- 2016. 22 organisations were funded more than once to tour work over the four year period. • Producing companies are mainly based in the main cities. 60% of the grants were awarded to organisations based in Edinburgh (29%) or Glasgow (31%). Funding • Creative Scotland awarded a total of 136 grants for touring work through project funding from 2012/13 to 2015/16 totalling over £5.9 million. 34 (25%) were dance productions and 102 (75%) were theatre productions. • The number and value awarded increased from 2012/13 to 2013/14 and has remained largely stable since then. In 2015/16 (the first full year of the Open Project Fund) a total of 38 awards were made totalling £1.73 million. • While the number of successful awards has varied the average grant size has remained relatively consistent at around £44,000 over the period.