Government unveils £10m for arts venues
A £10 MILLION fund to help performing arts venues in Scotland survive the coronavirus crisis has been announced by the Culture Secretary.
Fiona Hyslop said the Performing Arts Venue Relief Fund would help businesses prevent insolvency in the current financial year and avoid redundancies for specialist core staff.
The money for venues unable to reopen yet due to the impact of coronavirus is part of the Scottish Government’s £185m Business Support Fund and is also expected to increase opportunities for commissioning freelancers.
Hyslop said: “Our performing arts venues effectively had to close overnight, with an almost complete loss of income. There is no doubt that in doing so they saved lives, and for that I am extremely grateful.”
The Federation of Scottish Theatre said its members have lost around 70% of turnover since the virus hit.
Its co-chair Rhona Matheson said: “We are delighted by the scale of this investment in the future of theatre and dance in Scotland.”
Meanwhile, the latest coronavirus statistics showed one further death, taking the total to 2488.
There were 12 new cases recorded, taking the total since the outbreak began to 18,276.
There were 670 people in hospital with confirmed or suspected coronavirus, a reduction of 15 which included a reduction of 10 confirmed cases.
There were 12 patients in intensive care which was an increase of three on the day before.
In the greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS board area, the total number of cases since the outbreak began stood at 4858. There were 192 people in hospital across the area. The number in intensive care was fewer than five.