Artsreach is the rural touring scheme for Dorset
If you are a performing artist looking for a way to tour your work to passionate audiences in warm community spaces – look no further!
Before applying to tour with Artsreach we recommend taking the time to read this page in full to find out a little more about rural touring and the way in which schemes like ours work.
If you have not done any rural touring before, we suggest you also consider becoming a member of the National Rural Touring Forum (NRTF), where you will then have access to lots of resources.
The Rural Touring Guide
The Rural Touring Guide is your essential introduction to touring live performance in rural and community settings across the UK. It is packed with expert advice, insider knowledge, and practical steps to help artists, companies, and promoters bring high-quality creative work into village halls, libraries, pubs, schools, and more.
Visit the NRTF website for full artists information about rural touring
Downloads
How do artists get bookings with Artsreach?
- Artsreach recommends companies and artists to its community volunteer promoters through an annual 'menu'.
- Published in May, the menu gives details of all productions available for communities to host between October of that year through to the following Easter.
- Our volunteer promoters select the shows they would like to host in their community, and we then liaise with performers and promoters to arrange available dates.
- Our Performance Programme is published three times a year; the autumn programme covers September to December; the spring programme covers January to Easter (varying between March/April) and the summer programme covers April to August.
How does Artsreach select work for its Menu?
Artsreach selects performances through recommendation and research, using information gathered from other touring schemes, our promoters, mainstream venues, showcases, other companies and by investigating unsolicited information sent to us.
We select work from both new and returning companies based locally, regionally, nationally and internationally, to provide a high quality and diverse menu of professional events for promoters to choose from. It is important to us that the productions on offer are appealing to a wide-ranging audience, and are interesting, engaging, entertaining and memorable.
Artsreach welcomes work for consideration from all cultural sectors, and we encourage cultural diversity when offering experiences for our audiences.
Want to Apply to tour with Artsreach?
At present, Artsreach is programmed through until Easter 2027 and therefore it’s unlikely we’ll be able to fill additional dates, or add new productions to the Volunteer Promoter Menu, which has already been circulated
We will next be seeking artists and productions available for touring across the period April 2027 - Easter 2028. Information regarding how to submit work will be outlined on our website from the beginning of October.
Please note: because of the amount of unsolicited information we receive about shows, we cannot respond to every application.