By Rachael Grealish

Eden Arts and Rosehill Theatre are among the Cumbrian arts venues to receive grants from the Culture Recovery Fund.

It was announced yesterday, Friday April 2, hundreds of venues across England would receive help from the Government’s £1.57 billion fund.

More than £300 million has been awarded to over 2,700 recipients across the country in this latest round of support, which will help organisations look ahead to the spring and summer and plan for reopening and recovery.

Of the Cumbrian recipients Theatre By The Lake received £87,699, Rosehill Theatre received, £176,807, Eden Arts received £81,269, The Beacon Museum received £263, 253 and Ulverston Coronation Hall received £67,111.

The Oscar® award-winning actor, Dame Judi Dench, is a patron of the Theatre by the Lake (TBTL) which hosts the Keswick Film Festival and spoke about the fund being important to small and local venues like the Lake District theatre.

She said: “Local cinemas are a vital part of our cultural lives, enthralling us with films about lives that we recognise as well as offering us stories about other cultures from around the world.

“They are places where people come together for a shared experience and have inspired many to make their careers on screen. We need to make sure that generations today and in the future have the same opportunities to enjoy and take part in the communal big screen experience.”

Rosehill Theatre were able to briefly reopen in December with socially distanced film screenings and live performances of A Christmas Carol by Oddsocks, but their executive director, Deanne Shallcross said they’re more eager than ever to reopen properly.

Deanne said: “This latest funding is fantastic news and will certainly help us make progress with our plans to reopen, in line with the Government’s roadmap.

“We’re looking forward to welcoming people back for socially distanced performances, which we hope to start in the late spring, as well as presenting live-streamed, recorded and drive-in events, both at Rosehill and on the road.

“We’re also keen to open our doors to more community groups and offer a welcoming space for meetings. We love it when there’s a buzz around the building and we’ve missed that so much over the past year.”

As well as the Culture Recovery Fund grant Eden Arts will also receive further £27,500 from BFI/Film Hub North to support the work of Cine North.

Eden Arts Director Adrian Lochhead said: “Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic we have been working across our projects with a severely reduced staff team.

“Thanks to the government’s Culture Recovery Fund we can ensure we will be #HereForCulture for 2021 and beyond, and we are able to create more full time and part-time jobs at the company.

“This will give us the capacity needed to deliver the excellent, high-quality arts experiences the audiences in Eden Valley and Cumbria have become accustomed to through our previous work.”