Carn to Cove has won a substantial award from the Arts Council of England ‘Strategic Touring Fund’ to develop its work in rural communities in Cornwall, Devon and the South West with a new project ‘Locomotor’. Villages in Action has been working with Carn to Cove and is delighted that the rural touring project of the Cornish charity, Creative Kernow, has been awarded funds to develop its already outstanding work in bringing the arts to rural communities.
There are three strands of new activity which Locomotor will be delivering to help make high-quality arts available for rural communities:
First is the development of a sustainable rural touring offer in Devon. Carn to Cove has been working with Villages in Action since March 2017, when it had to suspend its rural touring programme. The objective is to secure and resource the volunteer network in Devon already active in our local communities to provide ‘Great Art for Everyone’ with high quality performances. It will also seek to build further capacity through advocacy to local authorities around the social and economic impacts of arts activity, developing new partnerships in Devon and Cornwall, and testing new models of working between villages, and market and coastal towns.
Secondly, the award will support an international programme to present more diverse work of different cultures in the South West. Carn to Cove hosted the ‘New Directions International’ showcase in Falmouth in 2016 for the National Rural Touring Forum and this new project will build on the international partnerships that have emerged from 2016 – including Cornish companies touring overseas as well as artists from Spain, Lithuania and Sweden performing and undertaking workshop and participation activity across rural touring schemes in the South West of England.
Thirdly, the Locomotor project will improve long-term sustainability by enabling the development of new online tools and web presence to improve box office income with centralised online ticketing and marketing.