A THEATRE has received more than £20,000 from the Arts Council towards a UK tour later this year.

A production by the Georgian Theatre Royal, Richmond, North Yorkshire, based on the life of early 19th century clown and pantomime artist Joseph Grimaldi, is to be taken to audiences across the country.

Joey, King of Clowns, will visit theatres in Wakefield, Suffolk, Essex and Derbyshire.

Theatre bosses secured £20,586 from the £262,637 given by the Arts Council to projects in the Yorkshire region in the latest round of grants.

Amanda Walker, the theatre's business development manager, said: "This tour is something new for us and we wouldn't have been able to do this without the support of the Arts Council."

Among the 35 Yorkshire and Humber projects to receive grants were the Ripon International Festival, held in September, and Ryedale Festival, in July.

Organisers of the Ripon event were allocated £15,000 towards paying for performers, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, which plays at the finale in Ripon Cathedral on September 15.

Ryedale Festival, in July, receives £17,000 for its community opera project, which sees local people help create an opera in a day.

Thirsk-based photographer Karen Lennox was given £3,905 to help print and frame her work for an exhibition to be staged as part of the Swaledale Festival.

The grant will also help produce a booklet to accompany the exhibition, Valley of the Wise, which features pictures of the people of India's Rishi Valley. It is at the Georgian Theatre Royal, Richmond, from Saturday to June 6.

Debby Moxon, a jeweller at Pateley Bridge, near Harrogate, receives £4,600 towards developing techniques of working with titanium and marketing her work.

Three York-based artists also benefit from the grants. Mosaic artist and author Alison Hepburn receives £5,000 to help create a 3D sculpture, poet Antony Dunn gets £2,850 to fund work with other poets to develop cultural understanding and writer Tricia Walker is allocated £5,000 to launch and market a book.

Artist Judith Davies, from Ingleton, near Skipton, receives £4,640 to market ceramic work in her first solo exhibition in London.