£36m in funding available from second round of Culture Recovery Fund
Melanie May | 4 January 2021 | News
The second round of the Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage opens for applications this week, on 7 January.
Overall, a total of £400million in grants and loans is available in this second round of the £1.57 billion fund, announced by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) as a rescue package to safeguard cultural and heritage organisations across England from the economic impact of Covid-19. This will be distributed by The National Lottery Heritage Fund and Historic England on behalf of DCMS to support organisations and businesses who own, manage or work with heritage in England.
The National Lottery Heritage Fund will soon be distributing £36m of this to help heritage organisations make the transition towards full reopening, and from the 7-26 January, these organisations can apply for a share, with grants of £10,000 up to £3m available.
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The first round of the Culture Recovery Fund launched last July, and saw the National Lottery Heritage Fund distribute £78.9m to 514 organisations in need of support following the first lockdown period. The grants supported a range of organisations from historic landmarks such as St Paul’s Cathedral, and The Piece Hall in Halifax, to community groups such as the disability-led arts organisation, Shape Arts.
Chief Executive of The Fund, Ros Kerslake said:
“This has been an exceptionally tough year and it is only thanks to emergency funding from the Government and the National Lottery that much of our treasured heritage has been able to survive.
“We’ve seen heritage organisations work extremely hard to continue to inspire and connect with the public during 2020, despite the many challenges they have faced. As we emerge from lockdown next year, we want to ensure there is support available to recover, reopen to the public and remain resilient, so this funding from DCMS is hugely welcome.”
The National Lottery Heritage Fund is hosting two free webinars on Wednesday 13 and Thursday 14 January to discuss the fund’s criteria and answer any queries.
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.