About Us

About Us Text

Arts Out West was formed in 1999 to bring top quality entertainment and arts events to a network of village halls and community venues throughout West Cumbria. We currently operate in about 25 village halls and community centres up the West coast of Cumbria from Furness to the Solway.

Arts Out West is funded by Arts Council England, Cumbria County Council, Copeland Borough Council and Barrow Borough Council. It has a full time Director, Bob Pritchard, and a part time administrator, Jocelyn West. Bob and Jocelyn work out of the Kirkgate Arts Centre in Cockermouth.

Arts Out West depends on a network of volunteer promoters who choose, publicise and host the shows. (See "Want to Promote?" section). We put on about 80 shows a year.

Arts Out West also works in schools, providing performances, workshops and residencies. We have a long-standing relationship with World Muzik Makers (see "Links" section) who have carried out community residencies in clustersof primary school s every year since 2000.

Arts Out West is one of about thirty similar schemes in the UK, and is a member of the National Rural Touring Forum. We work closely with other schemes in the North, such as Cheshire's Rural Touring Network, Spot On in Lancashire, Highlights in the rest of Cumbria, Durham and Northumberland, and Artery in E Yorkshire, which enables us to arrange tours from overseas artists. We have a particularly good relationship with Canada, and Canadian artists are reularly featured in our programme.

Arts Out West is run by Kirkgate Arts , an independent company with charitable status, which also runs the 120 seat Kirkgate Centre in Cockermouth.