Theatre Bristol announces closure following ACE funding loss

A Bristol-based arts organisation has announced it will close after missing out on funding from Arts Council England (ACE) for the next three years.

Theatre Bristol, which was founded in 2005, has spent the last 18 years developing and supporting the live performance sector in a bid to make it fairer, more equal, and more inclusive.

It had previously received £107,000 a year from ACE as part of the National Portfolio, but was not selected to be part of the new portfolio for 2023-26 when the funder announced its investment plans last November.

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Alongside this, in a statement released today, the organisation said Bristol City Council is unlikely to be making any investment decisions until March 2024, resulting in a loss of all its core funding.

“The staff team and Board at Theatre Bristol worked tirelessly to scope out alternative options for the organisation, and considered various routes to enable the organisation to continue running, but the overriding cultural landscape, their financial position, and the uncertainty around funding led to the difficult decision that the organisation was no longer in a position to deliver its work,” the statement said.

Emily Williams, Chief Executive of Theatre Bristol said: “We have spent the last few months exploring various options that would enable Theatre Bristol to continue, we have left no stone unturned.

“The thing we kept coming back to is that we cannot deliver the work we do, if we are fighting for our own survival and without appropriate levels of core funding this would be the case.”

Although the new National Portfolio is the largest on record, a total of 130 organisations lost their NPO funding completely, with 35 that retained their funding suffering cuts of £50,000 or more.

The last public event for Theatre Bristol will be a coffee morning on Wednesday (12 July).