TYA UK (England) has successfully secured funding from Arts Council England for the ‘Quality of Difference’; a research project, which will include an artists delegation to the World Congress in Cape Town in May 2017.

The project aims to map provision and practice in England’s Theatre for Young Audiences sector that contributes to the Creative Case for Diversity, it will seek to address a question fundamental to the development of theatre for younger audiences: What do we need to put in place to ensure theatre for children, young people and families is reflective of the society we live in today?

TYA UK are currently looking for six artists from England to join a delegation to the ASSITEJ World Congress and Festival in May 2017 and a researcher who will map provision and present findings at a special event in July in Birmingham to mark the one year anniversary of the ASSITEJ Artistic Gathering ‘On The Edge’.

The research project will map current provision and practice in England in relation to The Creative Case (http://www.creativecase.org.uk) and at this stage we are focusing particularly on work made by BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) and Disabled artists. The research will be used as a baseline understanding for the sector, to inform future commissions and programming across the TYA network in the future.