TIN Arts and Yorkshire Dance secure funding to launch The Talent Hub, a professional development programme for dance artists with learning disabilities, autism or other additional needs
TIN Arts, a leading inclusive dance organisation based in Durham City, in partnership with Yorkshire Dance, the Leeds-based dance development organisation, are set to launch The Talent Hub a new partnership project following an award of £390,000 from Arts Council England’s Ambition for Excellence Fund.
Matched with further funding secured from The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, The Talent Hub aims to provide a step change for the sector enabling dancers with a learning disability, autism and / or additional needs to progress professionally into dance companies or emerge as independent dance makers.
Working across the North East of England and Yorkshire, The Talent Hub aims to recruit ten gifted and talent emerging dance artists with a learning disability, autism and / or additional needs. The ten dancers will be offered individualised ‘wrap-around’ support alongside intensive periods of training, working with international artists to create new work for touring – profiling and distributing a new critical mass of distinctive, high quality significant work.
Beyond the three year lifetime of the Talent Hub the longer term ambition is that the programme will inspire the dance sector to be more inclusive of dancers with a learning disability, autism and / or additional needs and more likely to recruit, train, support and programme them and their work.
Both TIN Arts and Yorkshire Dance have a proven track record of supporting dancers to develop their practice, nurturing talent and ability, placing the lead partners work at the forefront of inclusive dance practice.
Other partners include the Leeds Dance Partnership, the National Youth Dance Company, Dance City, Kala Sangam as well as other regional organisations from across the North East and Yorkshire.
Martin Wilson, Executive Director and co-founder of TIN Arts, says, “We are thrilled to be able to bring a long-held ambition to life with support from Arts Council England alongside the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. This is a distinctive opportunity to fundamentally change how the dance sector and wider audiences embrace dancers with difference celebrating ability and challenging perceptions of who can dance professionally and create outstanding new dance work”.
Hannah Robertshaw, Projects Director at Yorkshire Dance, says, “We’re delighted to build this partnership with TIN Arts in the north of England. It’s exciting that this unique, pioneering project is going to take place in our region, with dance practitioners and organisations in the north leading the way for the whole of the UK dance sector. We’ve long admired TIN Arts and its work, and it’s a privilege to be working with them.”
Jane Tarr, Director North, Arts Council England, said: “Our Ambition for Excellence programme stimulates and encourages ambition, talent and excellence. The award to Tin Arts, Yorkshire Dance and partners for the launch of The Talent Hub will help nurture and support diverse talent in the dance sector across the North. We’ve been working with the arts and culture sector for some years to develop an arts centred approach to embracing diversity so this project is especially exciting and I look forward to seeing how the careers of these emerging dance artists develop.”
TIN Arts and Yorkshire Dance anticipate launching a far reaching recruitment campaign for the ten dancers this November and will be sharing information across a wide range of platforms and media channels.
