Dawn Bowden MS, Deputy Minister for Arts and Sport, and Chief Whip
I am today announcing the Cultural Winter Stability Fund, which will provide critical support for cultural organisations, which have been and continue to be negatively affected by the impact of the pandemic and may be at serious risk of closure or job losses without further support.
The Welsh Government is making £5.25m available to assist Wales' arts organisations, museums, libraries and independent cinemas through the winter months.
The fund will provide emergency funding, in the form of grants up to £100k, for the period from 1 October, after the end of Cultural Recovery Fund 2, to the end of March 2022. Organisations must be able to demonstrate they are in genuine difficulty and have no other source of funding available.
This is in addition to the £60m of business support funding, which the First Minister announced today to support businesses materially affected by the new protections being introduced in Wales from 27 December.
If we face a large wave of omicron cases, which has a significant impact on our society and requires new protections or restrictions to be put in place, affecting our cultural venues, we would look to the UK Government to introduce economic support schemes, such as furlough, as it did earlier in the pandemic.
Further details about the Cultural Winter Stability Fund and how to apply will be announced in the New Year.