Press Release: Northern Ballet wins awards for its outstanding contribution to 2013 Family Arts Festival

[Jan McNulty]

Northern Ballet wins awards for its outstanding contribution to 2013 Family Arts Festival
 
Northern Ballet has received a Best Family Venue Award, Best Family Event Award and Best Family Welcome Award for the 2013 Family Arts Festival, with their performances of Three Little Pigs at the Stanley & Audrey Burton Theatre in their Leeds-based home.
 
Voted for entirely by the public who attended the Family Arts Festival last October half-term, the awards recognise the outstanding events that took place and organisations that participated in the festival. Northern Ballet was proud to accept the award yesterday at a joint ceremony in London with The Campaign for Drawing, celebrating the 2013 Big Draw.
 
Three Little Pigs is the Company’s second ballet for children and was created to introduce young children to live ballet, music and theatre. The production has delighted audiences and critics since its première in Leeds and continues to tour throughout the UK. A special television adaptation of the production was screened on CBeebies on Easter Monday.
 
Selina McGonagle, Director of Learning at Northern Ballet, said, ‘We are absolutely delighted to have been recognised for our contribution to the Family Arts Festival. We have worked hard to make our home a favourite for families. With our short ballet for children, Three Little Pigs, we wanted to create work which could be enjoyed by the whole family together and would offer a magical first experience of live theatre, ballet and music for young children.’
 
The 2013 Family Arts Festival brought together 928 organisations across the whole of the UK to offer families an extraordinary range of arts activities to enjoy over the autumn half-term.  More than 600,000 people attended one of the 2,295 festival events.
 
-ENDS-

 

Notes to Editors
 
Northern Ballet is renowned for its full-length narrative productions which embrace popular culture and take inspiration from literature, opera, or give a unique interpretation of classical ballets. The Leeds-based company is committed to touring throughout the UK and overseas, developing new audiences for dance. Northern Ballet is funded by Arts Council England and Leeds City Council.  
 
The second Family Arts Festival will take place from 17 October – 2 November 2014 and will see over 900 leading arts organisations from across the UK present over 2000 family friendly events, with programming spanning across theatre, dance, music, visual arts and more. The festival is designed to increase family participation in the arts and build on the momentum of the London 2012 Festival and Cultural Olympiad.
 
The Family Arts Festival is part of a wider programme, the Family Arts Campaign, which has been devised in consultation with over 1,000 arts professionals and 2,000 families with the aim of supporting arts organisations in providing high quality family events. The Family Arts Campaign and Family Arts Festival are initiatives of The Association of British Orchestras, UK Theatre, The Society of London Theatre, The Independent Theatre Council, The Visual Arts & Galleries Association and Dance UK, and are supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

For more information on the Family Arts Festival visit familyartsfestival.com. For more information on the Family Arts Campaign, visit familyarts.co.uk.