NEWS: £290,750 Award for Nottingham Playhouse’s Community Work

Nottingham Playhouse has successfully secured funding from the Garfield Weston Foundation’s Weston Culture Fund, with much-needed cash going towards free participation projects, and the creation of a new community and gallery space.

The funding, which covers works until early 2022, will help ensure that Nottingham Playhouse can continue to reach the communities most in need. In particular, it will fund its SHINE theatre workshops that are delivered for free to 11 locations across Nottingham until April 2022.

Nottingham Playhouse can now also reimagine its restaurant space, transforming it into a creative hub for the local community with an informal workshop and performance space and digital gallery.

Equipment for IT and digital performances will also be part funded by the money – ensuring work can continue online and reach more audiences than ever before.

Stephanie Sirr, Chief Executive at Nottingham Playhouse, said: “When culture can reopen fully it will be more important than ever that everyone can access it. This fantastic award means that Nottingham Playhouse will be able to build on its award winning participation work with its many communities”

Philippa Charles, Director of the Weston Culture Fund, added: “Our cultural sector is at the heart of our local communities providing not only entertainment but education and inspiration for many. Our Trustees were impressed by the entrepreneurial spirit shown across the arts in response to Covid-19 and it was a privilege to hear what organisations had been doing to not only survive but also to reinvent the way they reach audiences. What really stood out was the level of collaboration and support they had for each other and the determination to keep going, despite the increasingly difficult situation.

We all want and need our cultural sector to thrive and, if anything, our time away from the arts has shown just how important they are to us – bringing much needed pleasure and enrichment to our lives. Arts organisations are desperate to re-open and get back to what they do best, and we hope that this new funding will help many of them do exactly that.”

Nottingham Playhouse is now heavily reliant on fundraising, as many of its main-stage productions have been postponed or cancelled due to the Coronavirus pandemic. More funds are still needed to ensure all of its work can continue into the future. Head to the Curtain Up appeal page to find out more.

For more information about the Garfield Weston Foundation, visit their website here.