The Cultural Winter Stability Fund will be operated by Arts Council Wales and will consist of two separate elements for application:
- applications assessed directly by Arts Council of Wales, aimed at professional arts venues and other arts organisations that directly engage 'face to face' with the public on a paid for participation basis (e.g. community arts organisations). These organisations, and in particular arts venues, have been prioritised as they rely heavily on direct income from ticketed performances or workshops and classes. These have been hit particularly hard by reduced audience and participant numbers whilst still carrying significant fixed overheads.
We expect arts applicants to the Cultural Winter Stability Fund to have already been successful in an application to the Arts Council’s Cultural Recovery Fund second round (awarded in May 2021. If you did not receive funding via CRF2 directly from us from this previous round, but now find yourselves in a more difficult financial position, then we will explain in our full guidance what you need to do
- applications assessed by Welsh Government and Creative Wales but administered by Arts Council of Wales (acting as agent) which is aimed at local independent museums, independent and community libraries, and independent cinemas
The Fund is targeted towards organisations who are experiencing acute financial pressure relating to Covid-19.
Detailed guidance notes will be made available as early as possible in January 2022.
Our aim is for the Fund to open for applications on 12 January and close on 26 January (dates subject to change).
The fund will accept applications up to a maximum of £100,000, and applicants may apply to cover costs incurred in the period 1 October 2021-31 March 2022.
The purpose of this fund is to support organisations that are in genuine difficulty, are at risk of closure or that jobs will be lost, unless further support is provided – this risk must be as a direct result of the ongoing impact of Covid-19.).
Regardless of which element of the fund you might apply for, all organisations that wish to apply will need to be registered on our online funding portal before being able to access an application form. Eligible organisations will be able to register in the New Year.
The Arts Council of Wales has already distributed over £30.5million additional funding since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. This has been an intense period of time for our staff and for the organisations we support. We thank the Welsh Government for making this new funding available and offer our best wishes to you all over the festive season.