More Culture Recovery
Arts Council England (ACE) has announced a second round of grant awards to music, arts and theatre venues across the country from its Culture Recovery Fund. A national total of £261m is being dispensed, of which approximately £1,191,000 has been allocated to ten cultural providers in Hastings and Rother.
This compares with £1,572,000 awarded to six providers in Hastings and Rother out of a national sum of £430m in Round 1 last October. As predicted (see Culture Recovery Fund Round 2 in HIP 172), the largesse has been spread wider as well as thinner this time.
The stated aim when applications for the Round 2 funding were being made was to finance “transition back to a viable and sustainable operating model during April-June 2021”. However, it is clear that assessments have been made by ACE on a rather more elastic basis time-wise: manay of the recipients will not be offering any output at all during the transition period. The next Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition (HIPCC), in particular, is not due to take place until the spring of 2022. However, the competition organisers have presumably persuaded the assessors that they need to commit expenditure on preparatory stages and promotions during the next three months in order to enable it to go ahead then.
Visual arts seem otherwise to have been given priority over music and theatre in this round. The De La Warr Pavilion, the Hastings Contemporary art gallery and Project Artworks have each again received substantial six-figure sums, whereas the White Rock Theatre, the Piper in Norman Road and the Stables Theatre are not on the recipient list at all.
Street entertainment in Battle – 18 Hours Events
Positive and negative
There will have been both positive and negative reasons for this.
First round applications were submitted by live music and theatre venues last summer with pledges, no doubt made in good faith, to adapt their respective outputs to limited Covid-secure provision. In the event, tiered restrictions during the autumn, followed by three-and-a-half months of a second full lockdown, ruled out live performances altogether. Boris Johnson’s ‘roadmap’, announced in February for easing out of restrictions and so far remaining apparently on course, gave little scope for indoor gatherings of any size until 17th May; then, for the five following weeks, venues are allowed to provide for 50% capacity audiences; but from 21st June it is intended to lift all further limits and restrictions. Now that we’ve come this far, it’s hardly surprising if providers prefer to wait for the latter date to make a full splash.
Indeed, many seem to be taking a more cautious approach. The first concert arranged for re-opening of the White Rock Theatre features Showaddywaddy on 30th July. The Piper’s website shows no events lined up at all, its home screen still bearing the message “Closed Until Further Notice: Take Care, We’ll See You On The Other Side”. The Stables and St Mary-in-the-Castle websites are equally bereft of future events on offer. Only Hastings Pier – not an ACE applicant at all but an outdoor venue that has fewer Covid concerns to consider – has a programme to offer in June: a live football fan-park for England and Wales matches in the European Championships starting on 12th June; and a concert headlining the Kavemen on the 26th.
Able to adapt quicker
Providers of visual arts, on the other hand, have found it much easier to proffer their wares online during lockdown, and they are also able to adapt quicker to a physical return.
The Hastings Contemporary gallery is currently presenting a series of virtual exhibitions, including Ignition in combination with Project Artworks and separate displays by Lakwena Maciver and Stephen Chambers. However, as previewed on page 18 of this issue, it is also gearing up a major summer exhibition, Seaside Modern, that will open for physical viewing on 27th May.
Similarly, the Hastings Museum and Art Gallery, which will absorb a sizeable proportion of the Recovery Fund grant to Hastings Borough Council, has been winning national accolades for virtual programmes that could be accessed during lockdown. Since January it has been showing a number of online exhibitions, including one featuring the work of Laetitia Yhap – My Vital Life – and a selection from its natural science collection made in conjunction with local community groups – What’s in the Box? From 29th May, though, it will deliver a show of automata from the Cabaret Mechanical Theatre – Ingenious Contraptions – whose impact will depend very much on physical presentation within the museum.
The De La Warr Pavilion has been putting shows online – see page 17 of this issue for YOUR art in OUR windows – but will re-open for visitors on 19th May, offering fresh exhibitions on both ground floor (Holly Hendry sculptures) and first floor (patchwork quilts, in collaboration with the Refugee Buddy Project).
Street performance
18 Hours is a provider of outdoor street entertainment – the perfect vehicle for renewed community gatherings as lockdown restrictions recede. They confirm that their ACE grant will cover the production of free “Covid-safe” street performance festivals in Battle, Bexhill and Rye during the months of May and June. They will also be making advance preparations for delivery of the St Leonards Festival on 14th August, the Journeys Dance Festival in August/September and Hastings Storytelling Festival in October.
Mandy Curtis, director of 18 Hours, said of their award: “This good news is a breath of fresh air. Getting through the pandemic has been tough for the Arts and Entertainments industry, but we’ve kept going and been through a huge learning curve. We’re very excited indeed to be so close to bringing free live events again to the residents of Hastings and Rother.”
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