Emergency coronavirus recovery grants issued to West Sussex arts, culture and heritage sites

Arts and culture organisations which were forced to close for months during lockdown and were left facing an uncertain future responded with relief as the Government revealed the first recipients of its £1.57billion Culture Recovery Fund. Eleven organisations in West Sussex will receive £1,201,555 worth of funds between them, it was announced on Monday, as part of the first round of grants being administered by Arts Council England. These include the Ropetackle Arts Centre in Shoreham, which has received £56,850. Chairman Martin Allen said the award recognised the centre’s value to the local community ‘as well as our standing in the regional cultural map’, adding: “This grant will help us navigate this difficult period and to ensure that we are well placed to return to a full programme when circumstances allow.” The Capitol, a multi-purpose arts venue in Horsham, was awarded £182,000 – which councillor Jonathan Chowen, cabinet member for leisure and culture at Horsham District Council, said was ‘incredibly welcome’. The venue reopened in July with strict Covid-secure measures in place, and held its first socially distanced live performance last weekend. Mr Chowen said: “The funding we have received will create a vital boost for our well-loved venue and help towards securing our plans for the future recovery of live theatre performance events in the coming months, very much building on the considerable successes we achieved with the 2019 Year of Culture.” Amberley Museum, an open-air attraction set in the South Downs National Park, was awarded £80,000, which will help it survive the pandemic ‘particularly through the next few months in very uncertain times’, said director Valerie Mills. The museum’s reserves were ‘severely depleted’ when it had to close in March, and though the venue reopened in July, it continues to operate on limited numbers and without its usual events. “This funding will enable us to plan confidently for the future and continue to welcome our many volunteers, members, supporters and visitors,” Mrs Mills said. Other organisations to be awarded funding included Arun Arts Ltd, which provides a wide range of cultural and artistic activity for residents, and which will receive £147,200. Worthing Theatres and Museum, which presents a year-round programme of film, theatre, art, exhibition, dance, music and circus in Worthing, was awarded £239,197. Also to benefit in Worthing was Bar 42 in Marine Parade, which holds music and culture events. It was awarded £72,172. Other recipients were Annephen Ltd, based in Hassocks, which has been given £56,386, the Crawley-based Blue Elephant (UK) Ltd which was given £111,350, Opera Brava based in Haywards Health which has been given £58,400, Horsham-based The 99 Club Limited will be given £100,000 and Hobgoblin Theatre Company Ltd, which works across Sussex, was given £98,000. Support for our heritage sites Meanwhile, funding for almost 450 heritage organisations in England was announced at the end of last week – including many local sites. This was also part of the Culture Recovery Fund from the Government but was administered at arms length by Historic England and the National Lottery, and amounted to £103million. Chichester Cathedral, which was forecasting losses of over £1million earlier this year as a direct result of lost income caused by the pandemic, received £297,000. The Dean of Chichester, the Very Reverend Stephen Waine, said the cathedral cost £3,000 a day to maintain, adding: “These funds will support the Cathedral and its community on our journey of recovery.” The grant will contribute towards essential job roles and operational activity and will also allow its live-streamed services, which have been joined by hundreds of people each week, to continue. Elsewhere in Chichester, the Chichester Community Development Trust – which manages community buildings and land in the north east of the city, including the historic Graylingwell Chapel – was also awarded funds. These will enable it to move forward with creating three new apprenticeships and reopening its community buildings, said director Clare de Bathe. “There is an important local heritage within Graylingwell Park and it is vital that we protect that history and share it with residents so that we can learn from our past and see how it shapes our future,” she said. Borde Hill Garden, on the outskirts of Haywards Heath, was ‘extremely grateful’ to receive a grant of £114,800. Andrewjohn Stephenson Clarke, director of the garden council, said: “The funding will help us to restore our beautiful woodland areas, making botanical collections within them more accessible to our valued visitors next season, and will enable exciting community projects with new forest school and grower initiatives planned. “The grant also assists in replacing income lost during lockdown and thereby protecting jobs and our heritage garden for years to come.” St Mary’s House and Gardens, a Grade-I listed surviving medieval pilgrim inn in Bramber, will be able to undergo essential maintenance work thanks to a grant of £47,400. It will also help staff obtain professional advice, cover essential overheads and plan for a safe reopening. Owner Peter Thorogood said: “The Cultural Recovery Fund for Heritage Grant is an amazing piece of news because we were being tested on survival and we are certainly delighted to know that the grant will come to help us through a very difficult period.” Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said: “This funding is a vital boost for the theatres, music venues, museums and cultural organisations that form the soul of our nation. “It will protect these special places, save jobs and help the culture sector’s recovery.” Further awards from the Cultural Recovery Fund are due to announced in the coming weeks. Hedley Swain, south east area director for Arts Council England, said: “We know that this investment by Government cannot save everyone; but it is vital, both to the immediate survival of so many and the long-term recovery of the whole sector.” ‘Unprecedented challenges’ News of the Government funding may have been widely welcomed by struggling arts, culture and heritage organisations – but it was not enough to prevent some from having to make difficult decisions. On the same day that The Sussex Archaeological Society announced it had been awarded £497,500 from the Culture Recovery Fund, it also revealed it had begun a period of staff consultation to help reduce payroll costs, ‘including some proposed redundancies’. The society, which cares for buildings and museums across Sussex – including Fishbourne Roman Palace, the Marlipins Museum in Shoreham and The Priest House in West Hoathly – said it had lost a ‘significant percentage’ of its self-generated income since the beginning of the year and continues to face ‘much uncertainty’ around when its properties can fully re-open and operate safely. A spokesman said: “We are sadly not alone in these difficult times. “The heritage sector is facing unprecedented challenges with many historic properties and sites across the country considering the possibility of permanent closure and/or looking to reduce costs by cutting staff hours or making redundancies.” The society had ‘worked hard’ to limit the impact of the financial challenges of the pandemic on its staff and had taken ‘every possible measure’ to secure its financial position – including the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and other grants schemes. “We are now however at a critical point where we need to do more to survive for the longer-term,” the spokesman said, adding: “Coupled with the proposed restructure, we are confident the Cultural Recovery Fund grant can help the Society begin to recover from the impact of the pandemic and look to rebuild as soon as circumstances will allow, hopefully over the 2021 financial year.” Meanwhile music venues are facing a difficult winter thanks to the 10pm curfew. Mark Davys, chief executive of The Music Venues Trust, said that social distancing measures meant many venues have had to reduce their capacity down to 25 per cent. He said: “Then restrictions on hours, we estimate, has removed something like 50 per cent of their income. The venue now has half of its available trading hours and a quarter of its usual audience. By that marker they are getting 12.5 per cent of their income.”