A major UK arts, heritage and culture fund has unveiled the first applicants to be awarded substantial grants in 2021.
This month (February 2020) The National Lottery Heritage Fund announced the latest awards from the UK government’s mighty £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund.
The awards mark the final awards of the first round of the Fund, which has been established to support UK museums and heritage sites to weather the waves of the pandemic and to support projects which have been affected as a result.
The latest funding saw £18 million awarded to 22 UK organisations.
At £3.74 million, the biggest grant was awarded to the Black Country Living Museum in the West Midlands.
The fund is set to support the £30 million BCLM: Forging Ahead initiative, the museum’s biggest project in its 43-year history. A new visitor centre, a 1940s-1960s replica town and an industrial quarter is being built as part of the project, which was delayed due to COVID 19.
Artistic impression of Black Country Living Museum’s expansion
The Royal Pavilion Estate in Brighton also received generous funding of £1 million. The financial support will be used to continue the first phase of the project to refurbish Brighton Dome’s Corn Exchange and Studio.
Commenting on the grant, Phélim Mac Cafferty, Leader at Brighton and Hove Council said: “We are extremely grateful to the Heritage Fund for their continued support for the Royal Pavilion Estate.
“COVID 19 has increased the financial pressures on the work programme as well as across council services and the cultural sector. The funding recognises the importance of the project to the cultural and economic life of the city and will set us on the right track to complete the work.”
The Beamish Living Museum in County Durham also almost secured £1 million. The fund will be used to support Remaking Beamish, an epic project which includes the creation of a 1950s immersive town and an expansion of the current 1920s experience.
A full breakdown of successful applicants include:
Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society (£979,000)
Lincoln Cathedral (£973,600)
Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council (£774,000)
Northamptonshire County Council (£719,700)
Geffrye Museum Trust (£692,000)
Tunbridge Wells Borough Council (£675,000)
Bath Abbey Parochial Church Council (£534,000)
Bevis Marks Synagogue Heritage Foundation (£497,000)
Swanage Pier Trust (£469,800)
Bath and North East Somerset Council (£359,600)
Wicksteed Charitable Trust (£302,700)
North Yorkshire Moors Historic Railway Trust (£296,000)
Cleveland Pools Trust (£290,000)
The Leeds Grand Theatre an Opera House (£285,600)
Carlisle Cathedral (£250,000)
Hall for Cornwall (£231,000)
The Common Room of the Great North (£228,000)
Rossendale Borough Council (£179,000)
Thackray Museum (£174,600)
Tavistock Town Council (£130,900)
The National Lottery Heritage Fund has recently opened its application window for its 2021/22 grant scheme, with refocused priorities in line with the unprecedented impacts of COVID 19
Video introduces application process for 2021/22 funding
Elsewhere, a memorial garden dedicated to the victims of the Manchester attack has been given the greenlight.
