Bristol City Council Cuts To Cultural Programme Would Be “Devastating”

Council cuts will hit area with ‘little or no access to art and culture’

A Bristol theatre company that creates theatre with and for children in the city, is asking the public to “say no” to arts funding cuts.

Travelling Light has been a staple in the Bristol theatre scene for over 40 years. It creates and brings high quality theatre to venues, education settings and community locations.

It also runs free theatre programmes, including sessions with free meals for children and young people during school holidays.

Its highly regarded creative learning programme for under 18s and Disabled children and young people, particularly those who live in deprived areas, has been an accessible way of engaging with the arts.

Funding cuts to the arts over the last few years has had a brutal effect on providers.

Travelling Light Theatre is now raising concerns about Bristol City Council finally cutting all arts funding. These cuts would see a complete closure of its Cultural Investment Programme from 2027. The programme represents less than 1 per cent of the council’s total budget.

The theatre company says there are 26 arts organisations grant-funded through the council’s cultural programme.

This, they say, would have a ‘devastating impact’ on both those organsations and those who benefit from them.

“Funding from the Cultural Investment Programme (CIP) is Travelling Light’s only core public funding,” The theatre organisation says.

“This grant provides vital unrestricted funding to support our core costs and programme, especially our work in the Barton Hill community with children and young people who wouldn’t otherwise be able to access theatre and creative opportunities.”

In its Cultural Investment Programme: Originators Fund document, Bristol City Council says: ‘Travelling Light Theatre Company creates theatre for and with young people that inspires their thinking, engages their emotions and fires their imaginations. They tour their shows to theatres, schools and community venues in Bristol and nationally. For many it is their first experience of theatre and inspires a lifetime’s enjoyment.

‘Travelling Light is based in Barton Hill where they proactively engage with children who would otherwise have little or no access to arts and culture through their participatory programme, which includes a youth theatre, creative learning activities in schools and family and holiday activities. They believe that every child is entitled to create, imagine and experience great stories told through theatre.’

Bristol City Council’s Quality of Life Survey 2024-2025, found that the number of the city’s residents who participate in cultural activities at least once a month was 43 per cent in 2019. It dropped to 37per cent in 2023, then further still to 36 per cent in 2024.

Of those who lived in the 10 per cent most deprived areas within Bristol, It was just 31 per cent in 2019, dropping to 27 per cent in 2024.

Travelling Light Theatre says residents can help save the city’s arts by taking part in Bristol City Council’s budget consultation by Wednesday 26 November 2025.

It also urges people to write with their concerns to their local councillors.”Travelling Light’s work makes a real difference to the lives of children and young people in Bristol,” the theatre company says.

“It improves their confidence, supports their mental health and helps improve speaking and listening skills.”

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