Today the Arts Council of Wales has released more information on our Arts Resilience Fund, including the support available for individuals and organisations to help them through the Coronavirus crisis.

Together with the Welsh Government, we’ve reallocated money from existing budgets to create an urgent response fund of £7.0 million with £5.1 million coming from National Lottery derived sources.  

We hope to add to this by working with other trusts, foundations and organisations to increase the funding that’s available.  We’ve also changed the funding requirements for those individuals and organisations who have already received funding, to help alleviate pressure on them as best we can.

Individuals and organisations

Of the funds currently available to us, we’re planning to allocate at least £1.5 million to Individuals with the balance of £5.5m earmarked for organisations.  We’ll monitor the demand on these budgets as we go along, and might adjust these allocations so that we can support as many people as possible. 

Funds are limited, so it’s very important that support is given to those in the most urgent need.  Potential applicants are being asked therefore to think carefully about whether you should make an application at this time.  We’re relying on everyone to be mindful of the collective needs of their peers when considering whether or not to request funds.

For the time being, these are the only open‑to‑application funding programmes that we’ll be running.  We’ll review the position later in the year.  But for now, our absolute priority is helping artists and cultural organisations to survive this crisis and to find ways of getting back on their feet. 

Timeline

On Tuesday 14 April 2020 we’ll launch the first round of applications to a new fund offering support to individuals facing immediate financial difficulty and hardship – our Urgent Response Fund for Individuals.  The application guidelines and FAQ document on this fund will be published on our website on Thursday 9 April.

On Tuesday 21 April 2020 we’ll be opening for applications to a further scheme – a Stabilisation Fund for Organisations.

And on Friday 29 May 2020 we open for applications to a Stabilisation Fund for Individuals.

Further details about those elements of the fund will be published closer to the opening of the application dates for those funds.

Further details about the resilience fund can be found here.