Water Yeat Village Hall, a Highlights Rural Touring Venue
This week is National Village Halls Week and across the country thousands of village halls are hosting special events, on top of their already packed schedules, to celebrate.
Village Halls are integral to the work of rural touring. Of course, rural touring events happen in spaces of all shapes, sizes and varieties. From community centres to libraries, but Village Halls play a huge role in providing their communities with arts and culture activities, through rural touring and otherwise.
But how does the NRTF work with these village halls?
Through Schemes
Our main link to village halls is through the Rural Touring Schemes. Schemes cover specific geographical areas and most will put together a programme of events, like any theatre or venue would do, across a season. However, instead of programming several rooms or spaces within one building they are programming work across whole areas, using Village Halls and other community venues.
The NRTF works closely with Schemes to advocate for arts and culture within rural areas and to support them in being able to continue our joint mission of making every village a cultural hub.
You can find your nearest Rural Touring Scheme here.
Through Specific Projects
As well as supporting schemes in their core work, the NRTF is also a partner in a number of projects which directly help Village Halls and Schemes to deliver high-quality performances in their spaces and areas.
The Rural Touring Dance Initiative is one such project. Contemporary dance suitable for rural spaces is hard to come by - the RTDI aims to change that! We work with dance companies to think about how they can make work suitable for rural spaces, and we work with schemes and promoters to help them build audiences.
Another project we are currently helping to deliver is a Social Impact Study 'CONCERTA' which has been a national research project into how rural touring impacts rural areas, from delivering culture on your doorstep to making long term social and economic impacts on a community.
You can find out more about Our Work here.
Via our Membership
If you're a Village Hall promoter already associated with a scheme then you can join the NRTF as a member. This gives you access to our discussion boards where you can pose questions and discuss rural touring with colleagues nationally. You'll receive weekly bulletins which highlight funding opportunities along with other things, and you'll get access to some small grants and early access to conferences and other events.
If you're a village hall and you're not yet associated with a local Rural Touring Scheme then we can help put you in touch! And if there isn't a scheme in your area (very unlikely) then we can help connect you to rural touring artists and other projects.
Find out more about becoming an NRTF member here.
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