The Lyric Theatre welcomes a stability and renewal grant of £254,631 yesterday from the Arts Council, to help stabilise the theatre after income losses of £1.6million over the last year. This funding is drawn from the £33m emergency funding for arts, heritage and culture in NI which was initially announced in July 2020.
We also welcome that the fund increased to £11m in recognition by Minister Hargey and DfC of the needs of the sector. We still have much work to do to address the severity of the impact of Covid-19 on the wider arts and culture sector. The Fund, as with all other Covid programmes to date, was very significantly over-subscribed with £24m of eligible bids.
We will continue to work with the Arts Council, the Department for Communities, and Minister Hargey to address the long-term strategic needs across the cultural ecology including individual artists and creatives, organisations and venues, as well as the public. These require immediate attention from the NI Executive and the Minister for Communities, and we urge action to avoid the permanent loss of elements of our valued and valuable cultural sector.
Read the Arts Council news story here.
We also welcome that the fund increased to £11m in recognition by Minister Hargey and DfC of the needs of the sector. We still have much work to do to address the severity of the impact of Covid-19 on the wider arts and culture sector. The Fund, as with all other Covid programmes to date, was very significantly over-subscribed with £24m of eligible bids.
We will continue to work with the Arts Council, the Department for Communities, and Minister Hargey to address the long-term strategic needs across the cultural ecology including individual artists and creatives, organisations and venues, as well as the public. These require immediate attention from the NI Executive and the Minister for Communities, and we urge action to avoid the permanent loss of elements of our valued and valuable cultural sector.
Read the Arts Council news story here.