Liverpool cultural organisations share £5.9m Culture Recovery Fund cash

Liverpool City Region’s cultural and heritage organisations and venues are to share almost £6million in grants from the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund.

Sixty applicants, from theatres and music venues to visual arts and dance organisations, event producers, comedy festivals, museums and churches are set to receive a total of £5,957,790 as part of the second round of grants from the £1.57bn fund.

They include the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic (£755,917), Royal Court (£340,000), Unity Theatre (£38,057) and Liverpool & Merseyside Theatres Trust – which runs the Everyman and Playhouse (£383,815), along with other major city venues and organisations such as Cavern City Tours (£260,000), Camp and Furnace (£190,905), the Invisible Wind Factory (£92,300) and Liverpool Biennial (£285,460).

Culture Liverpool receives £247,780.

Other recipients include District 61 Jordan Street, St Luke's Bombed Out Church, Liverpool Arab Arts Festival, Merseyside Dance Initiative, Movema, the Bluecoat, Writing on the Wall and Smithdown Social.

Outside the city and in the wider region there are also grants for St Helens Theatre Royal, which will receive £156,541, Imaginarium at Prescot (£37,000), Norton Priory (£106,026), Southport Comedy Festival (£25,550) and Port Sunlight Village Trust which will get £72,644.

More than £300,000 of the total comes through the Heritage Lottery Fund including grants for the British Music Experience, the Metropolitan Cathedral, Bidston Observatory and the Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation.

Nationwide, around 2,700 organisations and venues are sharing £400m of funding.

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic chief executive Michael Eakin said: "We’re very grateful for this second grant from the Culture Recovery Fund.

“Through the pandemic we have been focused on ensuring Royal Liverpool Philharmonic both remains financially sustainable, and also delivers as much work to our audiences, participants and communities as we can in these circumstances.

“This grant will allow us to build on this work with continuing learning programmes and online activity, and to welcome audiences back to Liverpool Philharmonic Hall in May. And it will allow us to plan with confidence for the rest of the year.’’

Mark Da Vanzo, chief executive of Liverpool & Merseyside Theatres Trust, said: “We’re looking forward to welcoming our audiences back and continuing to support freelance artists and young people as we gather momentum over the coming months.

“We’ll be able to plan more confidently for the future, continuing to commission and support freelancers as Liverpool’s theatres spring back to life. We’re very much looking forward to collaborating with colleagues in other arts and cultural organisations as we play our part in the city’s recovery.”

And Cavern director Bill Heckle added: “This welcomed funding of £260,000 ensures that we will be able to continue trading for the foreseeable future and believe we will emerge from this pandemic raring to go.

“It’s essential support to the company, which now thankfully will further protect over 90 jobs locally.“

The full list of organisations receiving grants:

A Rush of Laughter; Argent Leisure Ltd; Bido Lito!; BrazUKa International; Camco 27 Ltd; Camp & Furnace Ltd; Capoeira For All CIC; Catalyst Science Discovery Centre and Museum Trust Lt; Cavern City Tours; Citadel Arts Centre; District 61 Jordan Street Ltd; Events With Intent Ltd; First Take; G Bar Liverpool; GR8 Bar; Great Georges Community Cultural Project Ltd; I Love Live Events Ltd; Imaginarium Theatre; Invisible Wind Factory Ltd.

Live Fairytales Ltd; Liverpool Arab Arts Festival; Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art; Liverpool City Council Culture Liverpool; Liverpool Guild of Students; Liverpool & Merseyside Theatres Trust Ltd; Lumen Productions Ltd; Make Liverpool; Meraki Liverpool; Merseyside Dance Initiative; Modern Sky UK Ltd; Movema; Phase One Liverpool; Port Sunlight Village Trust; Pyramid Power Ltd.

Rebel Soul Enterprises CIC; Redwood Bars; Regal Entertainment; Royal Court Liverpool Trust; Royal Liverpool Philharmonic; Smithdown Social; Southport Comedy Festival; St Luke’s Bombed Out Church; The Bluecoat; The Brindley Theatre; The Norton Priory Museum Trust; The World of Glass; UK Events (NW) Group Ltd; Writing on the Wall.

Symbiont Consulting Ltd; Meols Hall Events Ltd; Big Heritage CIC; British Music Experience; The Corporation of the Cathedral Church of Christ in Liverpool; Byrne Avenue Trust; St Matthew and St James Church at Mossley Hill; The Community Church in the North of England; Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation; Bidston Observatory Artistic Research Centre; Neighbourhood Services Co Ltd.