Digital

The Jewish Museum in London has closed its current site in Camden as part of plans to sell the building and reopen in a new location.

Trustees of the museum, which receives £224,000 a year from Arts Council England (ACE) as part of the National Portfolio for 2023-26 announced the plans in early June. 

It hopes to reopen in a larger new home within the next five years.

Nick Viner, chair of trustees, told the BBC: "It's been an incredibly tough decision, but the museum has always found it difficult to be financially sustainable even though it's had some huge success with exhibitions.

"We are planning to do several temporary displays in London and beyond all whilst we think about how we can engage communities online with our collections."

Theatre company curious directive has received financial backing from the Department for Culture Media and Sport to explore digital theatremaking.

The former National Portfolio Organisation, based in Norwich, was one of scores of grassroots organisations outside London to be affected by Arts Council England investment decisions for its 2023-26 investment programme.

The Stage reports that it will receive £25,000 towards a digital theatremaking 'laboratory' project that will allow creatives and the public to experiment with technologies including those that merge digital worlds with reality.

Jack Lowe, Artistic Director and Chief Executive of curious directive, said: "Since 2008 we have, in our own understated way, been committed to searching out the future of theatre-storytelling. 

"Be it Frogman (with live performance and VR) or Gastronomic (which used AR in a live theatre setting) we’ve consistently performed a sort of midwifery for digital technology in the ensemble devising theatremaking process."

"Despite this significant heritage, this is our first mainstream grant to support our exploration of digital technology and, like everything in our analogue making space in Norwich, the funds will also be used to secure resource, which will be shared with other artists."

The government has accepted the Culture, Media & Sport Select Committee’s recommendation on establishing a working group to explore issues around fair pay for creators and performers in the music industry.

The follow-up report by the committee was published in January, more than two years after it first began an inquiry into the economics of streaming.

Ministers have now agreed to the establishment of a working group to focus on fair renumeration for artists whose music is played on audio streaming services, as recommended by the committee, Music Week reported.

Chair of the CMS Select Committee Dame Caroline Dinenage said the creation of the working group “is a welcome step towards addressing the frustrations of musicians and songwriters whose pay falls far short of a fair level given their central role in the success of the music streaming industry. 

“The government must now make sure the group is more than a talking shop and leads to concrete change so the talented creators and performers we have in this country are properly rewarded for their creativity,” she added.

“The committee will be keeping a close eye on progress and also looking more widely at artist and creator remuneration to ensure everyone who works in our creative industries can share in its successes.”

The working group will be composed of representatives and experts from across the music sector and will “explore and develop industry-led actions that support fair remuneration for existing and future music creators as part of a successful and globally competitive music industry”, said former Culture Secretary John Whittingdale.

“While terms in new contracts are increasingly creator-friendly, those benefits are often not extended to creators still signed to older contracts, many of whom are paid at substantially lower royalty rates than their modern counterparts,” he wrote.

“The government wants to see a thriving music industry that delivers sustained growth in an increasingly competitive global music market alongside fair renumeration for existing and future creators. 

“We believe that these aims are complementary and that reasonable action can be taken by industry to address creators’ concerns around remuneration.” 

But Sophie Jones, Interim CEO of the BPI, expressed concerns that the working group will “disincentivise investment” in the UK’s music sector “at a time when labels are fighting hard to grow exports and protect the rights of artists in the era of AI”.

She said the effort seemed to be “at odds with the government’s ambition to grow the UK's world leading creative industries by an extra £50bn by 2030”.

“Numerous studies have demonstrated that streaming has benefited consumers and artists alike, with record labels paying more to artists than ever before,” she said.