Brass Bands England has been awarded £227,189 in the latest round of Culture Recovery Fund grant payments from Arts Council England.

It follows the first round of payments that were announced last week and sees a further 589 awards to organisations and businesses of £76.6 million.

Stay afloat

The fund is to enable cultural organisations that have been affected by the Covid-19 crisis to stay afloat, providing them with support over a 6-month period to ensure that by 31 March 2021 they can reopen, either fully or partially, or operating on a sustainable, cost-efficient basis until they are able to reopen at a later date.

Vital funding

The BBC reported that Culture Secretary, Oliver Dowden said that Saturday's new round of "vital funding" would go to "protect cultural gems across the country, save jobs and prepare the arts to bounce back".

He added: "These awards build on our commitment to be here for culture in every part of the country".

However, Mr Dowden did admit that it would not be enough to save every job or cultural establishment.

Grass roots education

In response to the announcement Brass Bands England revealed that the award was aimed at building grass-roots education projects and selling the many benefits of brass banding to stakeholders in the wider community.

It said: "This will include the creation of five new part-time education posts for a limited initial period, with other employment and consultancy opportunities becoming available as part BBE's growing outreach programme and continued organisational development.

The future of the Brass Band Archive, acquired by BBE in 2018, will also become clearer with funding to secure its curation and display, including through the use of digital technology."

Help survive

Chair, Arts Council England, Sir Nicholas Serota stated: "This latest set of awards from the Culture Recovery Fund builds on those announced recently and will help hundreds of organisations to survive the next few months, ensuring that the cultural sector can bounce back after the crisis.

We will continue doing everything we can to support artists and cultural and creative organisations, with further funding to be announced in the coming weeks."

Significant shot

Speaking about the award BBE's Chief Executive Officer, Kenny Crookston, said: "At a time of great uncertainty for everyone, this is a significant shot in the arm for brass bands that we will use to introduce a number of new development projects in various parts of the country, with the aim of projecting the best aspects of our banding culture to a new generation of brass musicians and those who support them.

We are especially pleased at this crucial and challenging time for so many in the brass band sector to be able to offer a number of excellent employment opportunities in the coming months and we will be advertising details of these very soon."

He added: "Arts Council England and the DCMS continue to be extremely supportive despite the current challenges and we would like to thank them for their outstanding support.

This is an excellent opportunity for brass bands to show their true value to society and everyone at BBE is excited at the possibilities opened up by this additional funding."

Other payments

Payments were given to organisations in all parts of the country — from the Military Wives Choir (£92,057) and Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (£50,000) to the Britten Sinfonia (£197,810) and British Motor Museum (£707,000).

Full list:

For the full list of Round 1 and Round 2 payments go to:
https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/publication/culture-recovery-fund-data