Theatre is given cash boost for reopening

LEICESTER’S Curve is one of more than 1,000 arts venues and organisations set to receive a share of £257 million government cash.

The money will be divided between theatres, orchestras, museums and music venues in the first allocation of money from the government’s Culture Recovery Fund.

The £257 million cash injection is for those places which applied for less than £1 million each.

According to the government, the £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund aims to make sure our most loved performing arts, heritage sites, independent cinemas, music venues and museums can weather the impact of coronavirus and come back even stronger.

As part of the biggest ever one-off investment in UK culture, the #HereForCulture campaign has been launched to help support Britain’s globally renowned arts, culture and heritage industries.

Curve has been awarded £950,000 to help with plans to reopen the theatre.

Curve has been closed since March. Many of the shows scheduled to take place this year have been postponed until 2021, or in some cases 2022, while others have been cancelled.

In a statement, Curve’s chief executive Chris Stafford and artistic director Nikolai Foster said: “Covid continues to have a devastating impact on our industry and we are indebted to Arts Council England and DCMS for the Culture Recovery grant which will help secure a future for Curve.

“Curve would not have survived this period without the funding grants from Arts Council England and Leicester City Council, along with the support from the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS). This crucial investment in our theatre will enable us to protect jobs, forge plans to reopen and employ freelancers.”