2026 will be a year of change for Freelancers Make Theatre Work

And that change will be lead by you

Over the last couple of months, we’ve been looking closely at the issue of Freelancers Make Theatre Work’s funding, and how that will affect and shape our future work. As a largely volunteer-centred collective, the existence and work of FMTW has been hugely reliant on the incredible generosity and commitment of freelancers who have given their time, talent and energy to grappling with the issues facing arts freelancers since 2020.

We’re delighted to share the news that FMTW has been awarded short term project funding by Arts Council England to carry out a period of consultation and discussion over where and how FMTW can continue to support the needs of freelancers over the longer term, continuing and developing the work we’ve done so far.

How you can help shape the future of FMTW

As the most important part of this process, we’ll be reaching out to freelancers across the industry over the next couple of months, to gather your thoughts on what you need from FMTW and what we could do in the future to make freelance life fairer and more sustainable.

We’ll be in touch again via the first FMTW newsletter of 2026 with details of a short consultation which we’ll be asking you to fill in online, as well as other ways in which freelancers can feed into the process.

Between now and then, if you have friends and colleagues who would be willing to add their voices, please make sure they’re signed up to our newsletter email list - they can subscribe by adding their details here.

Stand by and watch this space!