Following yesterday’s announcement by the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon of a £2.5m increase to the Scottish Government’s Performing Arts Venues Relief Fund, taking the total available through the fund to £12.5m, Creative Scotland has, today, published guidance on how to access this fund.
Allocation of this fund is as follows:
· £7.5m targeted funding for performing arts venues in Scotland currently in receipt of Regular Funding through Creative Scotland
· £5m open fund for application from Scotland based performing arts venues not currently in receipt of Regular Funding. This open fund has been developed with input from the Federation for Scottish Theatre and opens today, Thursday 30 July 2020.
The Performing Arts Venues Relief Fund will help performing arts venues which cannot yet reopen to their audiences due to the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Scottish Government intends the fund to:
· Remove the threat of insolvency prior to the end of March 2021 to enable the development and delivery of activity as soon as practicable
· Allow for specialist / core staff to return from furlough or avoid redundancy to work on future sustainable activity plans
· Increase commissioning and employment opportunities for freelance artists and creative practitioners (between now and end of March 2021) to support continued public engagement while closed.
Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop said: “Our world-class performing arts venues have suffered immensely from the impacts of coronavirus. They were among some of the first businesses to close and sadly, will be amongst the last to reopen.
“We worked hard to get much-needed funding out as quickly as possible to the culture sector to help organisations cope with the immediate effects of the pandemic, and this new fund recognises the particular difficulties which continue to be felt by performing arts venues.
“I’m pleased to announce we have increased the fund to £12.5 million, which will ensure even more venues can get financial support to help them through this challenging time.”
Iain Munro, CEO, Creative Scotland said: “We very much welcome this funding from Scottish Government which provides some much needed relief for Performing Arts Venues in Scotland, venues which are facing significant financial challenges due to their continued closure in the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
“We have worked at pace to open this fund for application as quickly as possible.
“Beyond this fund, we are also working closely with the Scottish Government on further measures to provide emergency support for the culture sector and further details will be announced as soon as possible.”
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