The government's arts, culture and heritage rescue package

Today has been a big day for the cultural sector. For weeks now, we’ve been working with officials and ministers at DCMS and HM Treasury to help them come up with a package of relief. Today, we know the result of all that hard work: £1.57 billion of grants and loans for cultural, arts and heritage institutions across the UK.

This is a massive vote of confidence: in our sector’s quality, its reach and its roots in communities up and down the country. And it’s an acknowledgement of the importance of creativity and culture to the future wellbeing of the country.  It’s also an investment that will see a healthy return over time as theatres, museums, galleries, arts centres, music venues and artists themselves eventually get back to what they do best, creating.

I am so grateful to Oliver Dowden, Rishi Sunak, officials in Whitehall and to the people in our sector who have made the case for public value of culture so passionately. And, of course, I know first-hand just how hard our Arts Council team have worked to get us so far.

There is a lot of detail yet to understand in the package. The government has made it clear that this funding will be focused on supporting cultural organisations through the coronavirus pandemic. This will include bricks and mortar organisations such as theatres, museums and galleries. And it will also include organisations such as dance companies, orchestras, and participatory arts companies that might not have their own buildings, but that still play such a vital role in towns and cities across England. By investing in organisations across our rich cultural ecology, the government investment will help to support the people who work for and with them. 

We’re very aware that this crisis has also shown the value and the vulnerability of the creative army of freelance artists, performers, curators, technicians, writers, directors, producers, makers and other workers who make up the majority of our workforce.  For that reason, when we re-open our Arts Council England National Lottery Project Grants for applications on 22nd July, it will have a focus on supporting artists and individuals and we are urgently thinking about what else we can do to strengthen our support for freelancers in the coming months.

There has been an audible sigh of relief right around the country today. But I want to be honest: there are some truly tough decisions to make and difficult times ahead. And I fear that not everything that we want to save, can be saved.

But that said, we’re in a far better place today than we were yesterday. We’re talking now with officials from DCMS and HM Treasury to understand the timelines, allocation process and criteria for their new package.  We will be working with other partners such as Historic England, the BFI and the National Lottery Heritage Fund, to help administer it on the government’s behalf.

Ministers and officials know that time is of the essence and we’re working with them with the aim of opening application processes in the coming weeks.  As soon as we know what the precise arrangements are, you will know.  The need is urgent and we want to ensure the money is distributed as soon as possible.