East End Review

Tag: Arts Council

  • Dalston’s NTS Radio to go global with international tour

    Dalston’s NTS Radio to go global with international tour

    Taking on the world: Sean McAuliffe and Femi Adeyemi. Photograph: NTS Radio
    Taking on the world: Sean McAuliffe and Femi Adeyemi. Photograph: NTS Radio

    A Dalston radio station is going global after receiving funding for an international tour.

    NTS, an online station run from a small studio in Gillett Square, has been awarded £57,000 by Arts Council England to take its sound around the world.

    Sean McAuliffe, Managing Director of NTS, said: “We are really happy that, with Arts Council England’s support, we will be giving a group of young DJs and producers the chance to perform in countries across the globe, including Greece, Canada, China and Australia.

    “The fund will also make it possible to help promote these artists and hopefully further their careers globally.”

    The NTS International Festival Tour will take a selection of underground artists overseas as part of the Arts Council’s International Showcasing programme.

    Joyce Wilson, Arts Council England’s London director, said: “We’re really pleased to be able to support NTS and its international tour.

    “This exciting organisation is one to watch as it takes the vibrant talent of London from the underground to the world stage.”

    NTS was founded in 2011 by DJ Femi Adeyemi and operated out of the tiny shack in Gillett Square where it remains to this day.

    Adeyemi wanted to create a counter to commercial radio with no on-air advertising and interesting music 24 hours a day. The station’s tagline – “Don’t assume” – sums up the diversity on offer.

    Five years later and NTS reaches more than 360,000 listeners in the UK and beyond, with extra studios in Los Angeles, Shanghai and Manchester.

    The station has over 200 regular hosts and has helped establish artists such as Skepta and the Young Turks record label.

  • Move to change arts funding could ‘penalise’ grassroots, says charity

    Four Corners Film: Gayle Chong Kwan.
    Four Corners Film: image from Fathom by Gayle Chong Kwan.

    Small arts organisations will be ‘penalised’ if Arts Council funding is reallocated away from London, according to an East London arts charity.

    Last month a Department for Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee report called on the Arts Council to urgently redress the balance of funding away from the capital.

    But Carla Mitchell, Development Director of Four Corners Film in Bethnal Green, described the report’s findings as “a broad brush measure that fails to recognise distinctions within London”.

    Mitchell added: “The supposed disproportionate amount of funding granted to London is because the overwhelming proportion of funding goes to nationally significant arts organisations.

    “This argument fails to recognise the smaller arts organisations that make up a vital network of London’s arts infrastructure, which will be penalised if [reallocation of funding] goes ahead.

    “There’s a real risk in places like Hackney where arts organisations do hugely valuable work at a much more grassroots infrastructure level.”

    Five organisations received 51 per cent of the Arts Council’s investment in National Portfolio and Major Partner Museums for London in 2014–15: the Royal Opera House, the Southbank Centre, the National Theatre, the English National Opera and the English National Ballet.

    The Arts Council’s response to the DCMS report included the pledge “to build capacity outside of London whilst not damaging the infrastructure in the capital”.