Emergency Scottish Government relief funds reaching performing arts venues in Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire

Awards made to performing arts venues in Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire as part of the £5million open call are as follows:

• Eastwood Park Theatre, £90,000
• Paisley Arts Centre, £71,961

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
• allow for specialist / core staff to return from furlough or avoid redundancy to work on future sustainable activity plans
• 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.

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.”

These 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. A full list of all 59 venues can be found on the Creative Scotland website.

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. The funds will help to support the vital work they do in serving 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 impacts of COVID-19 on the creative and cultural sector, including five new emergency funds which were announced by the First Minister on Friday 28 August and are being delivered through Creative Scotland as follows:

• The £15million Culture Organisations and Venues Recovery Fund, which opened for applications on Thursday 17 September, with a deadline of today, Thursday 24 September.
• The £3.5million Independent Cinemas Recovery and Resilience Fund, which opened for applications on Monday 14 September with a deadline of Monday 5 October.
• The £5million Creative Freelancer Hardship Fund, for which we issued an open call for partner organisations to help us distribute this fund, was launched on Friday 11 September, and has a deadline of Friday 25 September. We aim to be able to distribute funds from October. The Screen element of these Hardship Funds opened for applications on Tuesday 22 September.
• The £5million Sustaining Creative Practice Fund includes £1.5million for the Culture Collective programme, mentioned in the Scottish Government’s Programme for Government, supporting organisations employing freelance artists to work in and with communities across Scotland. The remaining £3.5million has been added to Creative Scotland’s existing Open Fund which is open for applications from individuals now.

The previously announced £2.2million Grassroots Music Venues Stabilisation Fund has reached 72 venues across Scotland, including Paisley live music venue The Bungalow. Recipients were published on Tuesday 22 September and full information on awards made, can be found here.

Updates on all emergency funds are being published regularly on the Creative Scotland website and publicised through media and social media communications.