Exclusive: Stagetext among first ACE Transfer companies to move out of London

Captioning charity Stagetext is one of the first organisations to leave London under Arts Council England’s Transfer Programme, as the company moves to Colchester. 

The Transfer Programme was designed to move current and new national portfolio organisations outside of the capital by 2024, after ACE was instructed to shift £24 million of funding out of the portfolio in London and invest it elsewhere in England.

A total of 24 NPOs and Investment Principles Support Organisations, which focus on supporting other organisations in the culture sector to embed the Arts Council’s investment principles, were announced as part of the Transfer Programme. These also included Headlong Theatre, Improbable, Paines Plough, Theatre Centre and Complicité.

Now Stagetext, which is a charity for deaf, deafened and hard of hearing audiences, has relocated out of London to the Mercury Theatre in Colchester, in the South East region of England. The move was made on August 31, with the company previously based in Elephant and Castle in London. 

All staff have been retained in the move and the company will be recruiting for a new role based in Colchester. 

Stagetext is classed as an Investment Principles Support Organisation and is receiving  £363,718 a year from ACE. 

It plans to continue its existing work in London and elsewhere, but will also develop a new regional model for its work to improve access for audiences who may previously have felt excluded.

This will include people who are deaf, deafened and hard of hearing, as well as those who have English as an additional language and neurodivergent people. 

The move to Colchester follows an independent feasibility study that looked at arts and cultural venues in different parts of England to assess the best place for Stagetext to move to bring captioning to more audiences. 

Melanie Sharpe, Stagetext’s chief executive, said: “I’m thrilled to say that the Mercury Theatre is a natural fit for our ambitious plans. The Mercury is a key cultural hub in the region and has demonstrated its passion and commitment to accessibility and will help us put access at the heart of the creative process. 

"Our research has shown that if more captioning was offered by live venues, a third (31%) of the general public would be more likely to increase their attendance at live shows. This includes people who would be more likely to take friends or relatives who are deaf, deafened or hard of hearing to an event, or more likely to go to events themselves."

Steve Mannix, executive director of the Mercury Theatre, said the organisation was "over the moon" to be working with Stagetext.

He added: "There were only seven captioned shows in Essex last year, but there are 1.9 million people living in the county, so we know we have our work cut out to improve access."

Claudia West, senior relationship manager at Arts Council England, said: "We are absolutely delighted that StageText has decided to make Colchester their new home as part of our Transfer Programme. StageText is a fantastic organisation and a sector leader when it comes to our inclusivity and relevance investment principle. "They are without doubt a huge asset to be able to add to the South East Area Portfolio."