Roadwater Village Hall was definitely our most successful UK rural performance so far. The Take Art team were a delight to work with, as well as Mary from the village hall.
Joan Cleville Dance
What is Rural Touring?
Rural Touring is a national programme made up of individual regional schemes. It aims to bring high quality live art performance to communities that do not have easy access to theatres or venues.
Rural Touring curates an annual ‘menu’ of approximately 20 high quality shows that are available to perform in community venues, such as village halls, cafes, pubs and libraries in Somerset over the next year. Promoters then pick what show they would like from this menu. Acts span the worlds of music, theatre, spoken word, circus and dance.
We want to bring performances to our network of venues that are high in artistic quality, progressive, and ultimately entertaining.
What can you expect from Rural Touring?
Artists and companies can expect a unique style of touring, one built on intimacy and cross-cultural exchange. Venues taking part in the scheme are usually village halls, which don't have huge technical capabilities, so we ask all companies to be technically self-sufficient. Venues can range in capacity; we provide shows for venues with capacities ranging from 30 to 150.
This style of touring is green, audiences don't need to travel to a central location, it's the company that travels to venues that audiences usually walk to. Community touring such as this is incredibly satisfying for many performers; home-stays are the default form of accommodation on Rural Tours, meaning that you have a more comprehensive relationship with promoters and audiences.
Take Art liaises with you, the company, and promoting groups to secure you a run of shows that can range from a few isolated shows (if possible) to a tour of upwards of 8 consecutive dates depending on the demand from promoters.
Artist fees, usually unaffordable for smaller venues are subsidised by the scheme to make them affordable to communities. Take Art is funded by Arts Council England and the scheme is funded by Somerset’s local authorities. We guarantee fees that are fair to artists.
Do you want to tour your work to a rural audience?
Please send a press pack to Danny Pedler at danny@takeart.org, so he can consider your show for inclusion on the next menu. Applications are accepted every year between January-March.
Our menu is published in April with promoters choosing shows they’d like over the next few months. Danny programmes the year’s shows, which run until April the following year.
We look forward to hearing from you.