Published at 19:24, Thursday, 18 December 2008

THE West Cumbria Arts Partnership is among 13 North West organisations to be awarded funding for a pilot ticket-giveaway scheme.

The partnership, which is made up of the Kirkgate Centre in Cockermouth, The Wave in Maryport, Theatre by the Lake in Keswick, Rosehill Theatre in Whitehaven, and Arts Out West – West Cumbria’s rural touring network – was among the organisations to receive a shared of £270,000 funding from the Arts Council England, North West.

Between them the region’s organisations are set to give away more than 63,000 of free theatre tickets to people under 26 under the scheme to increase theatre attendance by people aged 18 to 26.

Across the country 200 venues are taking part in the national scheme, giving out a total of 618,000 free tickets.

If successful, it could be expanded to cover other arts.

Theatre by the Lake executive director Patric Gilchrist said: “The grant will enable us to develop our relationship with young people, both as audiences for our work at Theatre by the Lake and to support the development of young audiences for our partner venues in West Cumbria.

“Cumbria County Council is very supportive of the initiative and will help us address issues particular to our rural location: making contact with young people in sparsely populated communities and implementing schemes to assist with transport.”

Full details of the scheme will be announced in the new year.

Published by http://www.timesandstar.co.uk