Battersea Arts Centre

For a hotel close to Battersea Arts Centre, Georgian House Hotel is ideal, located only 15 minutes bus ride away.

What is Battersea Arts Centre?

Battersea Arts Centre is a registered charity and limited company, located in Lavender Hill, SW11 5TN.

It is funded by Wandsworth Borough Council, Arts Council England, London and the Association of London Government, and receives additional capital and project funding from a variety of sources. In 1999/2000 the consolidated turn over reached a record £1.3 million with just over 250,000 people attending over 1300 events.

Battersea Arts Centre has a wholly owned trading subsidiary, BAC Enterprises Ltd, managing the operation of the ancillary trading activities of BAC. These include the hire of the Halls for functions and events such as weddings and parties, the Halls, the Cafe Bar and the rental of office space within the building to resident companies.

Mission statement

BAC aims to create and promote exciting, innovative, accessible, high quality and surprising arts activity through creative collaboration between artists, staff and public.

BAC places education and the opportunity for growth at the centre of all of its activities.
The core constituencies are artists, public and staff.

The core activity is creative collaboration between these groups.

The achievement of Battersea Arts Centre's mission demands excellent financial management, prudent planning, shared commitment and responsibility, infectious enthusiasm, expert technical and production support, skilled building management, a welcoming atmosphere, judicious pr, visionary fundraising, sustained box office income, active and motivated volunteers and increased trading revenue.

Battersea Arts Centre objectives

Across Britain, there is a dearth of opportunity for artists of vision to create and to grow, a failure to value experiment in the arts, and confusion about the roles of public, artists and administrators in the creation of an arts event. Battersea Arts Centre's immediate focus is therefore on the following objectives:

1. To provide support for artists of vision at an early stage of their careers.
2. To generate and provide opportunity for experiment in theatre and other art forms.
3. To include staff and public in the opportunities for growth arising from both of the above.

Artist Development

Battersea Arts Centre employs a programme structure to support artists which is a bit like a ladder with five rungs, a ladder which developing work can climb. This structure is in place for most of the programming year and the rungs of the ladder work as follows:

1. Scratch Nights. Audiences pay what they can for an evening of low-tech cabaret theatre where artists present work in its infancy, sometimes stopping in the middle for advice, always drinking in the cafe bar afterwards where the audience offer feedback.
2. Two or three night runs of Scratch performances. Often presented within the context of one of BAC's three annual festivals, sometimes presented in a development week in between longer running shows. A single artist/company presents work, not a fully formed production, but a step towards it. Friends and potential friends of the work are identified and invited, developing a network of support for the work and the artist. Ticket prices are low. The cafe bar remains an important space for audience/artist discussion.
3. Two or three night runs for finished work, presented in the context of one of BAC's three annual festivals. Here the work is marketed to a wider audience and individuals from the professional sector, who can further the development of the work and the artist.
4. Two, three or four-week runs of finished work. This time the work is open to critical review in national press. BAC staff collaborate closely with artists to reach existing and new audiences for their work.
5. The work moves on. Artists explore national and international touring potential for the work. Artists can get on the BAC ladder of development at different stages. Work progresses at different rates and can skip or repeat rungs if appropriate. In other words, the ladder is flexible, to suit the development needs of artists and their work. Sometimes the work can have several outings at one of the two Scratch levels. Sometimes work comes in to BAC at rung four, going straight into a run.

The Battersea Arts Centre Supported Artist Scheme

The Supported Artist Scheme offers a small number of artists an even more extensive network of support for the development of their work. It runs for two years from January to December. There are three main aims for the scheme:

1. To support the development of companies' or individual artists' work and to enable them to present work at BAC.
2. To advise and support companies on the development of their administrative infrastructure to enable them to make work outside BAC.
3. For them to become an ambassador for the work that happens at Battersea Arts Centre.

Supported Artists are drawn from the companies showing work at Battersea Arts Centre and a new group is created each year. Some of the benefits of the scheme for companies are free rehearsal space, free occasional office space, regular meetings with BAC Producers and assistance with funding applications. It is hoped that companies will exit the scheme with the knowledge and experience to take their work on independently.

Current Supported Artists are David Lasserson, Sound & Fury, Filter Theatre, Paul King, The Ding Foundation, Gecko, Patter, Mark Murphy and Blind Summit Theatre Company.
For more information visit www.bac.org.uk.