The Culture Recovery Fund is a

grants Grant or Grants may refer to: People * Grant (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Grant (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters ** Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885), the 18th president of the U ...

programme issued by the

UK Government His Majesty's Government, abbreviated to HM Government or otherwise UK Government, is the central government, central executive authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

as a response to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. The fund aims to financially support cultural organisations in England (such as theatres, museums, and music venues) which had become financially unviable as a result of national and local restrictions. It is administered by

Arts Council England Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council o ...

Foundation and management

The fund was initially announced by the Chancellor

Rishi Sunak Rishi Sunak (born 12 May 1980) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 2022 to 2024. Following his defeat to Keir Starmer's La ...

in July 2020 as a "one-off investment in UK culture". Sunak announced that the fund would be valued at £1.57 billion. Damon Buffini was announced as the chair of the Culture Recovery Board, the body tasked with managing the fund.

Culture Recovery Board

The culture recovery fund is administered by the Culture Recovery Board, which comprises 11 members appointed by the DCMS. They are: *Sir Damon Buffini (chair) * Lord Mendoza CBE (Commissioner for Cultural Recovery and Renewal) *Sir

Nicholas Serota Sir Nicholas Andrew Serota (born 27 April 1946) is a British art historian and curator. He has been chairman of Arts Council England since February 2017. Serota was director of the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, then director of the Whitechap ...

CH (Chair of

) *Sir Laurie Magnus CBE (Chair of

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...

) *René Olivieri (Chair of NLHF) * Jay Hunt (Governor of the BFI, board member) *Emma Squire (Director for Arts, Heritage and Tourism at the

Department for Culture, Media and Sport The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It holds the responsibility for Culture of the United Kingdom, culture a ...

) * Claire Whitaker OBE (independent board member) * Baroness Fall (independent board member) *Hemant Patel MBE (independent board member) *

Samir Shah Samir Shah, CBE (born 29 January 1952), is a British television and radio executive. He has worked for London Weekend Television, the BBC, and is the chief executive of Juniper TV. In 2021, he co-authored the UK government's Commission on Race ...

CBE c(independent board member)

Grants issued

The first 135 venues to receive money from the fund were announced on 22 August 2020. This first phase included only

grassroots A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or continent movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from volunteers at the local level to imp ...

music venues such as Birmingham's Sunflower Lounge, Brighton's Green Door Store and Manchester's Gorilla. A large group of beneficiaries of the grants was announced on 12 October 2020. This phase totalled £257 million divided between 1,385 venues. A further announcement was made on 17 October 2020 of an additional £76 million between a further 588 organisations. The beneficiaries of this phase of the grants includes the Military Wives Choir,

Somerset House Somerset House is a large neoclassical architecture, neoclassical building complex situated on the south side of the Strand, London, Strand in central London, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The Georgian era quadran ...

, and the Puppet Theatre Barge. The second round of large grants was issued on 2 April 2021. It distributed £262 million to 2,272 venues. The Department for Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) also announced it was funding £82 million of loans to cultural landmarks and institutions. Another phase occurred in October 2021, with 142 sites receiving a share of a £35 million injection into the fund."Heritage and Craft Workers Across England Given a Helping Hand"
–

, 22 October 2021

References

{{COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories, state=collapsed COVID-19 pandemic in England Grants (money) 2020 establishments in the United Kingdom Arts in the United Kingdom