Our statement on Arts Council England’s 2023-26 Investment Programme decision

We are grateful to remain as one of Arts Council England’s regularly funded organisations, and thank them for their continued support. This means we can now get on with all the exciting things we’ve got lined up, including When the World Turns, a new, sustainably-created sensory show featuring 11,000 plants; The Cart, an accessible, interactive storytelling show which will tour to festivals, parks, libraries and community settings across the UK; Sensory Play workshops with our local community, and all our digital and in-person sharing events to celebrate 40 years of Oily Cart and sensory theatre with our community. We are also delighted that sensory companies Second Hand Dance and Frozen Light Theatre have joined the portfolio, and to see a 20% increase in organisations delivering work for children and young people. 

  • Teacher wears an orange top hat with big orange feathers and holds a purple parrot puppet. She interacts with a smiling student in a wheelchair. They are surrounded by other staff and students.
  • A parent and child lie holding hands on a soft white rug in a tent with shimmery blue and green gauze walls
  • Jamboree production image

Arts Council England’s support allows us to do what we do best: pushing into unexplored artistic areas, and delivering ambitious and extraordinary sensory theatre projects for ALL young people and their families. Over the next few years, we’ll be taking our shows into homes, onto film, and out in public spaces, hospices, schools and theatre venues, making the biggest impact possible. We are raising our game in access; making shows accessible for those who can’t attend traditional theatre spaces, and transforming the ways we work, so our core and creative teams more closely represent who we make work for. Most importantly, this continued support means we can continue to create bold, mesmerising and joyful accessible shows for and with disabled artists, children and their families. That’s what we’re here for.

Waiting for this news and having it delayed has been unsettling and we would like to send solidarity out to all our theatre peers, including the incredible community of freelancers that these decisions also impact, who have waited alongside us during this uncertain period. We’re genuinely gutted for the incredible organisations who didn’t get the decision they wanted. Working in the arts is truly a rollercoaster, and we don’t underestimate the impact these decisions can have on people’s livelihoods and families. We are committed to working in partnership and sharing resources with the wider sector. Theatre is enriched by its diversity of voices and work, and we want to send our solidarity and love to all of those affected.