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Birmingham Rep in Centenary Square, Birmingham
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Information for grant applicants

The Sir Barry Jackson Trust funds small-scale, touring and educational theatre projects in the West Midlands. Based on money left by Sir Barry Jackson (founder of The Rep), the Trust now administers three different funds.

Image: GrimeBoy, credit: Graeme Braidwood.

The County Fund

The County Fund funds or assists the presentation of high-standard productions of plays which fulfil some or all of the following criteria:

  • Suitable for urban audiences with little or no previous theatre experience.
  • Intellectually challenging and artistically inventive.
  • Touring predominantly or extensively in the metropolitan districts of Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall and Wolverhampton.

In addition grants from the County Fund may occasionally be devoted to:

  • Developing the abilities and understanding of young people in the art of drama through educational work based in schools and colleges in the above area.
  • Expanding the awareness and appreciation of live theatre.

The bulk of the moneys available under this scheme go to the Birmingham Repertory Theatre Community tour. However, the Trustees have tended to reserve a sum for other grants to companies fitting the criteria. A small number of such grants are distributed each year, seldom exceeding £3,000 each.

The Horton Fund

The Hornton Fund is dedicated to the development of talent in children and young people in the West Midlands, particularly in the arts, and we administer those funds dedicated to theatre. Grants under the Hornton Fund go to projects which are:

  • Based in Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall and Wolverhampton.
  • Particularly but not exclusively concerned with enabling children and young people (25 and under) from disadvantaged backgrounds to develop talents in the theatre crafts (including acting and writing).

Although the range is broad, the educational element is important (we are unlikely to finance student companies without a training element), we do not currently fund individual students’ college fees. Normally we distribute around £6,000 from this fund each year: individual grants seldom exceed £2,000 each.

The Sir Barry Jackson Trust Fund

The Sir Barry Jackson Trust Fund (or ‘the traditional fund’) is dedicated to the promotion of the art of theatre in the region. In the past this fund has financed:

  • Purchases connected with Sir Barry’s memory.
  •  Equipment at The Rep.
  • Education work with new writers.
  • New play commissions.

It is the smallest fund with around £3,000 a year to distribute. The area of benefit is wider than that of the other two funds – applications from Birmingham and the historic (pre-1974) counties of Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Staffordshire (including Stoke-on-Trent) are considered.

Funding Stipulations

  1. Grants are not made payable to private individuals. You must have a company bank account or a bank account in the name of the project to be considered.
  2. Applicants should complete the application and contact details forms available from the Hon. Secretary at the email address shown below. It is useful if the Trust is given sufficient notice for its members to have the opportunity to see the applying company’s work, and it may be that the Trustees will ask to interview a company representative.
  3. All grants awarded are assumed to be ‘one-off’ payments; companies should not assume that giving a grant implies that the Trust intends to repeat grant-aid in the following year, or to accept any continuous responsibility for the company’s work (companies who intend to use Trust moneys to pay personnel should pay this clause particular attention). The Trust does not usually provide funding for the redevelopment of a project for which funding has already been granted for a previous application.
  4. The Trustees require that companies demonstrate financial strength and an ability to control grant expenditure; a report on the use of the grant within the company’s work will be expected. Companies will be expected to acknowledge the Sir Barry Jackson Trust in its publicity, and to display the Trust logo where appropriate.
  5. The Grant will be paid in such amounts at such times as shall be agreed with the Trustees. Should the financial situation of the company become unsupportable during the period of grant-aid, the Trustees reserve the right to suspend further payments. The policy of the Trustees is not to increase its grant to cover losses sustained on the programme.
  6. The Trust usually considers applications twice a year, in January and June. Applications must therefore be submitted no later than 1 December and 1 May respectively. Late applications will not be considered.
  7. The completed application form and budget together with the contact details and data consent form, if not already submitted, must be sent electronically to sbjt@outlook.com. Please send a reminder if the submission of your application is not acknowledged.

If possible, the annual accounts and other supporting material should also be sent electronically, but if this is not possible they may be sent by post to the Hon. Secretary of the Sir Barry Jackson Trust, Linda Morgan, c/o Birmingham Repertory Theatre Ltd, 6 Centenary Square, Broad Street, Birmingham B1 2EP.