In October 2022, the house team delivered a venue network day at Jackson’s Lane Arts Centre with the topic of the day around Creating a Sustainable network of venues. With venues increasingly concerned with energy costs and audiences demanding more climate action, there was a focus on providing practical venue support and space for people to share their organisational experiences. The day was mapped around following the principles of the Theatre Green Book with advice coming from Buro Happold Engineering, the consultants behind the buildings & operations volumes. As well as their keynote, further venue advice was offered by a representative from the Royal Court Theatre and through a panel discussion with participating venues Chichester Festival Theatre, Jackson’s Lane Arts Centre & The Old Fire Station, Oxford.

house wanted to offer the attendees projects which they could sign up for on the day to help venues develop their sustainability action plans. These were offered in the form of a partnership project with Indigo Ltd to help alter audience travel behaviour, a second keynote from Culture Declares Emergency which encouraged venues to join their climate action movement and a discussion about creating a smaller network of house venues touring climate focussed performance pieces, inspired by the work of GMAST in Manchester.

If you couldn’t join us on the day, you can catch up now by taking a look at the recordings from each session.