OUR ORGANISATIONAL PLAN 2023–2028

Birmingham is a city in a cultural renaissance. The Commonwealth Games in 2022 put a spotlight on the region, showcasing a vibrant cultural ecology reflective of the youngest, most diverse city in Europe.

Birmingham Hippodrome plays a proud role in this creative landscape, providing stages for everything from world-class opera, ballet, West End musicals, comedy, dance and family shows. Our off-stage work through festivals, with young people, and partnerships with our creative community has grown exponentially, with our Hippodrome Education Network delivering creative activities in 44 partner schools, 36 of which we work with every week. In 2022/23:

40,000+

192,000

We have been on a journey over the last six years, with our commitment to inclusion and anti-racism at the heart of our decision making. As we continue to move from a post-Covid world into a new chapter in our history, it is more important than ever that we focus on the ways in which the Hippodrome remains relevant to the audiences, artists and producers of the future and how, as a progressive organisation, we ensure our work is accessible to people from all walks of life, ages and backgrounds.

We acknowledge the current context: a volatile international financial climate, a changing post-Covid theatrical ecology and the need for a building that is sustainable, open and accessible beyond our programme of shows.

We are working within a five-year period, to allow for managed growth over the length of the strategy.

Year 1: Building resilience

Year 2: Building capacity

Years 3 & 4: Building momentum

Year 5: Achieving the vision for the Hippodrome

This five-year plan will embrace these opportunities and acknowledge these challenges. From a solid foundation we will go through a period of transformation, and by 2028 we will have achieved the vision of “a distinctive, world-class Birmingham cultural scene with the Hippodrome at its heart”.