Birmingham Hippodrome
Birmingham Hippodrome is committed to placing inclusion at the heart of all we do, making it central to our decision making. We are energised and excited to move forward, breaking down barriers, increasing opportunities, improving experiences and building relationships to meet our commitment and become a more equitable place for audiences, artists, participants, and our own teams. We are an independent charity on a mission to enrich the cultural life of the region, funding our wide-ranging and dynamic programme of theatre, musicals, dance, opera, festivals, education and community activities through ticket sales from our 1,800-seat auditorium, 200-seat Patrick Studio, donations and generous support from local and national trusts and foundations. In 2019/20 – our 120th anniversary year – we proudly fulfilled our ambitious vision to double our impact to one million moments of cultural engagement: welcoming 550,000 people to performances on our stages and reaching a further 450,000 through our work with our communities, schools and co-produced performances on tour nationally and internationally. We produced our first main stage youth musical West Side Story, involving over 1,000 young people in the process, and co-produced the What’s On Stage Award-winning The Color Purple with Curve, along with new co-commissioned productions and festivals with our Hippodrome Associates Aakash Odedra Company, Break Mission, Motionhouse, Open Theatre, Rosie Kay Dance Company, Sonia Sabri Company and Zoo Nation: The Kate Prince Company. We are the largest dance campus outside London, home to Birmingham Royal Ballet (led by Carlos Acosta), DanceXchange, Dance Consortium, OneDanceUK and The Space; recently developing a new partnership with Chaillot: Theatre National de la Danse (Paris) and being hailed as “a new capital for dance”. Off stage we engaged over 150,000 people through performances and participation on our city’s streets during B-Side Hip Hop Festival, co-producing the city’s Chinese New Year celebrations, and a monthly cultural programme in Bullring Grand Central, Birmingham’s flagship retail centre. Our Hippodrome Education Network delivers creative activities in 34 partner schools every week – most of which are in the UK’s 10% most deprived communities – with over 30,000 young people taking part over 120,000 times each year. In October 2020, we reimagined our auditorium to open the UK premiere of Van Gogh Alive, a socially distanced, multi-sensory experience that brought much-needed joy to the region. We followed this with a message of hope and peace beamed across Birmingham and the Black Country to bring in 2021: the stunning light installation Global Rainbow by Yvette Mattern, in partnership with Global Streets. We were delighted to receive the West Midlands Tourism Award for Most Accessible and Inclusive Venue in 2020.
To find out more, visit: birminghamhippodrome.com
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