Wakefield’s creative leaders CAPA College and Backstage Academy announce new partnership with exciting plans for world-class Arts Education collaboration

We are thrilled to announce today a brand-new partnership between two of the country’s leading Creative Arts organisations: CAPA College and Backstage Academy. From their respective corners of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, these two pioneering organisations have been shaping the future of Performing Arts, Production Arts, Live Events and Arts Education for the past two decades with an influence that extends from the West End stage to Hollywood film production to the global tours of such musical giants as Ed Sheeran, Beyonce & Jay-Z. Now CAPA College and Backstage Academy are joining forces for the first time to further enhance Yorkshire’s reputation for world-class Arts Education.

CAPA College and Backstage Academy are both world-leading organisations with specialist training and education provision spanning across a wide range of careers from TV, film and theatre to performance and live events. This partnership comes as these two artistic stalwarts declare their intention to collaborate and further the exceptional provision for Arts Education in West Yorkshire.

This groundbreaking collaboration will give young people a unique opportunity to benefit from the finest artistic and creative education provided by CAPA College (which is delivered by an award-winning team of top professional teachers, directors, choreographers, musical directors, designers and technicians) alongside the cutting-edge technical and production expertise of Backstage Academy (Production Park’s trailblazing Live Events Production University, which is the only centre of its kind in the UK).

This partnership brings together the academic and research teams of two of the UK’s highest rated Creative Arts organisations. CAPA College and Backstage Academy are also unrivalled in terms of the industry-standard facilities that they offer to their students. Operating from a brand new, multi-million-pound site in Wakefield city centre, CAPA College offers state-of-the-art dance, drama and singing studios, a 150-seat theatre, an outdoor amphitheatre, arthouse cinema and recording studios. The recently expanded Backstage Academy campus in South Kirkby is the number one Live Events Production destination in Europe with incredible studios, the latest equipment and pioneering technology.

Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire, says, “I am delighted that this partnership between CAPA College and Backstage Academy is taking place. Our region is fortunate to have two organisations that excel in what they do. I hope that through working together to create a creative arts pathway for talented young people they will present opportunities for people across a range of careers in TV, film, theatre and live events. This initiative will help our region become more attractive for businesses in these sectors to come here and invest”.

With incredible new programmes of study, original opportunities for collaborative research and an unprecedented focus on immersive entertainment and performance, this new partnership between CAPA College and Backstage Academy marks the beginning of something unprecedented in Arts Education and its happening right here in West Yorkshire.