£257 million to save 1385 theatres, arts venues, museums and cultural organisations across England
More than 1,300 arts and cultural organisations are benefitting from a share of £257 million as part of a vital financial boost from the Government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund, Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden has announced.
Old Vic, Bristol
- Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden reveals details of cultural organisations across England receiving a share of £257 million
- Funding is the biggest tranche of money awarded so far from the Government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund
- Venues benefitting from funding include the Cavern Club in Liverpool, Royal Academy of Dance in London, Bristol Old Vic, Beamish in County Durham and Stowmarket’s John Peel Centre for Creative Arts
More than 1,300 arts and cultural organisations are benefitting from a share of £257 million as part of a vital financial boost from the Government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund, Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden has announced.
Organisations that applied for grants under £1 million in the first round of the Culture Recovery Fund were informed this morning of their awards by Arts Council England which is distributing funding on behalf of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
The allocation is the biggest tranche of funding distributed to date from the Culture Recovery Fund, bringing the total amount of grant funding awarded so far to more than £360 million. Further funding for organisations is due to be announced in the coming days and weeks.
Today’s funding will help 1,385 theatres, galleries, performance groups, arts organisations, museums and local venues survive the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic.
It will boost iconic organisations and venues known around the world, such as the London Symphony Orchestra, the Bristol Old Vic Theatre and Liverpool’s Cavern Club. It will also protect hundreds of local organisations that have launched many stars of the British cultural scene and sit at the heart of their communities. This includes the Finborough Theatre in Earl’s Court, London, Beamish Living Museum in County Durham, the Northcott Theatre in Exeter, the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in Wakefield, and The Young Vic in London.
This funding will help allow performances to restart, venues to plan for reopening and help protect jobs and create opportunities for freelancers.
Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said:
The government is here for culture and we have worked around the clock to get this record investment out to the frontline.
It will allow our wonderful theatres, museums, music venues and cultural organisations to survive this crisis and start putting on performances again - protecting jobs and creating new work for freelancers.
This is just the start - with hundreds of millions pounds more on the way for cultural organisations of all sizes that still need our help.
Sir Nicholas Serota, Chair, Arts Council England, said:
Theatres, museums, galleries, dance companies and music venues bring joy to people and life to our cities, towns and villages. This is a difficult time for us all, but this first round of funding from the Culture Recovery Fund will help sustain hundreds of cultural spaces and organisations that are loved and admired by local communities and international audiences. Further funding will be announced later in the month and we are working hard to support creative organisations and individuals during these challenging times.
Earlier today, the Culture Secretary and Dame Darcey Bussell visited the Royal Academy of Dance which will receive £606,366 to enable students and teachers to get back to rehearsals and restart opportunities for local people of all ages and abilities to get involved with dance. Programmes like Silver Swans dance classes improve wellbeing for the over 55s and RADiate engages young people with special educational needs and disabilities with dance.
Dame Darcey Bussell, DBE, said:
We sincerely welcome the support from DCMS and are very grateful to receive this significant grant from the Culture Recovery Fund. It was my pleasure to welcome the Culture Secretary to the RAD today, in this our Centenary year, and introduce him to our students who will go on to join our network of RAD teachers, who empower young people in the UK and worldwide with our leading ballet training. We cannot overestimate the value of arts and culture in our lives, and its ability to build community, resilience and bring joy.
The multi-award-winning, 50-seat Finborough Theatre will receive £59,574 to secure their iconic location and maintain in-house skills to be able to reopen successfully and sustainably in the future. The Finborough, founded in 1980 above a pub in Earl’s Court, has launched the careers of international stars like Rachel Weisz and maintains a track record of discovering practitioners who go on to become leading voices in British theatre including Jack Thorne, who co-wrote Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and James Graham whose plays, including This House, Ink and Labour of Love, enjoyed hugely successful runs in the West End and Broadway.
Playwright James Graham said:
It’s such a relief then to see these significant funds now reaching organisations who want to begin making work for their communities to enjoy.
It’s also important that these theatres are spread nationwide, are big and small, and include venues like the tiny Finborough pub theatre - which is where I cut my teeth and wouldn’t be a playwright or screenwriter without it.
London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) will receive £846,000 to help them begin a phased return to full-scale performance. The LSO has established an international reputation as one of the top orchestras in the world and through its extensive touring the LSO plays a key role in promoting Britain as a leading exponent of artistic excellence.
Sir Simon Rattle OM, CBE, Music Director, London Symphony Orchestra, said:
We have refused to let live music be silenced, but it cannot survive on energy and optimism alone. Today’s announcement is incredibly important for orchestras and the whole live music sector, threatened with devastation by the effects of the pandemic. We need, and are grateful for, this support as we take our first steps in public performance once more, enabling us to show the full power of our creative community.
Organisations that will be receiving funding include:
- Hallé Concerts Society, Manchester - £740,000 will support the organisation to live stream fortnightly concerts from the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester.
The Hallé, established 142 years ago, has the world-renowned Sir Mark Elder as its Music Director. Over a quarter of a million people heard the Hallé live last season. It’s education programme reaches tens of thousands of people and it strives to create a wider enjoyment and understanding of music throughout the community.
- Royal Liverpool Philharmonic - £748,000 will enable the orchestra to provide a short, socially distanced programme, all of which will be recorded to stream at a later date.
It is the oldest continuing professional symphony orchestra in the country with its origins dating to 1840. The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic was the first orchestra to create its own recording label and has collaborated with international artists such as Sir Paul McCartney, Elvis Costello and OMD.
- Wigmore Hall, London - £1 million to sustain the future of this international centre for chamber music and song.
Every year, Wigmore Hall presents a diverse programme of some 500 years of repertoire, performed by the finest international artists, whilst also providing cultural opportunities for those least likely to experience high-quality live music.
- Cavern Club, Liverpool - £525,000 will fund the recording of local musicians’ live performances which will be streamed digitally to provide opportunities for local artists and technicians.
The Cavern Club, one of Liverpool’s top tourist attractions, is the place where The Beatles musical identity was formed and now a thriving live music destination showcasing up and coming bands and established artists.
- National Maritime Museum Cornwall, Falmouth - £485,000 to sustain the future of the museum that promotes Cornwall’s maritime heritage.
Home to gold-medal winning sailor Ben Ainslie’s boat from the London 2012 Olympics.
- Exeter Northcott Theatre, Exeter - £183,399 - to help them develop a new business model to sustain the business. This flagship theatre is a key part of the local cultural offer serving the communities of mid-Devon.
Exeter Northcott Theatre first opened its doors in November 1967 and has helped launched the careers of celebrated actors including Imelda Staunton, Celia Imrie, Robert Lindsay, John Nettles, Geraldine James and David Suchet, and seen world premieres from playwrights such as Anthony Mingella and Howard Barker.
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Beamish, the Living Museum of the North - Co Durham £970,000 to support the business through the winter and restart a capital project. Beamish preserves examples of everyday life in urban and rural North East England at the climax of industrialisation in the early 20th century
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Beamish has been seen on screen in many shows including Downton Abbey and Dark Angel. Perennial children’s favourite Blue Peter has visited several times and it’s also been seen in Fred Dibnah’s Victorian Heroes, Ant & Dec’s A History of Tyneside and the Antiques Roadshow.
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Royal Academy of Dance (RAD), London - £606,366 to stabilise and recommence its activities.
RAD is one of the world’s most influential dance education organisations and is of both national and international cultural significance. The Margot Fonteyn International Ballet Competition is one of the most prestigious competitions in the world and attracts young dancers from around the globe. RAD also has a vital impact on communities, providing cultural opportunities wherever they operate.
- Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield £804,013 to help the park to adapt its buildings to new regulations and help it continue to reopen safely.
Yorkshire Sculpture Park shows work by British and international artists including Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. Its collection of the works by Moore is one of the largest open-air displays of his bronzes in Europe.
- Hackney Empire, London - £585,064 to help support a new model of responsive programming and address increased costs driven by the pandemic.
This iconic theatre plays a key role in the cultural, civic and economic life of its community.
- Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, Lake District, £878,492 to support the theatre - one of the biggest employers in the area - to help cover losses as a result of coronavirus. Set on the edge of Keswick, amid the magnificent western fells of the Lake District, it has two stages - a 400 seat Main House and 100 seat Studio.
Theatre by the Lake opened on the shores of Derwentwater in August 1999 as a permanent replacement for the Blue Box, an extraordinary mobile theatre created after the Second World War to take plays to towns and cities with no active theatres. Dame Judi Dench is its patron.
- Birmingham Royal Ballet - £500,000 to help off-set loss of earnings from performances and touring. The Birmingham Royal Ballet has performances planned at Birmingham Repertory Theatre and Sadler’s Wells in London at the end of this month.
Carlos Acosta CBE, who has danced with the Royal Ballet and the National Ballet of Cuba, was appointed as Director in January.
- Bristol Old Vic Theatre - £610,466 to help transform its business model including a mix of live and online performances as well as support for its creative workforce.
The oldest continuous working theatre in the English language, Olivia Colman, Kwame Kwei Armah and Daniel Day Lewis all started their careers there.
- Young Vic, London - £961,455 to help it partially open between October and March, remotely operating its Directors Programme and its outreach activities with local communities.
The Young Vic’s work is highly acclaimed, and since Kwame Kwei-Armah joined as Artistic Director, it has mounted productions on Broadway, the West End, BBC Radio 4 and in Zimbabwe, Manchester, Ipswich, Birmingham.
- Storyhouse, Chester, Cheshire - £730,252 to help open the building safely and put performances on. Storyhouse is a library, theatre, cinema, community hub, cultural centre and restaurant.
Storyhouse, Chester was voted the UK’s Most Welcoming Theatre 2019/20 in the UK Theatre Awards.
- Curve, Leicester - £950,000 to help with plans to re-open the theatre. This large producing theatre has often transferred work to the West End.
Well-known names to have appeared at the theatre include Pixie Lott (Breakfast at Tiffany’s) Danny Mac (Sunset Boulevard) and former X-Factor winner Alexandra Burke (Sister Act.)
- Lighthouse, Poole - £987,964 to help this multi-artform venue and home to Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra remain sustainable with a phased programme of reopening and to ensure the orchestra’s work to connect with the local community can continue.
Many well-known Great British artists have performed at Lighthouse, Poole; including The Who, The Clash, Kate Bush and Ozzy Osbourne.
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Wiltshire Creative (runs Salisbury Playhouse, Salisbury Festival and Salisbury Arts Centre) - £446,968 will help this pan-arts organisation deliver their fantastic outreach and community programmes and develop local creative talent in the area.
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Salisbury Arts Centre has seen many well-known performers grace its stage throughout their careers, including John Cooper Clark in the 80’s, and The Levellers, Buzzcocks and Manic Street Preachers in the 90s. Wiltshire Creative have commissioned and produced plays from writers such as Timberlake Wertenbaker, Howard Brenton, Barney Norris and Chris Chibnall (who wrote Broadchurch and is the lead writer for Dr Who). The late actor Sir Alec Guinness opened the Salisbury Playhouse building in 1976.
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Grimm & Co, Rotherham, Yorkshire - £86,000 to help them survive in order to provide support for children with creativity and writing. This literacy charity supports children aged 7 to 18 to improve their confidence and skills around creativity and writing. This includes one-to-one mentoring to spark children’s motivation to write.
The charity counts actor and screenwriter Mark Gatiss, author Joanne Harris MBE and poet Ian McMillan among their patrons. 1 million listeners heard their children’s scripts performed by professional artists on BBC Radio 4.
- Theatre Peckham, London - £150,000 to help deliver covid secure classes for its pipeline of young talent and provide support for freelance artists.
This theatre company, aimed at young people in south London, was where Star Wars’ John Boyega first learned to act and is now a patron. Last year, the organisation welcomed 19,000 local people through its doors.
- The Brudenell, Leeds - £220,429 to host a free weekly event as well as stream events working with partners such as Music:Leeds and Made With Music.
The Brudenell Social Club is a centrepiece of the Leeds music scene. Famous for hosting secret gigs for bands like Franz Ferdinand and the Kaiser Chiefs, it hosts events most nights of the week, which are put on by a variety of local promoters and which cover a wide spectrum of genres.
- The Georgian Theatre Royal, Richmond - £52,960 will help the theatre to provide tours of the building and restart its youth theatre virtually.
Built in 1788, the Georgian Theatre Royal is Britain’s oldest working theatre still in its original form. The theatre also houses an accredited museum collection and has strong ties to York University which uses the venue for academic events such as recreating Georgian productions. Dame Judi Dench is its president and Their Royal Highnesses The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall are its patrons.
- Theatre Royal Stratford East, London - £495,625 will help the theatre to continue to adapt their work including digital offerings and live work that supports local young people, schools and community groups.
Stratford East is a launch pad for many diverse theatremakers, directors, writers and performers including Meera Syal, Barbara Windsor, Don Warrington, Sheila Hancock, Indhu Rubasingham, Tanika Gupta, Roy Williams and Cynthia Erivo.
- John Peel Centre for Creative Arts, Stowmarket - £84,335 will allow the community-owned Centre to make necessary adjustments to enable it to reopen safely and restart a variety of music performances featuring established acts and emerging talent, as well as poetry, film, theatre, and comedy.
The John Peel Centre for Creative Arts is an ambitious project to provide a lasting tribute to the life and career of the much-loved broadcaster and create a high-quality, community-owned, arts centre in the heart of Suffolk. John lived with his family near Stowmarket and involved himself in the local community.
- Deafinitely Theatre, London - £95,830 will fund a broad, bold cultural programme of events that will provide a key access point to the isolated deaf community and a youth theatre service that will provide London’s only fully accessible arts provision for deaf young people. They will deliver 20 events by March 2021 for emerging deaf theatre makers, produce a new online play and commission 20 deaf freelance artists to devise new British Sign Language (BSL) performances.
Deafinitely Theatre is the UK’s first deaf-led theatre and leader in this field which offers support, representation and BSL / deaf-specific training across live performance mediums.
- Gifford’s Circus, Stroud - £240,000 will enable Gifford Circus to continue to trade to the opening of their 2021 season in April next year.
Gifford’s Circus is a traditional, family run, village green circus that tours England. They still make their costumes, paint their own sets and train their horses themselves.
- Backyard Comedy Club, Tower Hamlets, London - £200,000 makes it possible for grassroots showcases, touring bands and comedy nights attracting some of the best comics on the circuit to be restarted at the largest purpose-built comedy club in London.
Backyard Comedy Club is one of the most acclaimed comedy venues in the country, hosting performances by a diverse range of famous comedians, including Jo Brand, Russell Howard, Omid Djalili, Sara Pascoe, Alan Carr, and providing a stage for the next generation of comedians to showcase their talents.
- Heugh Battery Museum, Hartlepool - £71,573 will fund vital conservation work on the collection at the UK’s only open air museum dedicated to the First World War.
The Heugh Battery Museum sits on the site of the only First World War battlefield in Britain and tells the story of the Bombardment of the Hartlepools, which took place on Wednesday 16th December 1914.
- Corey Baker Dance, Birmingham - £124,836 will help Corey Baker Dance to deliver new digital dance projects.
Corey Baker Dance is a production company, led by Artistic Director and Choreographer Corey Baker, creating work across stage and screen including ‘Bathtub Swan Lake’ which recently featured as the most watched of the BBC’s Culture in Quarantine series.
- Rutland County Council Museums, Oakham - £132,100 will support Rutland County Museum and Oakham Castle, two significant heritage sites in Rutland, to gradually re-open and work towards a full relaunch in April 2021.
The sites are the main visitor attractions for Oakham and important event venues for local community groups in Rutland, which is the smallest county in the country.
- Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne - £140,500 will enable the gallery to fully restart activities and an expanded creative programme.
The Towner Art Gallery was founded in 1923 as ‘an art gallery for the people’ and remains the largest purpose-built gallery in the South East, featuring historical work alongside the work of diverse contemporary artists. The gallery welcomed a record number of visitors during 2019.
Today’s announcement will be followed by further allocations of grants and loans to successful applicants to the government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund in the coming days and weeks.
Additional stakeholder quotes
Neil Mendoza, Government Commissioner for Culture Recovery and Renewal quote:
We are at a serious moment for the economy and jobs, but especially for the cultural sector. Culture provides a life-enhancing force. It contributes to our national good in so many ways, from well-being to economic growth, in every single part of the country. Today’s funding announcement for performing arts and museums is the biggest tranche yet released from the Culture Recovery Fund. Arts Council England have worked hard to judge applications carefully ensuring that the Fund can release grants quickly while protecting taxpayers money. We are here for culture.
Damon Buffini, Chair of the Culture Recovery Board quote:
Today’s announcement sees over £250m of funding flowing from the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund to critical arts organisations. Thanks to this significant investment these vital cultural assets will be helped to weather this storm, protecting their amazing offer which benefits so many throughout the country. As Chair of the Culture Recovery Board, I am delighted to see these awards made today, with more to come in forthcoming weeks.
Simon Callow, Actor, Writer, Director, said:
Extraordinary and exhilarating. I’m really struck by how imaginatively the funds have been distributed, acknowledging the interdependence of all these organisations, the fact that we all, the grand and the modest alike, have our roots in the same soil. These disbursements don’t resolve all the huge challenges we face, but they do get the garden growing again, which will be an inspiration for us all, our audiences and all those of us who toil backstage, onstage and front of house, to make the complicated miracle of live performance happen again. Phew. The relief is palpable. Bravo to the Department, the Treasury and the government for enabling us - in the nick of time - to get back to doing something our country is very, very good at.
Kwame Kwei-Armah, Artistic Director & Glenn Earle, Chair, Young Vic, said:
The Young Vic is extremely grateful to the Chancellor and HM Treasury, the Culture Secretary and DCMS, Arts Council England and the many people who have worked tirelessly to secure and deliver the grant we will receive as part of the Cultural Recovery Fund, announced today.
It is no understatement that this grant is a lifeline for the Young Vic, enabling us to remain resilient and deliver new ways of making enriching work for and with our community, while we wait for the time when we can open fully to our audiences once again.
The Young Vic is part of an ecosystem of extraordinary theatre-makers who have all been affected by this crisis, many of whom are freelancers and for whom more must be done. We will play our part in assisting this community of people to remain and thrive in this industry to which they are so vital.
These funds represent a vital step in our recovery and in the renewal of our world-class sector.
Simon Armitage, Poet Laureate, said:
The arts are the nation’s soul, they make us a people, not just a population. They are also a huge industry, both in terms of revenue generated and the many thousands of employees in the sector. The amount needed to keep the arts alive is a measure of both their cultural and financial importance to this country. A much needed measure, the Recovery Fund won’t return us to anything like normality, but it will provide a lifeline for many individuals, and for a number of significant arts institutions could be the difference between survival and non existence.
Tom Morris OBE, Artistic Director, Bristol Old Vic, said:
This is fantastic news for many arts organisations all over the country. For Bristol Old Vic it is transformative. Immediately it keeps us open and prevents another devastating round of redundancies. Beyond that it gives us a solid platform from which we can contribute to the economic and social recovery which must follow the pandemic over the next two years.
Arts businesses all over the country can now work with Government, Arts Council, local authorities and our own donors and supporters to raise funds so that we can invest in the creative workforce for which Britain is internationally renowned. In doing so we can support the recovery of our city and town centres with dazzling new work, and collaborate with communities all over the country in transformative creative projects.
The country needs its artists more than ever as we confront the bewildering force of the ongoing pandemic. The government’s investment of £1.57bn in the Culture Recovery Fund shows a clear understanding of how much our creative industries can contribute in these uniquely challenging times. It also sets an inspiring precedent for new investment in transformative art works which can engage every community in the country and lift the hearts of all of us.
Carlos Acosta, Director, Birmingham Royal Ballet, said:
The Culture Recovery Funding is a lifeline for the Arts. It provides a bridge towards longer term recovery, the full return of audiences and our ability to contribute millions to the economy. We are grateful for this government support and glad that money is starting to reach colleagues and partners across the industry. It will support our continuing plans to start performing again, to urgently re-shape how we run our businesses in a changed world, and to entertain live audiences.
Akram Khan MBE, Dancer and Choreographer, said:
In moments of crisis, to act on it with financial support, sends a strong message of how important art is to all of us. Right now we are experiencing a breakdown of human communities. And by supporting the arts, it empowers these communities to find and make sense of the world we live in together. I am deeply grateful for the support the government has shown and will hopefully continue to support, our beloved arts sector, which has always been, in my view, one of the most fundamental building blocks to keeping our species, mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually well.
Nick Hytner, Nick Starr, Theatre Directors and co-founders, Bridge Theatre, said:
This is a significant and timely announcement. There are so many challenges for people who are at the sharp end of this crisis; this is a serious and substantive first step towards addressing them. We’re looking forward to working with government to make not just the best of the current situation but, in time, a new flowering for the arts in the UK.
Margaret Casely-Hayford, Chair of Shakespeare’s Globe, said:
Investment in the arts creates more than a financial benefit, there’s also an enormous boost to the morale, health and wellbeing of the nation; and we should see this as evidence of the government’s belief in the importance of the sector.
Jo Hemmant, Executive Director, Hackney Empire, said:
Hackney Empire is very grateful to Arts Council England and the DCMS to have received this funding, and thereby have the opportunity to continue to do our best to support our community, our audiences, our young people and all of the people that make arts and culture happen.
It has been an incredibly hard year for so many and the challenges of the future remain, in many ways, unknown. We feel it is our responsibility as a sector, now more than ever, to ensure we are always learning, always improving and always working harder to represent and reach out to the unheard and the unengaged. With this funding we must guarantee that the transformative power of the arts can be experienced by the many; to share, to entertain, to inform and to educate.
Stewart Drew, Director and CEO, De La Warr Pavilion, said:
Thank you to ACE and DCMS. The grant from the Culture Recovery Fund will ensure that over the next six months we can remain open and rebuild the Pavilion after the impact of such a catastrophic event. This award recognises the significant role DLWP plays in the UK’s culture and heritage and the contribution it makes to its local community.
John Gilhooly, Executive Director, Wigmore Hall, said:
This is wonderful news for Wigmore Hall. We’ve worked really hard to bring artists and audiences back to live concerts. No one knows how long this crisis will last, but we greatly appreciate this cash injection. It will help us navigate through the next 12 months. I want to thank the Government, DCMS and the Arts Council for the level of support it has given to the sector. Even with this boost, we remain very conscious of the plight of freelancers and individual musicians during this challenging time.
Kathryn McDowell CBE, Managing Director, London Symphony Orchestra, said:
This funding is a lifeline for the London Symphony Orchestra – enabling our company of world class musicians, their administrative and technical support team to continue bringing the thrill of live music performance to people of all ages once again. We will now be able to play our concerts in our Barbican Centre home, and continue to deliver our education and community projects both live and on line. We are deeply grateful to government and the Arts Council for this much needed financial support to enable this great orchestra to play on.
Steve Mannix, Executive Director, Colchester Mercury Theatre, said:
This support from the Cultural Recovery Fund delivers a vital temporary lifeline for all of us at The Mercury and the sector as a whole. These funds will not only enable us to pay the wages of our 77 staff to next April, but to launch our new youth and community programme, commission local artists and creatives and help to at long last throw open the doors to our brand spanking newly refurbished theatre.
We look forward to welcoming you to our new home and to playing our part in ensuring that Colchester’s local economy can once again thrive and continue to embrace the arts, culture and heritage as a vital part of the town. These funds don’t solve everything, but offer a glimmer of hope. For the first time in many months we all can start to look to the future with a sense of optimism and creativity.
Victoria Pomery, CEO, Turner Contemporary, said:
During these exceptional times artists and cultural institutions have found new ways to express their creativity and engage with audiences, often behind closed doors and facing difficult decisions. This funding is an essential boost to a sector which plays such a vital role in the health and well-being of so many communities across the country. It’s wonderful to hear that 1385 organisations will benefit and that the immediate future of the sector is being supported. The arts provide employment, learning opportunities and drive tourism as well as delivering enriching and life-enhancing artistic experiences.
Clare Reddington, CEO, Watershed, said:
Watershed is relieved and grateful to have been awarded a grant from Arts Council England, as part of the Culture Recovery Fund, which will reinstate the reserves we have used for survival and help us to navigate the changed human and operational environment we are all now in. The support, flexibility and belief of our core funders has enabled us to continue serving audiences and artists during lockdown. The grant specifically supports business development, fundraising and inclusion, and will enable us to continue supporting artists, film makers and young people during this ongoing period of challenge, including through our artist residency programme which will now be announced this week. Thank you a million times.
Richard Doughty, Director, National Maritime Museum Cornwall, said:
Since lockdown in March, National Maritime Museum Cornwall’s future has been uncertain. Vital revenue streams disappeared overnight, and our ability to remain a part of our community, here in Cornwall, felt impossible. The news we have been awarded such a significant sum from the Government’s Cultural Recovery Fund is a real lifeline for us. We are hugely grateful to Arts Council England for recognising the quality of the artistically ambitious programming our Museum is delivering in the South West. This grant will help secure our work for the foreseeable future and will enable us to keep our doors open to our visitors. We are thrilled the National Maritime Museum Cornwall has been recognised not only as a cultural asset for Cornwall but as a nationally significant Museum. The award means we can start to plan the next chapter in our story, one that now is a lot less unknown and one that is now a lot more hopeful.
Elsepth McBain, CEO, Lighthouse Poole, said:
After a hugely difficult 7 months and still no end in sight for being able to get back to normal business, the overriding sense is one of joy, relief and immense gratitude to the Government for this 11th hour support which has saved us and many other cultural organisations from a very bleak and desperate situation. Thanks to this award, Lighthouse will continue to play an important part of the cultural landscape of the region and the UK. It’s been a very long and stressful few months not only for the Lighthouse team but for all our colleagues working in the cultural sector and this funding will now enable us to focus on recovery.
The government has recognised that the cultural industries are a vital part of the UK and we are truly grateful for the financial support they have found that will save parts of the sector in the immediate future. For Lighthouse, this money will support us until the end of the financial year by when we hope to be able to welcome back capacity audiences once again. In the meantime, we will continue to use our spaces creatively and support artists and creative practitioners to provide our community with the arts and entertainment and community engagement work that our town and region needs and absolutely should have.
Sebastian Warrack, Executive Director, Wiltshire Creative, said:
We are absolutely delighted that our application to the Culture Recovery Fund has been successful. This will enable Wiltshire Creative to plan with greater confidence, to ensure our organisation is Covid safe and to be open, welcoming back and serving our community.
Daniel Buckroyd, Artistic Director & CEO, Exeter Northcott Theatre, said:
We’re delighted that the Northcott Theatre has been supported by the Culture Recovery Fund – it offers both a vital lifeline as we continue to struggle with the impacts of Covid, and a chance to develop our business for the future, collaborate with new artists and reach out to new audiences and participants.
Michael Eakin, Chief Executive, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, said:
This support is very welcome and will be crucial in helping to sustain our vital arts and cultural sector through this difficult period.
Nathan Clark, Owner, The Brudenell, said:
We are delighted at the news and the huge immediate impact it will have. The support the Culture Recovery Fund will give, directly provides long term survival, security and resilience for the Brudenell. We recognise the opportunity and responsibility the package gives, which allows us to look to the future, continuing to create artistic opportunities, work for our community and to further expand our offering.
Jon Keats, Director, The Cavern Club, said:
We are delighted to have received positive news at a time of great uncertainty for our industry as a whole. This funding will help protect ninety jobs and to potentially recoup around 20% of our total losses over the period March 2020 - 21. Importantly, 50% of our funding will go directly to the self-employed musicians and technicians who have not been able to earn since March. We will bring substantial live music back into our venue as soon as we are allowed to and we are already looking to stream our musicians performances in the meantime.
Chenine Bhathena, Creative Director of Coventry UK City of Culture 2021, said:
The funding announced today will provide a lifeline to some of the country’s most innovative and essential cultural organisations, providing vital support to the delicate ecosystem of arts and culture across the country. While this gives some a much-needed breathing space, we must now redouble all our efforts to ensure a sustainable future. The challenge as we move forward is to continue to create meaningful and exciting cultural experiences, protect the livelihoods of our talented workforce, and most importantly to demonstrate the need for and impact of culture in our communities. Culture isn’t a “nice to have”, it’s the bedrock of our society.
Chris Stafford, Chief Executive, and Nikolai Foster, Artistic Director, Curve theatre, Leicester said:
COVID continues to have a devastating impact on our industry and we are indebted to Arts Council England and DCMS for the Culture Recovery grant which will help secure a future for Curve. Curve would not have survived this period of closure without the funding grants from Arts Council England and Leicester City Council, along with the support from the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS). As the CJRS comes to an end, this crucial investment in our theatre will enable us to protect jobs, forge plans to reopen and employ 100s of freelancers.
We will shortly announce our reopening plans, and although social distanced performances are not sustainable in the long-term, our theatre plays a vital role in the life of our city and on our local economy; this investment will enable us to bring our building- and Leicester’s Cultural Quarter- back to life as we wait for news on when we can expect to reopen at Stage 5 of the Theatre roadmap.
Andrew Lovett, Chief Executive, Black Country Living Museum, and Chair Association, Independent Museums, said:
I cannot overstate the significance of the announcements being made today. Arts Council England, with resources allocated by the UK Government in its Culture Recovery Fund, has stepped-up to save regional museums – the story-tellers and keepers of our nation’s heritage – from extinction.
This support isn’t spending. It is an investment in something that people of this country value deeply with pride, fascination and affection. I commend the action being taken today.
We all know that huge challenges remain, including those large and familiar civic museums in our major towns and cities, and I feel especially awful for those people working in museums who have already lost their jobs. However, this Government funding is putting the breaks on the decline we have all seen since COVID-19 struck. There is now greater optimism that our wonderful museums can survive, be able to adapt and be in a position to thrive once more. We need them to do what they do best, bring added meaning to our lives.
ENDS
Notes to Editors
For media queries please call the DCMS press office on 020 7211 2210
A full list of the recipients announced today is here
The £1.57 billion Cultural Recovery Fund builds on unprecedented support from the government and our arms length bodies for the culture sectors. This includes the Job Retention Scheme; a years’ business rates holiday for leisure businesses and the Bounce Back Loans scheme.
This is in addition to £104 million of emergency funding already distributed by Arts Council England to organisations and individuals, and £96 million currently available to support the arts and freelancers, through programmes like National Lottery Project Grants and Developing Your Creative Practice.
Last updated 12 October 2020 + show all updates
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Additional supportive quotes added.
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First published.