Despite the economic challenges and reduced funding, we have had a very busy and productive 2011 at Irish Theatre Institute. Below are some interesting facts and figures from our year:

• 2,250 people walked through the door of our premises at 17 Eustace Street to use our rooms, resources and expertise.
• 140 theatre artists engaged in our one-to-one Wednesday Information Clinics at ITI and ‘on the road’ in Galway and Cork where we responded to requests for advice and information on topics such as touring, budget management, application procedures and how to build a sustainable career.
• In March, with the Arts Council’s Cultural Contact Point, we co-hosted an EU funding seminar for arts organisations from both sides of the Border and we also celebrated UNESCO World Theatre Day.
• In 05 we completed our three-year Playography na Gaeilge research project and launched the resource on-line. It comprises 796 Irish Language plays and is accompanied by a beautifully designed Findings Report 1901-2010 which is available in hard copy or you can download it here – http://www.irishtheatreinstitute.com/attachments/c2a108aa-5e37-4320-b442-5735ee55b264.PDF 
• We completed the first cycle of our Six In the Attic scheme (involving 9 theatre practitioners) namely ANU Productions (Louise Lowe, Hannah Mullen & Owen Boss), HotForTheatre (Amy Conroy), Lara Hickey (producer), Jody O’Neill (actor/writer), Theatre Lovett (Louis Lovett & Muireann Ahern), Priscilla Robinson (writer/performer) who, between them, worked on 11 productions which reached an audience of over 12,000 people.
• In June, with support from the Arts Council and Culture Ireland, we facilitated 19 Irish Theatre Designers to attend the prestigious Prague Quadrennial Exhibition of Performance Design & Space.
• In August, at the National Gallery of Scotland, we co-hosted our 6^th Ireland at Edinburgh networking event with our partners Culture Ireland and enjoyed an immensely successful morning introducing Irish theatre makers to a broad range of international presenters and producers.
• For networking and promotional purposes in Ireland we engaged with the Belfast Pick ‘n’ Mix , Cork Midsummer Festival, Clonmel 06ction Festival, Galway Arts Festival, ABSOLUT Fringe, Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival and Galway Theatre Festival.
• Our second year of Show in a Bag, (an artist development initiative of Dublin Fringe Festival, Fishamble: The New Play Company and Irish Theatre Institute to resource theatre makers and actors) saw seven theatre makers create five new small-scale productions which played to an audience of over 700 people during ABSOLUT Fringe. Throughout 2011 our Shows in a Bag from 2010 were revived for Irish and international tours where they reached an audience of over 6,000.
• In September, 129 individuals attended in the 5th Information Toolbox during ABSOLUT Fringe. 50 theatre artists/companies met with representatives from 44 arts organisations (including 12 international festivals and venues) across 1,078 eight-minute meetings over 5 hours.
• In October, 122 people attended our two-day 18^th International Theatre Exchange. 42 Irish theatre and dance companies (from Belfast, Cork, Dublin, Galway, Kerry, Kildare, Leitrim, Meath and Westmeath) networked with key Irish venues and festivals and 38 influential presenters from Australia, USA, South Africa, Hong Kong/China, Canada, Europe and the UK across 763 15-minute meetings. Numerous touring invitations have now been secured for 2012 and 2013.
• Five companies (ANU Productions, HotForTheatre, Rise Productions, the Performance Corporation and THEATREclub) were selected for the 4^th edition of ReViewed (a partnership between Culture Ireland, Irish Theatre Institute and Dublin Theatre Festival which is a curated showcase of successful Irish productions revived and restaged especially for the Festival). These shows played to an audience of over 3,000 during the festival.
• In November ITI attended the meeting of the European Network of Information Centres for the Performing Arts (ENICPA) in Berlin which focussed on information gathering and dissemination, social media, statistics and data presentation, online documentation and copyright issues.
• In December, from an application and interview process, we selected the artists and companies for Six in the Attic 2012 which will begin on 3^rd 01.
• Following an open call for Expressions of Interest, we have appointed a number of arts professionals to the Advisory Board of the Irish Centre of UNESCO’s organisation of International Theatre Institutes. They will have their first meeting on 1st February at ITI.
• Finally, we re-designed and launched our new ITI and Playography websites which we hope you find helpful and easy to use. Let us know what you think.

It’s certainly been quite a year. We would like to thank our funders the Arts Council, Culture Ireland, Foras na Gaeilge and Dublin City Council for making all of our work possible and our project partners ABSOLUT Fringe, Dublin Theatre Festival and Fishamble: the New Play Company. Finally, we want to say a big thank you to the theatre makers who created such inspirational and exciting work in 2011.

We look forward to an even busier 2012!