EK arts venues thrown lifeline during COVID-19
Performing arts venues in East Kilbride have been given a lifeline thanks to an emergency cash boost from the Scottish Government.
East Kilbride Village Theatre and East Kilbride Arts Centre have received funds as part of a £250,000 package awarded to South Lanarkshire Culture and Leisure Ltd from the open call for applications to the Scottish Government’s Performing Arts Venues Relief Fund through Creative Scotland.
Designed to support performing arts venues that cannot yet re-open due to the ongoing impact of the COVID- 19 pandemic.
The fund is helping to remove the threat of insolvency prior to the end of March 2021 to enable the development and delivery of activity as soon as practicable .
Also to allow for specialist / core staff to return from furlough or avoid redundancy to work on future sustainable activity plans.
And it will also increase commissioning and employment opportunities for freelance artists and creative practitioners between now and end of March 2021 to support continued public engagement while closed.
Other venues in South Lanarkshire receiving support are The Town House in Hamilton, Rutherglen Town Hall and Lanark Memorial Hall.
South Lanarkshire Leisure and Culture Ltd General Manager, David Booth said: “We are delighted to have received this very welcome financial award and would like to sincerely thank Creative Scotland for the funding and their continued support.
“Our five performing arts venues in South Lanarkshire, have been closed since March 18 on account of the COVID-19 restrictions, so this funding will help us in our efforts to keep our customers, staff and partners engaged as we look to navigate our way through these extremely difficult times”.
“We received confirmation of the Performing Arts Venue Relief Fund grant and this enables us to crack on with our specialist teams and freelance arts partners from across the creative industries to plan and deliver a programme of special events and activities for our patrons and the wider public to enjoy between now and the end of March 2021.
Details of this programme will be finalised soon and posted on our website www.slleisureandculture.co.uk ”.
Iain Munro, CEO, Creative Scotland said: “Despite the ongoing, detrimental impact that the COVID-19 pandemic is having on Scotland’ s performing arts venues, and on culture as a whole, it is positive that we can offer some funding to help venues navigate these extremely challenging times.
“I’m also encouraged to see that this funding will help venues across many different parts of Scotland where they form such an important part of the cultural life of local communities.”
The South Lanarkshire venues are amongst 59 across Scotland sharing a total of £4.74million from the Scottish Government’s Performing Arts Venues Relief Fund’s £5million open call.
Jude Henderson, Director of the Federation of Scottish Theatre (FST) said: “We welcome the announcement of these emergency awards to performing arts venues across the country. ReThe funds will help to support the vital work they do in ser ving communities, providing employment and showcasing Scotland’s world class theatre and dance offer, much of which is created by our members.”
The Performing Arts Venues Relief Fund is one of a series of measures being put in place to help mitigate the immediate i mpacts of COVID- 19 on t he creative and cultural sector, including five new emergency funds.