Hoipolloi statement on Arts Council funding decision

Hoipolloi has been invited to join Arts Council England’s new national portfolio of organisations with support for our programme of work through to 2015.

We understand that the Arts Council have had to make some very difficult decisions over the past few months. It is not clear today what impact the funding cuts will have on the environment we work within.

We will now concentrate on how best to move forward from here, assessing our plans in the light of this challenging new climate.

Up until this point, Hoipolloi has received a combination of RFO and lottery funding. Our new national portfolio settlement offers the company a much more secure position to build on the successes of the past 17 years and find exciting ways to increase our engagement with audiences in the future.

Over the next few years, Hoipolloi will build on the success of our partnership with Hugh Hughes, work that has a proven capacity to reach and inspire people. We will also continue and improve our use of digital media as a creative tool, looking at ways of furthering the links between our live and digital work.

A Message From Hugh Hughes

Hello! I hope you enjoyed Saint David’s Day yesterday. Or the day of Dewi Sant, as we call him in Wales.

A big part of my shows is about meeting people and making connections with them. If you’ve seen one of my shows, maybe Hugh Hughes in...Floating or Hugh Hughes in...360, you’ll know that I like to get the audience involved a little bit. I like us all to have a nice time together. We are sharing a space together, after all, and we might as well enjoy our time together, in that space, together.

The purpose of this blog post here is for me to invite you to come and share some time and space with me again. Or maybe even for the first time. You never know, it might just put a spring in your step.

If you’ve seen one of my shows before, you might like to know that I’m performing all three of them in March and May this year. So you could come and see one that you haven’t seen yet, perhaps, or remind yourself of one that you have seen. If you enjoyed it and you know someone else who might like it too, why not bring them along and introduce us all to each other?

All of my shows are being performed under the title The Wonderful World of Hugh Hughes, which you can find out about on my new website here: www.hughhughes.me/wonderful-world-of-hugh-hughes.

Let me tell you the important bit here though:


15 –19 March at the Drum Theatre in Plymouth (tickets on 01752 267 222 or here)
22 – 26 March at The Junction in Cambridge (tickets on 01223 511 511 here)
17 – 21 May at West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds (tickets on 0113 213 7700 or here)

Sometimes people contact me through my website saying ‘Hugh, I really wish I’d brought my sister/brother/friend/mum/dad along to see your show, I think he/she would have really loved it, but we’ve missed our chance now’.

Well, you still have the chance to make sure your sister/brother/friend/mum/dad does see the show!

I’d love to see you in Plymouth, Cambridge or Leeds – so why not come and see me, and bring a friend along!

Best wishes,
Hugh x