Birmingham Royal Ballet Arts Council grant for renovations

Published: 24 October 2013
Reporter: Vera Liber

Birmingham Royal Ballet

Birmingham Royal Ballet is to receive an award of £1.85m, which will allow it to undergo major improvements to its home base in the midlands in the summer of 2014.

Birmingham Royal Ballet’s home, part of the Birmingham Hippodrome complex, has remained untouched for 23 years since the Company moved from London to Birmingham in 1990.

The award will see Birmingham Royal Ballet update its Thorp Street rehearsal home from a private space to a sustainable and adaptable multi-purpose building able to accommodate its 180-strong work-force and visiting personnel including young people of all ages.

The company aims to gain a minimum of £100,000 per annum (based on present costs) improvement in financial resilience through a combination of efficiencies and additional income. Adaptations to improve building management include the use of solar panels yielding energy savings of up to 10%.

The total cost of the refurbishment will be £2.7m and Birmingham Royal Ballet will raise the remainder of funding from private sources as part of its Campaign for the Future.

In January 2013 BRB publicly launched its £15 million Campaign for the Future to invest in new audiences, develop talent and inspire community engagement in classical ballet.

To date, BRB has raised £8.6 million including a £1 million gift from the Cadbury family plus £1 million ACE Catalyst match funding to create the Cadbury Dance Fellowship which supports young dancers during their transition from school into their professional careers, and £3 million of philanthropic support for new productions (Cinderella, Aladdin and The Prince of the Pagodas) to inspire new audiences.

Christopher Barron, Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Chief Executive, said: "The refurbished facilities will enable an increased delivery of community work in-house offering unique, first-hand experience of dance and Birmingham Royal Ballet.

"The optimal studio configuration will enhance the company’s scope for rehearsing and staging large-scale ballet and provide outstanding facilities to attract, retain and care for elite dancers."

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