Recipients of the £30m Weston Culture Fund have been confirmed

Scottish cultural institutions have benefitted from a £30m one-off fund support fund in response to the devastating impact of Covid-19.

The Weston Culture Fund is supporting a diverse range of organisations from museums to regional theatres to national touring ballet companies. 

Scottish Opera (£285,000); Centre for the Moving Image (£355,000); Cumbernauld Theatre Trust (£186,000); Eden Court Highlands (£500,000); Greenock Arts Guild (£170,000) and the National Theatre of Scotland (£185,000) were all successful in their applications to the fund.  

The Garfield Weston Foundation’s trustees decided to increase the fund to over £30m after seeing the level of creativity and determination from arts organisations who have been hit by the pandemic and are fighting hard to ‘keep the lights on’. 

The foundation’s director, Philippa Charles, said: “Our cultural sector is at the heart of our local communities providing not only entertainment but education and inspiration for many. Our trustees were impressed by the entrepreneurial spirit shown across the arts in response to Covid-19 and it was a privilege to hear what organisations had been doing to not only survive but also to reinvent the way they reach audiences. What really stood out was the level of collaboration and support they had for each other and the determination to keep going, despite the increasingly difficult situation. 

“We all want and need our cultural sector to thrive and, if anything, our time away from the arts has shown just how important they are to us - bringing much needed pleasure and enrichment to our lives. Arts organisations are desperate to re-open and get back to what they do best and we hope that this new funding will help many of them do exactly that.”