Peterborough arts projects among the most poorly funded in the country by Arts Council

The newly released figures come as the Cineworld cinema chain recently announced it will be indefinitely closing its UK venues, Greene King brewery announced 79 pub closures and 800 job losses due to the 10pm Covid curfew and with the hospitality and arts sector in many areas facing an uncertain future under new restrictions.

Arts Council England gives out lottery money to support museums, libraries, artists and arts groups across the country through applications to its Project Grants.

The fund focuses on smaller independent organisations and individuals, with grants ranging from £1,000 to £100,000.

But with figures showing some areas get much more cash than others, think tank the Fabian Society says public arts funding should be levelled up to help an industry brought to the brink by Covid-19.

The arts sector in Peterborough was given £234,837 in Project Grants funding by Arts Council England in 2019-20, the latest available data from the public body shows.

This funding total was equivalent to £1.16 per person in the Peterborough area, based on Office for National Statistics population estimates – slightly below the average of £1.24 across the East of England, which in turn was the second-lowest funded of England’s nine regions. Yet regional theatres and venues are said to be particularly suffering because of the pandemic, many having to cancel lucrative productions and warning that they may not survive another six months of hardship.

The arts sector has had to contend with continued social distancing measures placed on live music venues, theatres and galleries making any recovery more difficult.

The figures show big regional disparities in funding – London received the most at £2.94 per head of the population, while the West Midlands saw the least at just £1.20.

Nationally, £97.9 million was handed out via the scheme last year – an average of £1.74 per person.

Ben Cooper, researcher at the Labour Party-affiliated Fabian Society, said the figures showed centralised public arts funding is “not working, and is holding places back”.

He added: “There is a long-standing crisis in funding that has left community arts and culture extremely vulnerable to lockdown, especially outside London.

“The sector is critical to the Government’s levelling up agenda, especially as the country seeks to rebuild post-Covid.

“But if it’s going to thrive, it needs fairer National Lottery funding across England and devolution of power so local areas can determine how to repair the damage.”

Project Grants, which are given in response to applications, are one of three main sources of Arts Council funding, which draw on a mixture of lottery and taxpayer money.

A report published earlier this year by the group also called for the Government to require Arts Council England to distribute National Lottery money for the arts equally across regions by 2025.

ACE said many funding recipients based in London are national organisations which work and tour in other areas.

Laura Dyer, the body’s deputy chief executive for places and engagement, said ACE wants its investment “to reach every community across the country”.

She said: “This commitment is at the core of our new 10-year strategy, Let’s Create, through which we’ll continue to address the historic imbalance in funding.”

Since 2018, it has invested 75 per cent of its overall National Lottery budget outside London, while 75 per cent of Project Grants have also gone outside the capital, according to Ms Dyer.

She added: “We are also working in close partnership with local authorities, both nationally and locally, to bring our expertise alongside their local knowledge to support investment in culture.”

Arts Council England offered one to one advice sessions on its Project Grants open access funding scheme at an event in Peterborough in May. These sessions, in person or over the phone, were for people who had an application underway for a grant.

Peterborough Culture Forum also met with Arts Council representative Natalie Philips in July to be briefed on how the grant scheme was being restarted alongside the government’s main bail out package for the ailing arts and culture sector.

She explained that last year alone Arts Council England invested £642,000 into the Peterborough area from all its grant schemes, however, she said none of this funding was applied for by anyone with a BaME background, despite the diversity within the city.

The Culture Forum agreed to programme a self-help session for would-be arts project applicants to help each other out.

Percentage match funding for any grant is no longer essential (though preferred). Instead partnerships are identified as important - proving you have support from people or organisations.