Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival (BDBF) has received vital support from Arts Council England’s (ACE) Culture Recovery Fund today.
The registered arts charity has received two grants, part of ACE’s allocation from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s £1.57bn support fund. BDBF receives £493,000 and the music service it manages, Brighton & Hove Music & Arts and East Sussex Music receives just over £348,000 to help face the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic and to ensure a sustainable future for the arts in the region.
Following its closure in March 2020, Brighton Dome lost 67% of its self-generated income through ticket sales and events and the music service, which normally teaches over 5,000 pupils each week with music lessons in schools, had to adapt to online tutorials. The funding will allow Brighton Dome to adapt its historic venue to comply with new regulations to allow live performances to commence again. The music service will use the grant to support professional music staff to continue working with pupils in schools and through adapting new services for online teaching.
Andrew Comben, Chief Executive of Brighton Dome said:
“This news gives us real confidence that we can bring back arts events securely and safely to audiences and helps sustain Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival through this time of real threat to the arts. The government’s investment of £1.57bn recognises the enormous value economically and socially, that arts and culture brings to our lives and we’re enormously grateful to Arts Council England for their continued support. We can now plan for the future and move forward with more certainty. We have worked hard to preserve our amazing team of staff throughout this crisis and we are all committed to working to support artists, local communities, children and young people, and to helping the arts thrive again in the city and beyond.”
Peter Chivers, Head of Brighton & Hove Music & Arts and East Sussex Music added:
“Playing music has been proven to have a positive impact on mental health and now more than ever, children and young people need creativity to keep them connected and motivated. This funding will help us continue to support young musicians through expert tuition, as well as expanding the number of pupils we can reach through online lessons, workshops and performances.”
The news is part of today’s announcement of the first tranche of the Culture Recovery Fund – £257m of funding for 1385 theatres, arts venues, museums and cultural organisations across the country.
Chair, Arts Council England, Sir Nicholas Serota said:
“Theatres, museums, galleries, dance companies and music venues bring joy to people and life to our cities, towns and villages. This life-changing funding will save thousands of cultural spaces loved by local communities and international audiences. Further funding is still to be announced and we are working hard to support our sector during these challenging times.”
Brighton Dome will reopen its Concert Hall with a series of live socially distanced gigs from this Saturday 17 October. Live Is Alive! is presented in collaboration with grassroots music venues to help support and protect the city’s vibrant music scene.
