ACE announces recipients of £257m recovery funding

More than 1,300 cultural organisations have been awarded grants totaling £257m in the first round of Arts Council England’s (ACE) Culture Recovery Fund.

This includes £24.3m for 102 organisations classified as museums.

Brighton & Hove City Council received one of the largest awards - £990,000 - for the recently formed Royal Pavilion & Museums Trust. Other beneficiaries are York Museum Trust (£850,000), Manchester City Galleries (£780,000) and the Mary Rose Trust (£655,000) in Portsmouth.

The full list of awardees is available on the arts council’s website.

This round of funding for grants of up to £1m is the biggest tranche of funding distributed to date from the Culture Recovery Fund, bringing the total amount of grant funding awarded to more than £360m. Further funding for organisations is due to be announced in the coming days and weeks.

“Theatres, museums, galleries, dance companies and music venues bring joy to people and life to our cities, towns and villages,” said Nicholas Serota, the chair of ACE. “This is a difficult time for us all, but this first round of funding from the Culture Recovery Fund will help sustain hundreds of cultural spaces and organisations that are loved and admired by local communities and international audiences.”

The English government’s £1.57bn Culture Recovery Fund is being distributed through a number of funders, including the arts council, the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Historic England.