Arts organisations in Cumbria have largely avoided catastrophe and are striving for normality, despite unprecedented flooding in Keswick, Cockermouth and Workington. Communications, travel and access have all been badly affected. Patric Gilchrist, Executive Officer of the Theatre by the Lake in Keswick, reported “about a foot of water in our costume store”. He told AP that although the theatre had been briefly closed at the height of the floods, “as long as we don’t have any more setbacks, we should open our Christmas show on Friday”. The closure of bridges and roads has, however, caused bookings to drop. Harriet Smithson, Arts Officer for Allerdale Borough Council, said most arts organisations “haven’t been directly affected by the floods, but a lot of the staff and volunteers have,” through the loss of their homes or businesses. The Kirkgate Centre in Cockermouth avoided structural damage, despite being close to the worst of the disaster, while the Arts Out West rural touring programme went ahead almost unchanged.
Not everyone escaped so lightly, however. In Cockermouth, The Percy House Gallery’s ground floor was almost totally destroyed, and it lost much of its stock, resulting in a loss of trading opportunity for fine artists and craftspeople in the run-up to Christmas. Bob Pritchard, Artistic Director of the Kirkgate Centre, believes his role “is to try to provide some normality by trying to keep our planned programme going”. He is planning to organise indoor markets to allow traders who have been able to rescue some of their stock to sell to the public. The venue has already mounted a film evening, for which 20th Century Fox waived its fees, with proceeds going to the Cumbria Flood Recovery Fund. Pritchard expects additional fundraising events to be run at the venue in the coming weeks. The Theatre by the Lake will also donate some box office receipts to the Fund. Aileen McAvoy, Executive Director of Arts Council England, North West told AP that she was working with her colleagues to “to establish what the needs are and then take it from there”. It has not yet decided whether an emergency fund will be needed.