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Art and cultural venues get £75m boost from Culture Recovery Fund

A production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night
The culture secretary has announced grants of up to £3m in a bid to save 35 of the country’s cultural icons. Photo: Reuters/Russell Cheyne

Arts venues and cultural organisations have received a £75m ($57m) injection from the government’s Culture Recovery Fund.

The culture secretary has announced grants of up to £3m in a bid to save 35 of the country’s cultural icons, with £52m (70%) of funding awarded outside of London.

It is the largest boost from the £1.57bn Culture Recovery Fund to date.

Recipients of the grants include iconic venues such as Shakespeare’s Globe, Sadler’s Wells, the Old Vic, the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, the Design Museum and the Sheffield Crucible.

London’s Shakespeare’s Globe will receive £2,985,707 to support start-up costs for a planned reopening in spring 2021, while The Old Vic will receive £3m from the fund.

The funding also aims to provide jobs across the country and support the wider community.

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said: “As part of our unprecedented £1.57bn rescue fund, today we’re saving British cultural icons with large grants of up to £3m - from Shakespeare’s Globe to the Sheffield Crucible.

“These places and organisations are irreplaceable parts of our heritage and what make us the cultural superpower we are. This vital funding will secure their future and protect jobs right away.”

READ MORE: COVID-hit UK arts groups welcome government cash infusion

This is the fourth round of funding announced by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). Independent cinemas, heritage institutions and cultural organisations were awarded grants of up to £1m in previous rounds.

The DCMS said more than £500m of support has now been allocated from the Culture Recovery Fund to British cultural institutions. The grants are designed to help them survive until April 2021.

Sir Nicholas Serota, chairman of Arts Council England, said the funding has “provided a lifeline” to allow arts and cultural organisations to continue.

“This latest funding, which are the largest grants to date, will support some of the country’s most loved and admired cultural spaces – from great regional theatres and museums to historic venues in the capital – which are critical to the development of a new generation of talent and in providing work for freelance creatives,” he said.

Watch: Oliver Dowden defends UK government’s record on arts funding