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Creative people from across the city to come together to make Arts Recovery Plan

Graham Robson September 28, 2020

Creative people from across the city are coming together to make an Arts Recovery Plan to run over the next three years, supporting the city’s cultural and events sector through the Covid-19 crisis.

Part-funded by Brighton & Hove City Council (BHCC) and due to be completed in November, the plan will explore how the sector can recover from loss of income and how artists and organisations can adjust their commercial models to new ways of working.

Brighton & Hove has a year-round calendar of cultural events, including around 60 festivals which bring millions of visitors into the city. They include the Brighton Festival, which contributed around £20 million to the local economy in 2019; Brighton & Hove Pride, which attracted 300,000 parade participants in 2019; and two Artists Open House events, which saw 15,000 artists and makers participating at 180 venues within 14 different trails.

Festivals have adapted to offer online events: The Warren staged a successful physically distanced outdoor season on the seafront this summer and Brighton & Hove Pride hosted We Are FABULOSO! online, which raised over £13,000 for the Brighton Rainbow Fund who give grants to local LGBTQ+/HIV groups who deliver effective frontline services to LGBTQ+ people in the city.

Some government support has been provided, and small live music venues, artists’ workspaces and galleries have benefitted from grants. However, the cancellation of live events has left most of the sector in serious financial difficulty, with revenues also lost in retail and hospitality.

In May, BHCC’s Policy and Resources (Recovery) sub-committee agreed to the distribution of £3.68 million allocated to BHCC by the Government as discretionary grants to businesses.

In June and July a total of £935,000 was awarded to over 100 organisations in the events or cultural sub-sectors, with a further £747,500 awarded to 50 leisure businesses.

In July, 61 Brighton & Hove-based organisations received emergency funds from Arts Council England with grants of up to £35,000 awarded to a wide range of organisations, from Brighton Fringe to The Old Market. Emergency funds were awarded to national performance organisations such as the Brighton Dome and Festival and The Lighthouse.

Arts organisations in the city are also fundraising with their supporters: Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival has just released a series of high-quality art prints as part of its #BringBackBrightonDome crowdfunder campaign.

Cllr Marianna Ebel, joint chair of the Tourism, Equalities, Communities and Culture Committee, said: ‘We have such a vibrant and exciting culture in Brighton & Hove and it has been inspiring to see how organisations, artists and venues have used their creativity to adapt and continue to make us feel close to each other, through sharing cultural experiences.

‘We don’t underestimate the serious effect the pandemic has had on the sector however and we are committed to helping draw funding into the city. We also want to support the Arts and Creative Industries Commission with a recovery plan that will pave the way back for our colourful creative and culture sector.’

Councillors discussed support for the city’s creative and cultural sector at the Tourism, Equalities, Communities and Culture Committee on Thursday, September 24. You can read the report (agenda item 31) by clicking here.

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