First round of Culture Recovery Fund grants announced
Harriet Clifford
Monday, October 12, 2020
Today (12 October), the Arts Council announced the investment of £257 million into 1,385 theatres, venues, museums and cultural organisations in the first part of the Culture Recovery Fund: Grant programme.
Hundreds of theatres were successful in their applications, with examples including Bristol Old Vic, Chickenshed, Burnley Youth Theatre, National Youth Theatre of Great Britain, Next Generation Youth Theatre, the Almeida, Northern Academy of Performing Arts Educational Trust and University of Derby theatre.
These grants will be put towards helping theatres remain open or reopen, pay employees and freelancers, engage with communities, and produce live theatre again.
Data released by the Arts Council shows that London received the highest number of awards overall, with £87,027,172 going to 428 organisations, while the second highest number went to the East Midlands, with 96 awards worth £17,164,443 overall. Scotland and Wales received one award each, at £55,393 and £112,000 respectively.
The announcement is for Round 1 of applications, all of which are under £1 million. Millions more pounds worth of CRF funding is set to be announced within the coming weeks. The Arts Council is distributing a total of £500 million and organisations could apply for anything between £50,000 and £3 million.
The investment is part of the government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund to support cultural organisations and venues struggling as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.