The Weston Culture Fund will offer vital funding to help arts organisations survive Covid-19
A multi-million pound fund has been created to help cultural institutions survive Covid-19.
The Weston Culture Fund is a one-off fund to support performing and visual arts from the Garfield Weston Foundation.
The Weston family has launched the new £25m fund to support the cultural sector as it attempts to recover following the impact of the coronavirus. Museums, performing and visual arts organisations across the UK can apply from Monday 5 October and the fund will remain open to applications until 9 November.
The foundation says that as well as providing its usual funding for charities from many different sectors, it felt it was important to continue to support cultural organisations that had been badly affected by the pandemic and needed help to get back on their feet.
Director Philippa Charles said: “The UK’s performing and visual arts are among the best in the world but they have been hit hard by the pandemic. It became very clear to our trustees that while we have seen some incredibly creative responses to Covid-19 many cultural organisations need support to restart their important work and bring audiences back. Arts organisations are desperate to re-open and get back to what they do best and we hope that this new Fund will help them do exactly that.
“Yet we also recognise that not everyone will be eligible for the Weston Culture Fund and we would urge those organisations to continue to apply for the foundation’s regular grants. We are very much open and will continue to support charities as we have for over 60 years.”
The Weston Culture Fund is open to performing and visual arts organisations, arts centres, accredited museums and galleries (excluding those who are local authority maintained) with a minimum annual income of £500,000 in a typical year. Grants will range from a minimum of £100,000 up to a maximum of £2 million based on the size of the organisation.
More information can be found on the fund online.
During the pandemic, the foundation has given away over £30 million in extra funding to support charities affected by Covid-19.
