At Slung Low, we are proud to be part of the Venues North family – an amazing network of northern venues that come together to meet and showcase new work and support artists and each other.

 What is Venues North? 

Venues North is a network of venues from across the North of England & Wales who are committed to supporting artists to create new work. Our aim is to work together as venues to support new and emerging artists from the North to get their work more widely seen regionally, nationally and internationally. 

Venues North members meet three times a year to share our learning around supporting artists, and to champion the artists we support. 

Getting work programmed is hard; getting new work programmed is even harder. Without a known title, famous actors or national reputation, persuading programmers to take a risk on your new show can be challenging. There is a sense of the touring landscape shifting, as we seek to find ways of offering audiences a deeper, more meaningful engagement with touring work, resulting in new and different relationships between artists and venues.  

This guide has been put together to help artists and companies making new work overcome some of the barriers to getting their work programmed. We can’t promise it will help you book a 20-date national tour, but we hope it provides a useful insight into programmers and programming and helps you in your approach to venues.