£60K cash boost for Mansfield council to help arts and culture recover following Covid lockdowns

The cash, which has been awarded by Arts Council England and will come from Government coffers, will support various projects to try and get more people involved in artistic and cultural activities.

Arts and cultural sectors effectively ground to a halt in March 2020 when the Government announced the first lockdown, with theatres, museums and other venues closed.

And while some events moved online, it has been impossible for people to enjoy face-to-face performances and activities, or get involved in artistic or cultural projects.

The £60,000, which is the second sum of funding Mansfield District Council has received to restore arts and culture from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, will boost volunteering, support youth arts, and pay for public performances.

A report to Coun Craig Whitby, portfolio holder for corporate and finance, states that the funding will be used to:

Recruit volunteers to care for and interpret the exhibits at Mansfield Museum and to provide training for the venue’s welcome team; Support training for staff at Mansfield Palace Theatre; Help the Palace’s youth theatre reintegrate into face-to-face activities and to restore numbers to pre-pandemic numbers; Provide digital master classes for youth theatres around the area; Commission three new performances from locally-based companies to be performed later this year; Make changes to improve access and allow social distancing to take place.

The grant, which has been made available as part of the national ‘Here for Culture’ drive, was accepted as a delegated decision by Coun Whitby.

Money from the initial funding round, which had not been spent due to the third lockdown, can be run over into the second funding round, which will support activities until the end of June across the district, the report states.

All activities will take place with full compliance with Covid security to avoid a spike in cases amongst participants, and checks and measures will be put in place to ensure the money is spent correctly.

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