The World of Glass receives lifeline grant from Government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund

29 Oct 2020

Business

The World of Glass has been awarded £200808 as part of the Government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund (CRF) to help face the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic and to ensure they have a sustainable future, the Culture Secretary has announced today.

The World of Glass is one of 588 cultural and creative organisations across the country receiving urgently needed support – with £76 million of investment announced today. This follows £257 million awarded earlier in the week to 1,385 organisations, also from the Culture Recovery Fund grants programme being administered by Arts Council England on behalf of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. Further rounds of funding in the cultural and heritage sector are due to be announced over the coming weeks.

For 20 years The World of Glass has been an important part of our local community, entertaining audiences and engaging with our visitors.  Receiving the news of this funding from Arts Council England on the day we re-open after almost seven months of closure will make not only the reopening, but the future sustainability of the centre and organisation a reality.

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said: “This is more vital funding to protect cultural gems across the country, save jobs and prepare the arts to bounce back. Through Arts Council England we are delivering the biggest ever investment in the arts in record time. Hundreds of millions of pounds are already making their way to thousands of organisations.

“These awards build on our commitment to be here for culture in every part of the country.”

Chair, Arts Council England, Sir Nicholas Serota, said: “Culture is an essential part of life across the country, helping to support people’s wellbeing through creativity and self-expression, bringing communities together, and fuelling our world class creative industries.

“This latest set of awards from the Culture Recovery Fund builds on those announced recently and will help hundreds of organisations to survive the next few months, ensuring that the cultural sector can bounce back after the crisis.  We will continue doing everything we can to support artists and cultural and creative organisations, with further funding to be announced in the coming weeks.”

The World of Glass  Exec Director, Ron Helsby said: This is fantastic news at a time when we need to give our visitors confidence in coming to venues like ours.  It is also encouraging that there is a commitment of support for the heritage, culture and arts sector from central government at times like this and that what we do is seen as an important part of the wellbeing of the nation.