Traditional crafts, festivals and events offered heritage funding lifeline

An emergency fund for heritage could provide a lifeline for cultural organisations, conservators, contractors, specialists and suppliers that fall outside the eligibility criteria for Arts Council England’s Culture Recovery Fund. The £92m Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage, distributed by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, is inviting applications from any organisation, publicly or privately owned, that manages, maintains or cares for culturally significant assets or collections. This includes organisations that provide access to cultural traditions, such as storytelling, festivals, crafts, music and dance.

Grants from £10,000 to £3m will be distributed – a lower floor than the £50,000 minimum for Arts Council grants –  and the fund aims to cover costs that will be incurred as organisations attempt to recover from the economic impact of the pandemic. Applicants are required to consider the most effective route to future sustainability, which may be “a combination of re-opening, partial re-opening and mothballing.”