Success with Welsh access scheme Hynt drives push for UK-wide expansion in the arts and cultural sector

7 November 2023

Arts Council England, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Arts Council of Wales and Creative Scotland announce new name for UK-wide creativity and culture access scheme - All In

We are excited to introduce the new name and website for our planned UK wide access scheme, which aims to improve the experience of D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people going to creative and cultural events.

Welcome to All In - a partnership between Arts Council England, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Arts Council of Wales and Creative Scotland.

The announcement of the new brand name comes on the same day All In’s website goes live. Creative and cultural organisations visiting the site can express their interest so they can be kept informed of exciting developments planned for 2024 for disabled audience members.

The website features a support directory for organisations to find accessibility consultants, freelancers, and organisations from around the UK. The website will be updated regularly to help the sector improve their accessibility for D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people.

All In’s development by a disabled-led team builds on the work and success of Hynt – Wales’s access scheme for theatres and arts centres.

The UK-wide scheme wants to remove even more barriers for D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people taking part in creative activities and cultural experiences. It will look at making it easier to book tickets by improving the way access requirements are shared, provide training and learning support to help venues meet sector-backed accessibility standards and attract new audiences to the UK’s creative and cultural events.

Image courtesy of All In

Today’s announcement about All In follows closely on from a compelling impact report from Hynt. The report, funded by Arts Council England and published yesterday, shows a decade of increased accessibility for cultural events in Wales and makes a strong case for developing a UK wide scheme.

It found:

More than three quarters of card holders (76%) felt being part of Hynt improved their access to culture
More than two-thirds of Hynt card holders (68%) felt it improved their physical access to events
Almost three quarters (72%) wanted to use their Hynt card outside of Wales

By increasing access to the wealth of creativity around the UK, All In will take the vital next step to achieving greater fairness across the creative and cultural sector.

Organisations that would like to participate in the scheme can express interest via the All In website.

Darren Henley, Chief Executive, Arts Council England; Roisín McDonough, Chief Executive, Arts Council of Northern Ireland; Dafydd Rhys, Chief Executive, Arts Council of Wales; and Iain Munro, Chief Executive, Creative Scotland say: "We’re working with D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people and organisations of all sizes to make sure that this new scheme welcomes everyone. By doing that, All In will benefit individual audience members as well as creative and cultural organisations of all sizes across the UK."

Louise Miles-Payne, Director, Creu Cymru (Hynt management) said: "We are really pleased to see the new All In Website go live today. The success of Hynt in Wales has seen increased access to the arts and more theatres putting the needs of D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people at the forefront of their operations. All In will make it easier for audiences to travel and experience the creativity and culture the UK has to offer."

Andrew Miller MBE, UK Arts Access Champion for All In said: “Back in 2014 I witnessed the success of Hynt first hand as director of the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama venues, making the lives of our disabled audiences and our box office staff so much easier. Now I want All In to fundamentally improve the experience of D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people attending arts and cultural events across the UK through barrier removal, making it easier to book tickets and to offer consistency. Because buying a ticket shouldn't be a performance!”

Sam Tatlow MBE, Creative Diversity Partner at ITV said: “As Chair of the Access Scheme Advisory Group of D/deaf, disabled, and neurodivergent audience members who have been informing and guiding this exciting project for 18 months, I am delighted to support this brand and website launch. We want All In to remove barriers to culture and to offer a much-needed voice for disabled audiences to ensure everyone is welcome. Our group will continue to offer independent challenge and support to the project team through the development. We are very much All In!”

Jamie Hale, Artistic Director, CRIPtic Arts said: "As a disabled person, the challenges of booking appropriate tickets have often meant I've missed events entirely. I've been delighted to support the disabled-led development of All In, a scheme with the potential to transform accessibility across the arts.

"Development is ongoing, but it's exciting to see All In start to take shape and launch its website. As a disabled-led scheme, it's built on community knowledge of community needs, and has the potential to transform disabled people's access to the arts."

Background

Header image is courtesy of All In.

About Arts Council England

Arts Council England is the national development agency for creativity and culture. We have set out our strategic vision in Let’s Create that by 2030 we want England to be a country in which the creativity of each of us is valued and given the chance to flourish and where everyone of us has access to a remarkable range of high-quality cultural experiences. From 2023 to 2026 we will invest over £467 million of public money from Government and an estimated £250 million from The National Lottery each year to help support the sector and to deliver this vision. (www.artscouncil.org.uk)

About Arts Council of Wales

The Arts Council of Wales is the country’s official public body for funding and developing the arts. Every day, people across Wales are enjoying and taking part in the arts. We help to support and grow this activity. We do this by using the public funds that are made available to us by the Welsh Government and by distributing the money we receive as a good cause from the National Lottery. By managing and investing these funds in creative activity, the Arts Council contributes to people’s quality of life and to the cultural, social and economic well-being of Wales.

About Creative Scotland

Creative Scotland is the public body that supports the arts, screen and creative industries across all parts of Scotland distributing funding provided by the Scottish Government and The National Lottery. Further information at creativescotland.com. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Learn more about the value of art and creativity in Scotland and join in at www.ourcreativevoice.scot

About Arts Council of Northern Ireland

The Arts Council of Northern Ireland is the lead funding and development agency for the Arts providing support to arts projects throughout the region, through its Treasury and National Lottery funds. Our funding enables artists and arts organisations to increase access to the arts across society and deliver great art that is within everyone’s reach.

Every week National Lottery players raise more than £30M for good causes. More than £47 billion has now been raised by National Lottery players to support good causes since 1994. More than 670,000 projects have been supported with National Lottery funding, the equivalent of around 240 lottery grants in every UK postcode district.

Arts Council England, Arts Council of Wales, Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Creative Scotland are grateful to UK Government, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Welsh Government and the National Lottery for their investment.