Key Arts Providers

Key Arts Providers (KAPs) are selected every three years following an application process that is open to all arts groups and organisations in the Bristol area.

Applicants need to successfully demonstrate how they can work in partnership with the Council to support the delivery of the city's priorities, set out in the Corporate Plan, through the cultural life of the city. Successful applicants are offered funding for a fixed term of three years, helping them to enrich and expand their activities in Bristol and beyond.  KAPs also play a key role in reinforcing and building upon Bristol's exellent reputation as a major hub of artistic and creative activity.

The next opportunity to apply to be a KAP will be in the summer of 2011. We will publish details of how to apply closer to the time.
 

Our Key Arts Providers for 2009 - 2012 are:

Acta

Acta is an organisation committed to increasing access to the arts, and to individual and community development through participation. Their work enables people to use their creativity, gain access to education and develop confidence self-esteem and pride of place.

Arnolifini

In a fantastic waterside location at the heart of Bristol’s harbourside, Arnolfini is one of Europe’s leading centres for the contemporary arts.  Art exhibitions, a cinema, live art and dance there is always something new to see.

Art + Power

art + power is a membership organisation led by disabled artists creating work in visual arts, theatre, poetry, music, deaf arts, multi-media and film. art + power provides learning and artistic opportunities for disabled people and the wider community.

Asian Arts Agency

Based in Bristol, the Asian Arts Agency supports artists and practitioners to deliver traditional and contemporary South Asian arts, encouraging engagement from all communities and from venues in the south west.

Bristol Old Vic

Bristol Old Vic is a theatre company producing work at the heart of Bristol, placing writing for performance at the heart of its organisation, providing a strong base for creative excellence, curiosity, adventure and passion for writers, practitioners and audiences.

Circomedia

Circomedia is the RADA of circus and theatre. It is different from many circus schools as there is a heavy emphasis on combining traditional circus skills with physical theatre and creativity. It is this approach to performance that has led to Circomedia being acknowledged as a centre of excellence worldwide.

Cirque Bijou

Cirque Bijou are one of Europe’s most creative and diverse event and performance production companies, producing shows, festival programmes and events for clients. Since its inception Cirque Bijou has built up a team of experienced and talented show directors, producers, administrators, technicians, costume makers and pyrotechnicians, to create unique and memorable events and performances which have been seen by around 2 million people over 4 continents.

Encounters Film Festival

Encounters is the umbrella title for two of the UK's leading film festivals, now combined, with a host of cross-over attractions, at venues in and around the Harbourside area of Bristol, UK. The longest-running festival in the partnership began life in 1995 as Brief Encounters and in 2001, the short film festival was joined by Animated Encounters - celebrating and showcasing the productions, talent, creativity, technology and skills that make animation such a popular and successful film form worldwide.

Knowle West Media Centre

The Knowle West Media Centre is engaged in developing the creative, educational and social potential of people within the surrounding community and the city as a whole. The media centre acts as a creative focal point for the community, providing access to project facilities, training and mentoring, as well as managed workspace for local businesses.

Kompany Malakhi

Established in 1994 by its Artistic Director Kwesi Johnson, Kompany Malakhi was created because of Johnson’s desire to combine the theatre forms and dance styles that have been influential in his career to date. The work draws on dance/movement styles such as Physical Theatre, Funkstyles, Hip Hop Culture as well as Contemporary Dance, Urban British Jazz Dance and Capoeira. These styles are effortlessly synthesised with spoken word and film to create a totally unique performance style.

Picture This

Picture This is an organisation that draws upon its unique understanding of moving image technology and contemporary art to produce and exhibit new art works, publications and touring initiatives, involving a diverse range of collaborators and audiences. The Atelier space based at Spike Island in Bristol opened in June 2007 to house Picture This' acclaimed commissioning programme.

Poetry Can

Poetry Can was established in March 1995 as a registered charity aiming to encourage as many people as possible within the Bristol and Bath areas to get involved in poetry activity. Poetry Can is still based in Bristol but now supports the development of poetry in South Gloucestershire and through its websites across the whole of the South West region.

Spike Island

Spike Island is an excellent working environment for artists and those developing a path in the contemporary visual arts. Within the 80,000 square foot building, we provide exhibition and studio space as well as services and space for commercial creative industries.

St George's Bristol

The programme of events at St George’s Bristol continues to go from strength to strength, known locally, nationally and internationally for its artistic excellence and diversity in the genres of jazz, classical, folk, world music and opera.

St Paul’s Carnival

The story of St. Pauls Afrikan Caribbean Carnival is one of a community's success; from its small beginnings in the late sixties to the present day. The whole event now takes over the neighborhood of St. Pauls in Bristol and involves schools, community groups and host professional performers. St Pauls has a large Afrikan Caribbean population, which is demonstrated by the strong community spirit shown in this annual carnival.

Theatre Bristol

Theatre Bristol is a partnership between people involved in theatre in Bristol, Bristol City Council and Arts Council England. Theatre Bristol has a steering group made up of key individuals within the theatre industry who have overseen the creation of a strategic plan for development of theatre in Bristol in its greatest diversity.

Tobacco Factory

The Tobacco Factory is one of the few survivals from the great Imperial Tobacco site on Raleigh Road, Ashton, Bristol. It was saved from demolition by Bristol architect George Ferguson who has turned it into a model of urban regeneration. It is now a multi use building housing the Cafe Bar, Teohs oriental bistro, creative industry work space, live/work loft apartments, animation and performing arts schools and one of the most exciting small theatre venues in the country.

Travelling Light

Travelling Light is a professional touring company creating new and stimulating theatre for young audiences, taking work to schools, theatres, community venues and festivals in Britain, Europe and beyond.

Trinity Community Arts

Trinity Community Arts' mission is to use the Centre to engage the local community of all ages in imaginative and socially inclusive projects, providing a community hub for digital music, video, multi-media, visual and performing arts projects.

Watershed

Britain’s first dedicated media centre, Watershed opened in 1982. It is housed in former industrial premises (Grade II listed) on Bristol’s waterfront and stands at the gateway to Harbourside – a major cultural, commercial and residential regeneration development in the heart of Bristol UK. Watershed fosters cultural exchange and promotes engagement, enjoyment, diversity and participation in film, media arts and the creative economy.