Further awards from the Culture Organisations and Venues Recovery Fund

Published: 19 Nov 2020

Sparks from the iron furnace at the Scottish Sculpture Workshop's 40th birthday celebrations

30 further organisations across Scotland have received a total of £1.4million through the Scottish Government’s Culture Organisations and Venues Recovery Fund. The funding provides welcome emergency support to a range of venues and organisations covering comedy, music, nightclubs, performing arts, publishing, visual arts, as well as festivals and cultural support infrastructure.

Designed to protect jobs and support the sustainability of organisations threatened with insolvency by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, today’s news follows the announcement of £11.75million awarded to 203 organisations and venues through this fund on Thursday 5 November.

Culture Secretary, Fiona Hyslop said: “The £15 million Culture Organisations and Venues Recovery Fund is crucial for supporting the culture sector through this pandemic, and is designed to help organisations cope with the immediate issues they are facing and to help save jobs.

"This emergency funding will be a lifeline for a wide range of organisations from craft to theatre, galleries to production companies.

“We are determined to do everything within our powers to support the culture sector and we will continue to work closely with stakeholders and Creative Scotland to provide additional help where needed.”

Iain Munro, CEO, Creative Scotland said: “In addition to those announced previously, these funds provide much needed emergency support to even more venues and organisations across Scotland which are experiencing significant difficulties as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Today’s announcement forms part of a broader package of support for people and organisations that we are working at pace to deliver on behalf of the Scottish Government, with more to come.”

The further 30 organisations receiving funding from the Scottish Government’s Culture Organisations and Venues Recovery Fund are:

Updates on all emergency funds are being published regularly on this website and publicised through media and social media communications.

Background

The Culture Organisations and Venues Recovery Fund received 348 applications totalling over £22million. 233 applicants have been awarded a total of £13.2million. Creative Scotland is in discussion with the Scottish Government as regards how the remaining £1.9million budget from this emergency fund will be allocated and more information on that will be shared in due course.

The Culture Organisations and Venues Recovery Fund is one of a series of emergency funds from the Scottish Government being delivered by Creative Scotland to help mitigate the immediate impacts of Covid-19 on the creative and cultural sector. The emergency funds announced by the First Minister on Friday 28 August are as follows:

• £5million Hardship Fund for Creative Freelancers, which opened for applications on Monday 26 October. The £700K Screen element of these Hardship Funds opened for applications on Tuesday 22 September and closed on Friday 2 October. The Fund - which has been enhanced to £8million from an additional £3milion from the Scottish Government announced on Tuesday 3 November - reopened for further applications on Tuesday 10 November.
• £3.5million Independent Cinema Recovery and Resilience Fund, which opened for applications on Monday 14 September with a deadline of Monday 5 October. Recipients were announced on Tuesday 3 November.
• £3.5million additional funds for Creative Scotland’s Open Fund which is open for applications to individuals and organisations on a rolling basis.
• A £3million Youth Arts funding package comprising of at least £1.2million through the Access to Youth Arts Fund open to applications until Thursday 12 November; £700,000 Small Grants Scheme which opened on Thursday 24 September until Monday 2 November; £50,000 assigned to the Time to Shine Nurturing Talent Fund, and an additional £1,050,000 allocated to support a number of targeted national and local area youth music and wider youth arts organisations. Assessments of applications to the targeted strand of this fund are underway and decisions are being communicated
• £1.5million for the Culture Collective programme (part of the £5million Sustaining Creative Practice Fund, referred to in the Scottish Government’s Programme for Government), supporting organisations employing freelance artists to work in and with communities across Scotland. The programme launched on Tuesday 3 November.

Previously announced funds from the Scottish Government are:

• £12.5million Performing Arts Venue Relief Fund which has reached 79 venues across Scotland. Recipients were published on Thursday 24 September and full information on awards made can be read in our news.
• £2.2million Grassroots Music Venues Stabilisation Fund which has reached 72 venues across Scotland. Recipients were published on Tuesday 22 September and full information on awards made is available in this news release.

The Scottish Government emergency funds being administered through Creative Scotland are part of the Scottish Government’s announcement of Friday 28 August of £59million emergency funding for culture and heritage. That funding comes from the £97million in UK Government consequentials for the culture and heritage sectors.