Dawn Bowden MS, Deputy Minister for Arts and Sport, and Chief Whip
The cultural sector has continued to be significantly impacted by the pandemic and the restrictions the Welsh Government has needed to put in place to keep Wales safe.
Following the delivery of the first phase of the Cultural Recovery Fund, which supported 646 businesses and 3,500 individuals with funding of £63m, I would like to provide Members with a further summary of the support provided this year.
The Welsh Government allocated £30m for a second phase of funding to continue to support the sector – once again the fund was split into three key elements. This second phase was put in place to support the sector until the end of September.
I am thankful to the Arts Council of Wales which has worked closely with us on this support package. The Arts Council has offered a total of £8.8m to 127 arts organisations.
As part of this second round, the Welsh Government has continued to support businesses and organisations in the areas of creative industries, events, heritage and culture. As our Programme for Government makes clear, we are doing everything we can to support the visitor economy and by the end of this month will have offered £19m to more than 500 organisations.
The second round of the Freelancer Fund has been delivered in partnership with local authorities. I am grateful to them for their ongoing support. Through this latest round we will have supported 720 freelancers with funding of £1.8m.
Across both phases of the Cultural Recovery Fund we have provided £93m of funding which has supported business, organisations and individuals in these key sectors.
We have built the Cultural Contract and Freelancer and Public Sector pledge into the Cultural Recovery Fund to encourage fair work, good employment practices and greater collaboration across the sector.
We continue to liaise with the sector as we continue to relax restrictions and look towards the new alert level zero and a future with fewer legal rules. We will keep the need for any additional support under review to ensure the future sustainability of the sector.