THEATR CLWYD LAUNCH THE HELPING HAND APPEAL TO FUND MICRO-BURSARIES FOR FREELANCERS
Theatr Clwyd launch the Helping Hand Appeal, a fundraising campaign to further support the organisation’s Micro-Bursaries for Freelancers initiative. The initiative has already created and awarded 50 micro-bursaries for creative industry freelancers across Wales and the UK who need extra support during this time, and the fundraising campaign hopes to create 50 more.
The micro-bursaries offer space and paid time by paying £560, the equivalent of one week of Theatr Clwyd’s acting company wage, for dedicated freelancer professional development, as well as offering free space in its building and one-to-one time with its experienced team of theatre professionals – from technical and producing to marketing, finance and press.
Tamara Harvey, Artistic Director of Theatr Clwyd, today said, “When we launched our Micro-Bursaries initiative in August, we were inundated with applications and heartbroken at the huge number of talented people considering leaving the profession because they didn’t have hope for the future. By launching this campaign, we hope to be able to support many more freelancers throughout this period, as we know how vital and invaluable they are to not only us at Theatr Clwyd, but to the industry as a whole.”
Throughout closure Theatr Clwyd has continued to support the local community in many different ways – encouraging creativity in young and old and those most isolated through the online Together programme, hosting blood donation sessions for the Welsh Blood Service, distributing food and creative packages to vulnerable families, leading digital dance workshops for those with Parkinson’s, running a Creative Hub for at-risk young people, and more.
For further information, and to donate, please visit https://www.theatrclwyd.com/give/helpinghand
ABOUT THEATR CLWYD
The award-winning Theatr Clwyd is Wales’ biggest producing theatre. Since 1976 Theatr Clwyd has created exceptional theatre from its home in Flintshire, North Wales. Driven by the vision and dynamism of award-winning Artistic Director Tamara Harvey and Executive Director Liam Evans-Ford, Theatr Clwyd pushes theatrical boundaries creating world-class productions.
Theatr Clwyd’s recent partnership with the National Theatre led to the creation of Home, I’m Darling which won Best New Comedy at the Olivier Awards and was nominated in five categories including Best Set Design and Best Costume Design. Other projects of note include the UK Theatre Award-winning musical The Assassination of Katie Hopkins, the site specific, immersive Great Gatsby and the Menier Chocolate Factory co-production of Orpheus Descending.
Theatr Clwyd is one of only four theatres in the UK to build sets and props, make costumes and paint scenery in-house. Their impressive team of workshop, wardrobe and scenic artists, props makers and technicians ensure the skills vital to a vibrant theatre industry are nurtured right in the heart of Wales, developing the theatre makers of the future. In addition to this, Theatr Clwyd hosts an artist development programme, trainee technicians’ scheme and an eighteen month traineeship for directors, to develop the Artistic Directors of the future.
Theatr Clwyd works in the community across all art forms and is recognised as a cultural leader for its cross generational theatre groups, work in youth justice and diverse programme of arts, health and wellbeing. Award-winning Community Engagement projects include Arts from the Armchair, in partnership with Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, which uses theatrical making skills to help people with early onset memory loss and their carers, and Justice In A Day, working in schools and the law courts to help at risk children to realise the consequences of crime.
Theatr Clwyd has completed the public consultation period for a major Capital Redevelopment Project which will reimagine the theatre’s public spaces and create a greener, more efficient and sustainable building where world-class art can thrive and social action is rooted for generations to come.
During the Covid-19 pandemic the theatre has been active in helping its community, from hosting blood donation sessions and distributing food to vulnerable families to creating digital dance workshops for those with Parkinson’s and sharing creative packages and activities with those most isolated.
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