A CHARITABLE cinematic group in Shropshire has been awarded £180,000 from the BFI National Lottery Audience Projects Fund.

Arts Alive is one of the 17 projects to receive funding from new BFI National Lottery Audience Projects Fund worth £6.48m.

The Rural Touring Scheme will appoint two new part-time roles (Audience Outreach and Digital Marketing) to engage new audiences in specific areas across Shropshire and Herefordshire through new and innovative marketing approaches.

OTHER NEWS:

Arts Alive partners with people in rural communities to organise over 1,000 high-quality events each year, including cinema, live music, theatre, dance, and storytelling shows in village halls and community centres to ensure that affordable arts and film is available to every person in Shropshire and Herefordshire.

Ben Luxford, BFI’s Head of UK Audiences, said: “As we kick off our new BFI National Lottery strategy, we’re proud to support these organisations to focus on the necessity of growing new audiences, to celebrate and champion fantastic screen culture and enrich communities across the UK.

“Our National Lottery funding is for public benefit, so we are working with projects which have demonstrated a strong commitment to reaching and welcoming audiences who are currently underserved by their activities.

“These projects also demonstrate the variety of activities and organisations we can support through the fund, which I hope inspires future applicants.”

A combination of long-term funding over three years, through to support for short-term projects, all of which meet the fund’s objectives of growing new audiences and engaging audiences who are representative of the UK population.

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The 17 projects combined aim to generate 4.67m admissions UK-wide—these initial awards from the fund see work to deliver against priorities to support inclusive activity, grow underrepresented audiences and have a UK-wide impact.

The BFI National Lottery Audience Projects Fund has £15m available over the three years of the BFI’s new National Lottery Funding Plan (April 2023-March 2026) to support the UK exhibition and distribution sector to grow audiences for UK independent film and XR/broader screen work.