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Three organisations in England will receive a total of more than £1.6million in the third round of the Arts Council's Ambition for Excellence programme which aims to galvanise and nurture talent and ambition across the arts and cultural sector.  

The successful projects are exciting and wide ranging. They include:

• building the international influence of an organisation working to embed work by disabled artists within the UK cultural sector
• developing an ambitious new dance production exploring themes of cultural identity and immigration, the culmination of a long-term talent development programme
• delivering a programme of high quality large-scale community participation work designed to raise artistic excellence, grow local talent and build the capacity of a leading national theatre.

Alison Clark, National Director, Combined Arts & Programme Lead, Ambition for Excellence, Arts Council England, says: 'This round of awards will make a significant contribution to long term talent development and provide national and international showcasing opportunities for artists. The partnerships which sit behind the projects have developed ambitious programmes which will address the creative case for diversity with innovation and purpose, and we're delighted that this funding programme is helping to stimulate projects that will make a long term impact on diversifying the arts sector.'

More on the projects:

Shape will receive £749,949 towards Unlimited International. Unlimited is a national commissioning and development programme to support the development and profiling of high quality, ambitious new works by disabled artists. Unlimited International will extend the global impact of Unlimited by co-commissioning extraordinary English and international disabled artists to further transform the cultural sector worldwide in relation to access and equality. Working with British Council, Southbank Centre and Tramway, Unlimited (delivered by Shape and Artsadmin) will tour work from Japan, Brazil and Australia throughout England in 2016, supported by Pallant House, Drake Music and Watershed to help build momentum in the lead up to the co-commissions process.

A grant of £101,892 has been made for East Wall, a long-term talent development programme jointly conceived by East London Dance and Hofesh Shechter Company which will culminate in an ambitious new production for summer 2018. Working with some of East London Dance's most exciting emerging artists and choreographers, Shechter will curate and direct the production which will explore themes of race, cultural identity and immigration. Commissioned and presented by Historic Royal Palaces and LIFT, East Wall will feature a large cast of young east Londoners and professional performers in an outdoor night-time spectacle. 

Birmingham REP has been awarded £750,000 towards FURNACE, a three-year programme of community participation work, bringing members of the public together with professional artists. It will enable emerging artistic talent to work alongside major UK and international artists to create and deliver three new large-scale shows and a range of smaller projects, all with community participation at their heart.

Stuart Rogers, Executive Director, Birmingham REP, says: 'We are delighted that the Arts Council has recognised the potential of FURNACE. It will enable us to build upon and extend both our successful REP Foundry programme for developing emerging theatre talent and the range of work we create with local communities, offering both groups unique opportunities to work with established artists of the highest quality.' 

Ambition for excellence is a rolling programme, from 28 May 2015 to 27 October 2017, and applications will be received in two stages: an expression of interest followed by an invite to apply. Applicants can apply for between £100,000 and £750,000, across a period of up to three years.

Find out more about the Ambition for Excellence fund and previous successful applicants here.