Theatres React To The Announcement Of A Cultural Recovery Grant From The UK Government

As BroadwayWorld previously reported, the UK government has announced that over 1,300 arts organizations will be saved by a £257 million bailout fund being released today.

Read reactions from some of the theatres receiving grants below:

Curve Leicester

Chris Stafford and Nikolai Foster said, ""COVID continues to have a devastating impact on our industry and we are indebted to Arts Council England and DCMS for the Culture Recovery grant which will help secure a future for Curve. Curve would not have survived this period of closure without the funding grants from Arts Council England and Leicester City Council, along with the support from the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS). As the CJRS comes to an end, this crucial investment in our theatre will enable us to protect jobs, forge plans to reopen and employ 100s of freelancers.

We will shortly announce our reopening plans, and although socially distanced performances are not sustainable in the long-term, our theatre plays a vital role in the life of our city and on our local economy; this investment will enable us to bring our building - and Leicester's Cultural Quarter -back to life as we wait for news on when we can expect to reopen at Stage 5 of the Theatre roadmap."

Hackney Empire

Jo Hemmant and Yamin Choudhury said, "Hackney Empire is very grateful to Arts Council England and The DCMS to have received this funding, and thereby have the opportunity to continue to do our best to support our community, our audiences, our young people and ALL of the people that make arts and culture happen. The challenges of the future remain, in many ways, unknown. We feel it is our responsibility as a sector, now more than ever, to ensure that we are always learning, always improving and always working harder to represent and reach out to the unheard and the unengaged. With this funding we must guarantee that the transformative power of the arts can be experienced by the many; to share, to entertain, to inform and to educate."

Park Theatre

Artistic Director Jez Bond said, "We are delighted and relieved to receive the Cultural Recovery Grant of £250,000 from the government. The very essence of theatre is gathering people together in the same room for a live, shared experience - and the economics of venues at our scale, mean that it's not financially viable to produce shows with social distancing in place. This money, however, will enable us to prepare our building so it's 'Covid-secure', and subsidise us to present smaller scale work over the next few months before we can reopen fully. It also allows us to offer the space for the development of diverse, new work - enabling us in turn to support freelance practitioners who - in the majority of cases - have tragically slipped through the net in terms any support packages. We thank the Arts Council and the Government for this grant and for recognising the importance of the role we play in our community."

Hope Theatre

Artistic Director Kennedy Bloomer said, "We're incredibly grateful and immensely overjoyed to be receiving the funding. The Hope Theatre will be able to continue as a venue and create opportunities for artists and we couldn't be more thrilled."

Hartshorn-Hook Enterprises

Brian Hook and Louis Hartshorn said, "This was an urgently required shot in the arm for HHE in our fightback to our stages . Whilst we are grateful recipients of the CRF we are aware that we are the lucky few and we feel the responsibility on us and others to be torchbearers, pathfinders and with a profound humility to the taxpayer.

Every penny of this support will help sustain the Immersive Great Gatsby and the Immersive|LDN programme, employing hundreds of freelancers and the wider economies that these productions support. We are confident that this investment in HHE will pay dividends back to those taxpayers both in cultural output and direct economic return."

Grimm & Co

Chair of Trustees, Sarah Dunwell, said, "This year has been a challenging year for all of us, especially for those working in the hospitality or arts sector. Grimm & Co, as an arts charity, has suffered greatly from reduced funds, oscillating plans to react and respond, whilst continuing to deliver provision to the communities of Yorkshire. Today's news will mean we can focus on what we do best and support the children and young people we work with."

Deborah Bullivant, Founding Chief Executive said, "Securing this fund means our survival is safeguarded over the dark, winter months ahead. This means we can plan ahead, we can re-engage our wonderful freelance artists, our team is secure. We are so excited that we will now be able to deliver an enchanting programme of activities, in so many safe and exciting ways, to reach those communities where we can make the greatest difference. We are absolutely delighted and very relieved at this news today."

Darkfield

Artistic Directors Glen Neath and David Rosenberg said, "We are thrilled and thankful to have received funding from the Culture Recovery Fund today. It means we can continue to employ our small group of brilliant staff, continue to make work for the home whilst the pandemic curtails our location-based work and means we will be ready to return when restrictions end."

David Hutchinson, CEO, Selladoor Worldwide

"We are delighted and very grateful to receive support from the Government's Cultural Recovery Fund. The last 7 months have been nothing short of devastating, both for our company and our industry as a whole. We have lost 8 productions, as well as many of our team members, as we have tried to sustain a business with zero income. This financial lifeline allows us time to reimagine and restructure the business, so that we can be ready and able to help bring our sector back to life post Covid-19. There is a long way to go, but this grant gives our company a fighting chance of recovery. In turn, we fully intend to do everything that we can to support our venue partners, fellow organisations and all of fantastic professionals who work in our industry, so that can all move forward in our joint journey towards getting the arts back in business."

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