Weston Culture Fund awards over £30m to arts organisations

A new fund established in response to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has awarded over £30m to more than 100 cultural organisations across the UK.

Set up in September by the Garfield Weston Foundation, the Weston Culture Fund originally had a £25m ceiling. Due to the level of need, the Foundation’s trustees decided to increase this by £5m.

Grants of between £100,000 and £1.5m have been awarded to organisations including the National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, Northern Ballet, Wales Millennium Centre and Scottish Opera.

Garfield Weston Foundation’s Director, Philippa Charles, said trustees were “impressed by the entrepreneurial spirit shown across the arts in response to Covid-19” and “the level of collaboration and support they had for each other and the determination to keep going, despite the increasingly difficult situation".

She added: “Arts organisations are desperate to re-open and get back to what they do best and we hope that this new funding will help many of them do exactly that.”

Lisa Burger, Executive Director of National Theatre, said its £1.5m award was “transformational" and "a huge vote of confidence in our plans to rebuild our activities and reopen our theatres".