In 2014 and 2015 Quarantine was supported by Arts Council England’s strategic touring programme to take three projects to new people and places across the North West, West Yorkshire and the East Midlands.
Between us, we know everything…, The Soldier’s Song, and Table Manners were presented in collaboration with our project partners: Contact, Manchester; Derby Theatre; Spot On Rural Touring, Lancashire; Quays Culture, Salford; Compass Live Art Festival, Leeds; Salford Community Leisure; WLCT; Manchester City Council and Oldham Council.
Across 2 years, we delivered 25 outings of Between us, we know everything… 8 outings of The Soldier’s Song, and 12 outings of Table Manners, reaching a live audience of 2,864 people and an online audience of approximately 16,236 people. To achieve this, we worked closely with project partners and local people to identify new contexts for contemporary work in their local area (including town centres, market squares, independent cafes, pubs and restaurants, a primary school, an athletics track, libraries, public parks, galleries and art centres, and local festivals), and to develop an advocacy based approach to audience development with the aim of reaching new and nearly new audiences, often in areas considered to have low level of arts engagement nationally.
This report outlines our approach and shares some of our learning, both the challenges and the successes, from this two year programme.
