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

A production by the Georgian Theatre Royal, Richmond, based on the life of early 19th Century clown and pantomime artist Joseph Grimaldi, will 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 £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 would not 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 will play at the finale in Ripon Cathedral on Saturday, September 15.

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

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

The grant will also help produce a booklet to accompany the exhibition, Valley of the Wise, which features pictures of the residents of Rishi Valley, in India. It will be staged at the Georgian Theatre Royal, Richmond, from tomorrow until Wednesday, June 6.

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

Three York artists also benefited from the grants. Mosaic artist and author Alison Hepburn received £5,000 to help create a 3D sculpture, poet Antony Dunn was given £2,850 to fund work with other poets to develop cultural understanding, and writer Tricia Walker has been allocated £5,000 to launch and market a book.

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