Unlimited was formally founded on 1st Jan 1997 so we’ve just completed our 25th year of making many many (we hope you’ll agree) beautiful and inspiring projects and shows. There aren’t many artist-led companies that have been around this long and we’re planning a big celebration event of these last 25 years in Sept/Oct 2023. Sign up for our email newsletter and/or follow us on any of the socials for invites to the events.
2022 has been the first full year for our new artistic leadership team so lots of project updates, partner announcements, touring dates and more to get your teeth into in our annual unREVIEW which is embedded below for you to read or download. That said, as for so many people, 2022 has also been a tough year for all of us at Unlimited – in particular as we learned we had not been successful in our application to remain an Arts Council of England National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) for the 2023-26 period. We’ve been part of the Portfolio since 2008 and while we have never taken this support for granted, the only feedback we’ve ever had from ACE is that we are a high performing and ‘low risk’ organisation that delivers strongly on all of the required criteria. So the decision to cut our funding by 100% was, in honesty, surprising.
We’re not in the position to tell you what Unlimited’s future looks like yet. As I write this, we’re in the middle of a process involving everyone in the company (artists, staff, trustees) to work out how we move forwards. A special thank you to all of them for being so wonderfully generous in engaging with this difficult and emotional situation. Because what we do know is that without the contributed income that came with being an NPO, we can’t continue in our current form – there will be significant changes to our business and staffing model and how we run as a company in the near future.
That said we remain fully funded through to April 2023, have healthy reserves and a clear process in place to plan for our transition away from regular Arts Council funding. So all projects currently in development and production for next year are secure and will be completed.
We will share how we’re moving forwards as soon as we can. In the meantime, more than ever, we’re grateful for the ongoing support of all the partners who are working with us to make these brilliant projects happen and, most of all we’re thankful to all of you for always supporting us in all the ways you do – by coming to the shows, telling other people to come to the shows, sending us your messages of thanks and admiration and for sticking with us through everything. We remain, sincerely, in awe of you all.
With love and in peace
J Spooner, CEO
(on behalf of all of us at Unlimited)
Use the embedded reader below to read our ‘unREVIEW 2022’ (fullscreen option available) or download it.