Secretary of State For Culture Visits Contact

Thursday 25 September

It has recently been announced that up to 95 publicly-funded theatres across England are to offer free tickets to young adults as part of a £2.5m government-funded scheme. On the back of this announcement and as one of just a handful of visits during the Labour Party Conference in Manchester, Andy Burnham, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport visited Contact to meet young artists on Wednesday 24 September 2008. From next year until 2011, theatres taking part will offer free tickets - at least one day each week - to 18 to 26-year-olds on a first-come, first-served basis. The Secretary of State was greeted by Michael Eakin, Executive Director Arts Council England, Northwest and introduced to Borham Mohammadi, Kelly Morgan and Yusra Warsama - all of whom have been involved with Contact for a number of years, and are now running their own community art projects, supported by Contact and funded by the Arts Council’s Young Peoples Participatory Theatre Project. A tour of the building, followed where he watched rehearsals for current Contact co-production, Babul and the Blue Bear, and met young people involved in Contact Young Actors Company and other projects. John E McGrath, Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Contact said ‘It’s great to hear that theatres across the country will be opening up to young people in this way. At Contact we’ve seen how enthusiastic young people are about theatre once they are really invited in. A key thing for us has been to keep ticket prices as low as possible, free tickets will be even better!’ The scheme follows recommendations made in a recent government review about engaging young people. The Supporting Excellence in the Arts report, by former Edinburgh International Festival director Sir Brian McMaster, recommended a "free week" to engage young audiences by opening up publicly-funded arts organisations. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) said that, after consulting with venues, the idea had been translated into "a long-term and sustainable opportunity to engage young people and build a new audience over a period of time". ...