Leicester’s Curve theatre has won a prestigious tourism prize from the national awards body VisitEngland. The theatre collected the Gold Award in the 2012 Access for All Tourism category at a special ceremony held at the Athena on May 22nd. The award is in recognition of Curve’s convenient and user-friendly environment.
For the last 22 years the VisitEngland Awards for Excellence have showcased the very best venues and tourist locations the country has to offer. Curve beat an impressive list of venues including Abbey Guest House, Oxon; University of Leeds Storm Jameson Court, Leeds; and The Beacon, Cumbria to obtain the award. The Great North Museum Hancock, Newcastle upon Tyne also received a Gold Award in the Access for All Tourism category.
Curve Chief Executive, Fiona Allan said:
“We are absolutely thrilled to have won VisitEngland’s Gold Award in the Access for All category. The award recognises that Curve is an accessible venue in the very broadest sense of the word. It means that Curve is physically accessible in terms of mobility and being able to get around the building. It recognises the programming efforts that we have made, that we are open to all sections of the community and to the artists that perform at the theatre. The award also acknowledges our financial accessibility when it comes to setting ticket prices”.
Fiona added, “Every member of staff has contributed in some way to us receiving this award. To be recognised on a national level is really exciting for us all and testament to all of the hard working individuals at Curve”.
Curve Deputy Chief Executive Stella McCabe attended the awards ceremony, she said:
“We were delighted to be nominated for this award but we didn’t expect to win. The VisitEngland Awards for Excellence at Athena were very exciting for us. As the nominations were called out and the field was narrowed down we realised we had won Gold. We were all really thrilled. It was lovely to win the award on home turf. Leicestershire Promotions had gathered a whole range of people to be at the award ceremony so there were lots of people from Leicester there and we got a great reception from them”.
For more information on the VisitEngland Awards for Excellence visit: http://www.visitenglandawards.org/index.html
