ArtReach To Receive £84,000 From Second Round Of The Government's Culture Recovery Fund

More than £300 million has been awarded to thousands of cultural organisations across the country including ArtReach in the latest round of support from the Culture Recovery Fund, the Culture Secretary announced today.

This award will allow ArtReach to review its digital offers across all online platforms and provide a vision to achieve higher engagement and an improved audience experience. The Culture Recovery Fund will give ArtReach the tools, equipment and training required to achieve a successful blend of live and online events through 21/22 and to increase and diversify our audience engagement.

Over £800 million in grants and loans has already been awarded to support almost 3,800 cinemas, performance venues, museums, heritage sites and other cultural organisations dealing with the immediate challenges of the coronavirus pandemic.

The second round of awards made today will help organisations to look ahead to the spring and summer and plan for reopening and recovery. After months of closures and cancellations to contain the virus and save lives, this funding will be a much-needed helping hand for organisations transitioning back to normal in the months ahead.

Culture Secretary, Oliver Dowden, said:

"Our record breaking Culture Recovery Fund has already helped thousands of culture and heritage organisations across the country survive the biggest crisis they've ever faced.

Now we're staying by their side as they prepare to welcome the public back through their doors - helping our cultural gems plan for reopening and thrive in the better times ahead."

Lorna Fulton, ArtReach's Creative Director, said:

"ArtReach is delighted to be a recipient of the Cultural Recovery Fund from Arts Council England, this level of support will allow us to develop new tools and new routes to increase and diversify audience engagement. We can now adapt to, fully engage with and future proof the organisation for use of the new digital platforms and approaches, we saw become common practise across the sector in the light of Covid-19. Finding innovative solutions to presenting festival programming, creating multiple entry routes to artist's work for audiences and working with digital at the centre of our offer can now be a focus for the organisation. In turn, it allows ArtReach to share the learning and development amongst the arts organisations and artists we work with as business development consultants too, sharing the impact of the Culture Recovery Fund even further will be a great benefit to many other companies."

Sir Nicholas Serota, Chair, Arts Council England, said:

"Investing in a thriving cultural sector at the heart of communities is a vital part of helping the whole country to recover from the pandemic. These grants will help to re-open theatres, concert halls, and museums and will give artists and companies the opportunity to begin making new work.

We are grateful to the Government for this support and for recognising the paramount importance of culture to our sense of belonging and identity as individuals and as a society."

The funding awarded today is from a £400 million pot which was held back last year to ensure the Culture Recovery Fund could continue to help organisations in need as the public health picture changed. The funding has been awarded by Arts Council England, as well as Historic England and National Lottery Heritage Fund and the British Film Institute.

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