Torbay Culture: Here For Culture | Culture Recovery Fund

Thanks to the government’s Culture Recovery Fund (CRF), Torbay Culture can continue to be #HereForCulture. 

On 9 October, Historic England, the National Lottery Heritage Fund, and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) jointly announced the first 445 awards from the government’s Culture Recovery Fund. At the same time DCMS and arms length bodies are jointly promoting the #HereForCulture campaign. Torbay Culture applied and was successful in securing support from the Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage.

Heritage, the arts, creative industries and culture - in all its forms - makes life worth living. Culture creates jobs, supports livelihoods, and brings joy to everyone. During the last five years Torbay Culture has developed plans and programmes of work to deliver Torbay’s ten year cultural strategy Enjoy, Talk, Do, Be. We may have been established in 2015 to be the lead body for the cultural strategy, but we believe the best way this happens is together, from the ground up.

Our priority over the last couple of years has been to build more confidence and trust between organisations and people working across the culture sector and beyond. Thanks to the Culture Recovery Fund we can continue to do this, working in collaboration with partners across the bay. This is positive for people and organisations, and endorses our approach which is open and collaborative, positive and pragmatic.

The Chair of Torbay Culture, Jacob Brandon said -‘The government’s Culture Recovery Fund is a vote of confidence in our hard work. It means Torbay Culture can continue to provide strategic leadership and advocacy for heritage and arts in Torbay, especially over the coming months as we work to support recovery’.

As well as ourselves, across Torbay several organisations have applied for, and been offered support from, the Culture Recovery Fund:

Kents Cavern, scheduled ancient monument and Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), secured funding from the Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage. The Palace Theatre Paignton, and Torbay Museums Trust (TMT) have both been awarded CRF from Arts Council England. Other CRF grant recipients include the Pilgrim Heritage Sailing Foundation in Brixham. Torquay Museum with its nationally Designated collection which is managed by the TMT, and the Palace have both been marking their anniversaries this year - 175th and 130th respectively.

The Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage which Torbay Culture has been allocated will be used to:

• Progress the new Torbay Heritage Strategy. The CRF will enable us to support the detailed action planning work. The draft strategy has been revised following extensive consultation over two phases during this year (800+ responses). The Cabinet of Torbay Council will review the strategy in November, and then action planning can begin

• Fund digital projects for public engagement with local heritage

• Business planning and essential equipment for the grade II* listed Cockington Court

• Ensure heritage and culture continue to be championed and advocated for at a senior level, as part of the longer term recovery of the Torbay area

You can keep up to date with our work via this website - including Torbay’s Great Place Scheme, and our COVID-19 creative response programme Create To Recover which is possible thanks to the emergency response funding from Arts Council England.

Thank you to everyone who has been part of our story so far, and to the Heritage Fund and government for this latest support for Torbay Culture.

#CultureRecoveryFund #HereForCulture

This page was updated on 26 October to include information about the latest awards for culture and heritage organisations in Torbay.

Background information:

The Government’s Culture Recovery Fund is being distributed through a range of programmes by four DCMS arms length bodies - Arts Council England, the BFI, Historic England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Throughout October further funding announcements were made, and CRF support continues to be distributed to different areas in response to the impact of the pandemic.

Full lists of all recipients can be found on the websites of the respective funding and development agency.