An Inclusive Bristol Old Vic Young Company

Aim 1

To offer year-round professional standard mass performance opportunities to young people aged 5-25

Activities

» We will produce four large, ensemble-based shows per year, each devised by the young people themselves and supported by a professional creative team

What success will look like

We will measure participation and attendance across the age groups, whilst monitoring project quality through participant surveys, audience feedback forms and public/press reviews.

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Aim 2

To alter the profile of our Young Company to truly represent the diversity of population in our area

Activities

» Following a pilot last year, we will run a Young Company group specifically for young people with disabilities or other health-related conditions.
» We will be working in partnership with several charities and intermediaries to promote the Young Company to Bristol's BAME communities.
» We will ensure our productions adopt the principle of colour-blind casting to create more opportunities for young people of different backgrounds.

What success will look like

We will assess postcode data and voluntarily-given personal data, then compare to previous years and citywide population data to ensure we are representative of our city.

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Aim 3

To remove economic barriers to Young Company participation.

Activities

» We will double the amount of bursaries we offer, so 20% of all Young Company participants are bursary recipients or are from low income families.
» We will continue to monitor termly fees for similar projects locally, ensuring we keep ours lower.

What success will look like

We will measure the volume of bursaries awarded ensuring a 10% increase on previous years. We will check our fees are always in the lowest 10% of comparable projects locally.

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Aim 4

To ensure young people are represented in every facet of our work at Bristol Old Vic.

Activities

» We will grow our Young Company Council to ensure young people retain direct positive influence over the activities that most affect them.
» We will develop a Young People's Charter to ensure the views and needs of young people influence our strategic business activities.

What success will look like

We will ensure young people have influence on our activities by signing off our Young People's Charter, whilst developing a track record of employing Young Company 'graduates'.

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Impact

We hope to ensure Bristol Old Vic belongs to and represents the people it serves - i.e. the whole population of Bristol and the surrounding area.
We want it to feel accessible and exciting so whoever you are, you have a place here.
Using the measures discussed above, we will share our findings at UK-wide industry events and hope this approach influences (and is shaped by) other arts organisations too, spreading a long-term step change in terms of accessibility and inclusion across the country.

Risk

Every Bristol Old Vic project has a signed off risk register (inc. financial, competitive, operational, creative and human risks) and associated mitigation strategies attached to it.
As a charity, any major decrease in our public subsidy is likely to have significant impact upon our activities - including operating the Young Company.
To cope with this, we have fortified our fundraising team and are cultivating the new income sources inherent in our new building (which opened in Sept, 2018).

Reporting

We will report to donors with a minimum of:

An end of project reporting showing all major achievements across the year

A donor briefing and welcome in person (we will invite donors to all Young Company shows)

An emailed project summary

Budget - Project Cost: £129,500

	Amount	Heading	Description
	£42,000	Full-time project staff	1 x Artistic Director and 1 x Producer to run the project year-round
	£25,000	Workshop leaders & assistants	To run/support Young Company sessions
	£21,000	Equipment/materials/room hire	To run each session (there are at least six per week across three terms every year plus shows)
	£4,500	Inclusivity and access costs	To ensure people with specific needs can participate (includes travel, extra support and training)
	£27,000	Show production costs	To ensure we can run at least four shows per year (includes staff, set, props, lighting, sound etc)
	£10,000	Bursary fund	To cover the costs of an additional 35 x 3-term bursaries (we already offer 35)

Current Funding / Pledges

Source	Amount
Participant fees	£68,000	Guaranteed
Bristol Old Vic contribution	£20,000	Guaranteed
Trust and Foundation income	£21,500	Guaranteed

Location

Our project takes place in Bristol. Last year, we counted members from every single one of Bristol's 35 council wards.
Bristol is the South West's largest city but one that was criticised in the recently published Runnymead Report that found that ethnic minorities, particularly black Africans in Bristol, experience greater disadvantage in education and employment than they would if they lived elsewhere in Britain.
We want to change that fact - starting with our Young Company.

Beneficiaries

As well as obvious organisational, audience and industry benefits, the project’s direct beneficiaries are the 350 local Young Company members, aged 5-25. To recruit this group, we deliberately target underrepresented, low-income or disadvantaged participants so the Young Company truly represents our region. We define ‘disadvantage’ as anything preventing a person from participating in arts activity (for geographic, gender, ethnic, economic, social or health reasons) in the same way as another.

Why Us?

We are the largest subsidised theatre in the region and are soon to open a brand new £12.5m building with state of the art spaces and resources for our young people to explore.
We are also the longest continually-running theatre in the UK, have an enviable and visible city-centre location and have decades of experience running young people-centred arts projects.
We also have a range of international partners and world class associate artists with whom our young people can work with and access.

Read more about the Charity running this project.

People

Tom Morris

Tom is our Artistic Director and is responsible for setting the creative vision for the organisation (including the Young Company).

Lucy Hunt

Lucy runs our Engagement department (in which the Young Company resides) and has decades of experience running large-scale young people/arts projects.

Lisa Gregan

Trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Lisa is the Artistic Director of the Young Company.

Hattie De Santis

Theatre practitioner and Producer of the Young Company.