Thursday, 22 October 2020
588 more organisations have received Culture Recovery Fund grants in England worth £76m, but information about how many were unsuccessful is no longer being shared.
DCMS has announced £76m funding for 588 cultural organisations, the second major tranche of Culture Recovery Fund (CRF) grants worth up to £1m.
The first, larger round awarded £257m to nearly 1,400 applicants last week, and further rounds for grants of up to £3m and loans of £3m or more are yet to come.
The grants are being administered and distributed by Arts Council England (ACE), but in a... read more
Thursday, 22 October 2020
Organisations put forward “a strong case for support”, leading to a total of £20m in allocations.
Photo:
Claudine Conway
The first round of Culture Recovery Fund (CRF) awards for Wales has granted £18.1m in revenue funding to 152 organisations.
Successful applicants ranged from the largest national institutions to the smallest community groups, with the largest award by far of £3.4m going to the Wales Millennium... read more
Thursday, 22 October 2020
Culture Recovery Fund grants are expected to save more than 10,000 roles. What happens next will determine whether the industry emerges "bruised but intact or devastated and demoralised".
More than 160,000 live music jobs could be lost by the end of the year, new analysis from industry leaders says.
The report from umbrella group LIVE was published after the first round of England's Culture Recovery Fund (CRF) grants under £1m, but before the second. It estimates the CRF will save... read more
Wednesday, 21 October 2020
Major festivals call for a Government-backed insurance scheme as events receive millions in emergency funding.
Photo:
Dominic Alves
Major festivals are calling for further financial support, saying they are "in danger of becoming invisible" in the current economic crisis.
More than 65 directors, chief executives, presidents, promoters and chairpeople of UK festivals signed an open letter to Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden... read more
Wednesday, 21 October 2020
Cultural organisations and funders are investing in digital to keep artistic activity alive - whether social distancing rules persist or not.
Photo:
Jagrit Parajuli
The lockdown experience has pushed museums, galleries and theatres to develop their digital presence for the future, according to new research.
A survey of 500 cultural organisations has revealed that four out of five now see digital attractions as more important.
Adapting to their new reality... read more
Friday, 16 October 2020
Large grants to commercial operators, the comments of unsuccessful applicants and the conditions attached to funding awards have all provoked questions about England’s Cultural Recovery grants.
Photo:
Matthew LeJune on Unsplash
The 1,385 cultural organisations awarded grant funding from the first round of England’s Culture Recovery Fund (CRF) earlier this week include businesses in the hospitality sector, a drinking and dining ‘showbar’ and wedding venue, two artists agencies and companies with an unsteady financial... read more
Thursday, 15 October 2020
A new DCMS Committee Inquiry is set to "shine a torch into the murky corners of the streaming payment model".
Photo:
Joel Muniz on Unsplash
The economic impact music streaming is having on artists, record labels and the sustainability of the wider music industry will be the subject on a new DCMS Committee Inquiry.
Streaming accounts for more than half of the global music industry’s revenue and in the UK brings in more than £1 billion... read more
Wednesday, 14 October 2020
The Queen’s Birthday Honours list includes those whose work during lockdown has inspired other people and prompted new approaches to community engagement.
Sarah Bowern, Deputy Head of Costume at English National Opera, has been honoured with an MBE for her services to opera and charity during the Covid lockdown earlier this year.
With theatres closed and the costume department on furlough, she set up and coordinated a team that started sewing scrubs... read more
Wednesday, 14 October 2020
The Culture Secretary said he knows the arts are not viable while social distancing requirements remain.
Photo:
Pippa Fowles
The Culture Secretary has acknowledged the arts sector cannot operate viably under social distancing but says it's the only available option right now.
Oliver Dowden addressed questions from MPs in the DCMS Committee on Wednesday about when venues will be able to reopen at capacity given the rise... read more
Tuesday, 13 October 2020
Venues in the region - many of them funded by Arts Council England - are suffering from "dysfunctional attitudes and practices," workers say.
Photo:
Sam Judson
Structural issues at arts organisations in the north east of England are creating a culture of bullying and discrimination that goes largely unchallenged, cultural sector workers say.
More than 100 people alleged venues in Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne and Wear and the former county of... read more
Tuesday, 13 October 2020
Nearly 1400 arts organisations “woke up to good news” as £257m of Culture Recovery Fund awards were announced, but those who missed out stand a slim chance of survival.
Photo:
Anthony O'Neil
Only two-thirds of applicants to the first round of England’s Culture Recovery Fund (CRF) have been awarded funding to see them through to March 2021.
Out of nearly 2000 organisations, 578 were rejected as being either unviable or capable of surviving without financial support.
Beneficiaries of the... read more
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Friday, 09 October 2020
ACE has welcomed projections that the sector will recover to pre-Covid levels by 2022. The “bounce back” relies on only the most economically productive organisations surviving.
An optimistic projection of the cultural sector’s rapid financial recovery relies on half of all organisations currently ‘at risk of closure’ failing, and investment being directed only to those that survive.
A new Centre for Economic and Business Research (CEBR) report commissioned by Arts... read more