Lighthouse Poole's Centre for the Arts given nearly £1M lifeline
The venue will receive help from the Culture Recovery Fund.
Lighthouse, Poole's Centre for the Arts has been named as one of more than 1,300 arts and cultural organisations to receive a share of £257 million.
It's part of a part of a vital financial boost from the Government's £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund.
Today’s announcement that Lighthouse, Poole’s centre for the arts, is to receive a grant of £987,964 from the Culture Recovery Fund has been welcomed with ‘joy, relief and immense gratitude’ by the organisation.
Lighthouse Chief Executive Elspeth McBain said:
"After a hugely difficult seven months and still no end in sight for being able to get back to normal business, the over-riding sense is of joy, relief and immense gratitude to the Government for this eleventh hour support which has saved us and many other cultural organisations from a very bleak and desperate situation."
"Thanks to this award, Lighthouse will continue to play an important part of the cultural landscape of the region and the UK.
"It has been a very long and stressful few months not only for the team at Lighthouse but for all our colleagues working in the cultural sector and this funding will now enable us to focus on recovery.
"For Lighthouse, this money will support us until the end of the financial year by when we hope to be able to welcome back capacity audiences once again.
"In the meantime, we will continue to use our spaces creatively, ensure that Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra is able to work in its home concert hall, enable regular groups and classes to continue and create a public programme to support artists and creative practitioners to provide our community with the arts and entertainment and community engagement work that our town and region needs and absolutely should have."
The investment from the government will save 1,385 theatres, galleries, performance groups, arts organisations, museums and local venues facing the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic and ensure they have a sustainable future.
It is the biggest tranche of funding distributed to date from the Culture Recovery Fund.
This funding will help allow performances to restart, venues to plan for reopening and to protect jobs and create opportunities for freelancers.
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."