Performing arts venues across Glasgow have received a total of over £450,000 from the open call for applications to the Scottish Government’s Performing Arts Venues Relief Fund through Creative Scotland.
Awards made to Glasgow performing arts venues as part of the £5million open call are as follows:
- Glasgow Life (including Glasgow Royal Concert Halls, Fruitmarket and City Halls, and Kelvingrove Bandstand), £249,824
- Queen Margaret Union, £97,000
- Mackintosh Queen’s Cross, £56,000
- The Scottish Mask and Puppet Centre, £50,000
Designed to support performing arts venues that cannot yet re-open due to the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Fund is helping to:
- Remove the threat of insolvency prior to the end of March 2021 to enable the development and delivery of activity as soon as practicable
- Allow for specialist / core staff to return from furlough or avoid redundancy to work on future sustainable activity plans
- Increase commissioning and employment opportunities for freelance artists and creative practitioners (between now and end of March 2021) to support continued public engagement while closed
Iain Munro, CEO, Creative Scotland said: “Despite the ongoing, detrimental impact that the Covid-19 pandemic is having on Scotland’s performing arts venues, and on culture as a whole, it is positive that we can offer some funding to help venues navigate these extremely challenging times. I’m also encouraged to see that this funding will help venues across many different parts of Scotland where they form such an important part of the cultural life of local communities.”
These Glasgow venues are amongst 59 across Scotland sharing a total of £4.74million from the Scottish Government’s Performing Arts Venues Relief Fund’s £5million open call. A full list of all 59 venues can be found on the Creative Scotland website.
Jude Henderson, Director of the Federation of Scottish Theatre (FST) said: “We welcome the announcement of these emergency awards to performing arts venues across the country. The funds will help to support the vital work they do in serving communities, providing employment and showcasing Scotland’s world class theatre and dance offer, much of which is created by our members.”
Today’s news follows the £1.44million recently awarded to performing arts venues across the Glasgow through the targeted strand of the fund, including Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA), Citizens Theatre, Platform (Glasgow East Arts Co), Tramway and Tron Theatre.
The Performing Arts Venues Relief Fund is one of a series of measures being put in place to help mitigate the immediate impacts of COVID-19 on the creative and cultural sector, including five new emergency funds which were announced by the First Minister on Friday 28 August and are being delivered through Creative Scotland as follows:
- The £15million Culture Organisations and Venues Recovery Fund, which opened for applications on Thursday 17 September, with a deadline of today, Thursday 24 September.
- The £3.5million Independent Cinemas Recovery and Resilience Fund, which opened for applications on Monday 14 September with a deadline of Monday 5 October.
- The £5million Creative Freelancer Hardship Fund, for which we issued an open call for partner organisations to help us distribute this fund, was launched on Friday 11 September, and has a deadline of Friday 25 September. We aim to be able to distribute funds from October. The Screen element of these Hardship Funds opened for applications on Tuesday 22 September.
- The £5million Sustaining Creative Practice Fund includes £1.5million for the Culture Collective programme, mentioned in the Scottish Government’s Programme for Government, supporting organisations employing freelance artists to work in and with communities across Scotland. The remaining £3.5million has been added to Creative Scotland’s existing Open Fund which is open for applications from individuals now.
The previously announced £2.2million Grassroots Venues Stabilisation Fund has reached 72 venues across. Recipients – including Glasgow venues Audio, Berkeley Suite, BLOC+, Box, Broadcast, Cathouse Rock Club, Cottiers Theatre, Ivory Blacks, King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, La Cheetah Club, Nice n Sleazy, Oran Mor, Room 2, Saint Luke’s Glasgow, Stereo, Sub Club, Swing, The 13th Note, The Blue Arrow, The Clutha Bar, The Dancehall at the Rum Shack, The Flying Duck, The Garage, The Glad Café, The Hug and Pint, The Old Hairdressers, The Poetry Club and The Priory Bar – were published on Tuesday 22 September and full information on awards made can be found on the Creative Scotland website.
Updates on all emergency funds are being published regularly on the Creative Scotland website and publicised through media and social media communications.
