Highly Sprung are delighted to announce that we have been awarded a grant from the government’s Culture Recovery Fund. We are incredibly grateful to receive this support and are committed to truly developing our work through the fund, investing in programmes that will have long-lasting impacts for the communities and audiences we work for.
At Highly Sprung, we produce brave, beautiful and extraordinary physical theatre through performance and participatory projects. Empowering children and young people is central to all we do, and we are skilled in integrating professional arts and youth practices. With a reputation as a nationally and internationally acclaimed theatre company, our work raises awareness of social issues, harnesses youth activism, gives voice to emerging artists and elevates their performance to change public awareness.
“It’s not just about keeping the lights on. It’s a real catalyst to realise the ambitions we have for the young people and audiences we serve.”
Sarah Worth, Executive Director of Highly Sprung
The Culture Recovery Fund will have a transformative impact on our work at Highly Sprung. It is well documented that the most defining factor in access to the arts is socio-economic status and advantage. Over the last year, the pandemic has exacerbated barriers that exist within our society, widening this gap and leaving a great number of children and young people culturally poor. At Highly Sprung, our unique approach to making work with and for young people provides the richness, joy and transformational potential of physical performance and is part of a process of change that re-addresses these inequalities. This funding will enable us to deepen our engagement and connect with the children and young people who most need our support through our youth theatre sessions and our educational programmes in schools.
We are also looking forward to supporting our wider family of freelancers, artists and creatives across the cultural sector – a network that is integral to Highly Sprung’s delivery of work. A key aspect of our work over the coming months will be residencies to provide training opportunities for artist practitioners; this will be in preparation for our touring production Urban Astronaut and for increased delivery of Highly Sprung workshops in schools. Finally, we will be using this funding to support our ongoing strategy for diversity and inclusion at Highly Sprung, having established a diversity and inclusion working group and strategy. We are committed to reducing barriers to cultural engagement, providing opportunities for talent development, and embedding better representation in the future cultural sector.
Thank you again to Arts Council England and the Department of Culture, Media and Sport for this funding. We are so looking forward to developing our work and opportunities, providing vital access to the arts and being #HereForCulture.