Youth Music Theatre: UK - Public Funding and Grants

Youth Music Theatre: UK receives funding from a wide range of public funding bodies for many aspects of our work - from individual projects to our core operating costs. Below are some case studies of the organisations that have supported us, followed by a full list.
In March 2008, YMT: UK received a substantial grant from the Department of Children, Schools and Families (DCSF, previously the DfES), which will be awarded over 3 years to support our programme of work aimed at less advantaged young people around the UK. The award covers supports the work of our Access and Participation Manager for this time, and enables us to map the residential arts sector, identifying partners and other service providers, building sectoral relationships and encouraging further investment from other funders. A portion of this grant is made available to offer other partners such as schools, youth services and voluntary youth organisations reduced rates on the company's Studio courses. This means, for instance, that a charity working with children in care would be able to access YMT: UK's one week Studio course at almost half the normal cost in year one of the funding.
Since 2004 YMT: UK has received grants under their Multi-annual Programme to support an administrator to run programmes on the ground in Northern Ireland. Further funding through their Access Scheme supports short musical theatre projects entitled Music Theatre for All in Belfast, Strabane and Derry/London Derry. In 2007, YMT: UK also received project funding for two ten-day musical theatre productions, Dance!, a new musical composed by Conor Mitchell with lyrics by Mathew Hurt, and Broadway Mix, directed by Syd Ralph and composed by Mark Dougherty.
In 2005, YMT: UK was accepted into the NYMO scheme and received funding for our Projects and national auditions in England. We are delighted to continue to receive support from the scheme for this work. With the help of Youth Music, we aim to extend accessibility and to continue to build a strong base of support for the core programme of the company.
In 2006 YMT: UK received funding from SAC to hire an administrator to work with other organisations in Scotland to create a framework for young people’s music theatre activities across the country. The task was to discover what provision is available and what gaps in provision needed to be addressed. The funding also provides for part of our Scottish programming including The Studio courses and Projects.
Making a Song and Dance of IT YMT: UK and the trade association for the UK technology industry, Intellect, joined together to form a partnership which would bring benefits to both, and meet the aim of Arts & Business to increase private sector investment in the arts by supporting arts organisations that develop sustainable relationships with business. Intellect and its Public Sector Council (PSC) members were successfully approached by a YMT: UK Trustee to support the company's core costs for 2006. The companies include Intellect itself, Accenture, ATOS, Tata Consultancy Services, Xansa UK Ltd, IBM, Steria, Fujitsu, Northgate Information Solutions, SAP, Capgemini, Siemens Business Solutions, LogicCMG and EDF Energy. The aim of the partnership is to associate Intellect and its PSC member companies who are investing in the highest standards of IT delivery with an arts organisation which represents the highest standards of achievement by young people in the UK. The project enables us to invest in the on-going work of four young composers under the age of 30, both within the context of YMT: UK’s annual programme of summer courses and also within the workplace of Intellect and members of its PSC, who will receive the benefit of arts-based training workshops in return for their investment in YMT: UK artistic staff.



Other Public Funding We are also grateful to these other public funding organisations for their general support: Arts Council England, East Awards for all Northern Ireland Creative Youth Partnerships