Friday (4/24) on a multipurpose website for the arts called The Stage, Alistair Smith reports, “Arts Council England has announced a new £40 million fund to which cultural organisations will be able to apply for support if they are struggling financially because of the recession. The brand new initiative, called Sustain, will be open to all applicants and was announced today by ACE chair Liz Forgan. … Grants from £75,000 to £3 million will be awarded and the programme will run initially for two years – 2009/10 and 2010/11. … According to ACE, the initiative has been designed as a ‘rapid response’ fund and it will aim to turn applications round in a maximum of six weeks. … The announcement comes only days after it was revealed in the Budget that ACE will lose £4 million from its 2010/11 funding settlement from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Forgan called for both public and private funders to maintain their levels of investment in the arts, and for artists to see themselves not as victims of the recession but as a key part of its solution.”
Posted April 27, 2009
