Christopher BarrettThe Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has announced a further round of grants and loans from the Cultural Recovery Fund, with venues including Alexandra Palace, the Southbank Centre and Royal Albert Hall (pictured) benefitting.
Some £60 million in grants is being delivered through the Capital Kickstart Fund, with the Alexandra Palace to receive £2,967,600.
The DCMS also announced more than £165 million in repayable finance to support 11 cultural organisations and venues, including the Southbank Centre and Royal Albert Hall. It said the funding would consist of “bespoke loans” for cultural institutions with an initial repayment holiday of up to four years, a “low” interest rate and up to 20-year repayment terms.
The Southbank Centre has been offered £10,911,000 in repayable finance to help replenish the depleted reserves of the UK’s largest arts centre and allow it to open all of its venues.
The Royal Albert Hall will receive a loan of £20,740,000 to support the venue until it can return to pre-Covid levels of programming. Royal Albert Hall CEO Craig Hassall recently announced that since the venue had been closed to the public it had foregone around £27m in income, refunded £7.5m of tickets, furloughed 80% of staff and cancelled hundreds of performances.
Yorkshire-based Production Park, which houses more than 20 live events businesses, including Brilliant Stages and A.C Entertainment Technologies, will receive £12m in financing to create an R&D and business incubation facility to support local businesses in the live events and creative industries.
The DCMS said more than £1 billion had now been allocated from the CRF, with a further £300m in grants and £100m in loans to be released in “due course”.
Culture secretary Oliver Dowden said, “This government promised it would be here for culture and today’s announcement is proof we’ve kept our word.
“The £1 billion invested so far through the Culture Recovery Fund has protected tens of thousands of jobs at cultural organisations across the UK, with more support still to come through a second round of applications.
“Today we’re extending a huge helping hand to the crown jewels of UK culture – so that they can continue to inspire future generations all around the world.”
The full list of the organisations receiving repayable finance from the Culture Recovery Fund is as follows:
English National Opera
Historic Royal Palaces
London Theatre Company
Mark Goucher Ltd.
Michael Harrison Entertainment
National Theatre
Production Park
Royal Albert Hall
Royal Opera House
Royal Shakespeare Company
Southbank Centre