Orange Tree Theatre Awarded £75,000 Arts Council Funding

Today Arts Council England announced an award of £75,000 over 3 years to the Orange Tree Theatre as part of the Catalyst: Evolve fund. This investment will enable the OT to revolutionise its fundraising with the aim to increase its fundraised income by 159% by the end of June 2019.

Artistic Director Paul Miller said of the news:
"I am thrilled on behalf of the Orange Tree team that we have been rewarded for all our efforts and achievements over the last two years with this successful application to be part of ACE's Catalyst: Evolve programme. It's going to make an enormous difference to our ability to raise crucial funding over the coming few years. All of our brilliant individual supporters, our invaluable partners at LBRuT, as well as our many other friends and colleagues will, I know, take heart from this welcome vote of confidence from Arts Council England in the work we are trying to do at the Orange Tree."

Chair of the OT's Board of Trustees, Richard Humphreys, added: "The Orange Tree Theatre is a real gem bringing work that would grace any stage in the world to the heart of Richmond. We have a stellar team and a great organisation but like so many others in the arts world we are facing the challenge of building a secure and sustainable financial future. That's why we are so excited and grateful to have been selected by ACE for their farsighted Catalyst: Evolve programme. Match funding together with Gift Aid will now more than double the value of donations we receive to a new fund, launching in the autumn. Congratulations to Paul and the team and thanks to all our members and partners whose continued support makes possible the wide ranging and valuable contribution that the Orange Tree makes to our community."

The Catalyst: Evolve fund supports organisations with a limited track record in fundraising to enable them to attract more private giving. This is one of the measures put in place by Arts Council England to help create a more sustainable and resilient art and culture sector. It offers match funding to incentivise philanthropic giving and invests in the skills, capacity and culture of organisations to better enable them to raise philanthropic income. Catalyst: Evolve builds on the work of the previous Catalyst Arts programme, a £100 million investment scheme to help the art and culture sector become more sustainable, resilient and innovative. www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/catalyst-evolve

At the Orange Tree Theatre we aim to delight, challenge, move and amaze with a bold and continually evolving mix of new and rediscovered plays in our unique in-the-round space. We want to change lives by telling remarkable stories from a wide variety of times and places, filtered through the singular imagination of our writers and the remarkable close-up presence of our actors.

A local theatre with a national footprint, the Orange Tree serves an audience of 50,000 people aged 6+ from its Richmond home - reaching many more by presenting work across the UK - whilst its Education & Participation programme works with 10,000 people spanning every generation, from workshops in primary schools to performances in residential homes.

Since 2014, under new Artistic Director Paul Miller and Executive Director Sarah Nicholson, the OT has won 5 Off West Awards (Offies), including for Best Artistic Director, Best Production and Best New Play, been awarded two UK Theatre Awards - for Best Director and Best Performance in a Play - and the inaugural Alfred Fagon Audience Award. In 2015 the Orange Tree won the Peter Brook Empty Space Award.

To post a comment, you must register and login.