More than £18m will support the creative industries, culture and sport sectors, which are feeling the immediate impact of COVID-19.

The package of measures, which was announced by Deputy Minister for Culture, Sport and Tourism, Lord Elis-Thomas today, will help support the sector, safeguarding businesses and jobs.

The funding is being made available by the Welsh Government, the Arts Council for Wales and Sport Wales. It includes:

£7m Arts Resilience Fund led by the Arts Council of Wales. Working with the Arts Council, this fund will support artists and arts organisations most in need and least likely to benefit from other support programmes. Further announcements will be made about how the fund will be distributed.
£8m Sport Resilience Fund. This will be used to support sports clubs and partner networks which play such a vital role in ensuring the nation is able to remain active and enjoy all the health and wellbeing benefits that sport brings. The fund will be led by Sport Wales.
£1m Creative Wales fund will provide support for grassroots music venues to respond to immediate pressures (up to £25K per business), and additional support for the TV and publishing sector to allow it to consider future opportunities. Examples will include working on new content ideas for TV and new digital experiences
£1m Cultural Resilience Fund for museums, collections, conservation services, archives and community and public libraries to respond to short-term pressures and recovery actions on a grant application basis.
£750k Emergency Relief Fund to support the smallest and most vulnerable independent sector sport, museum and heritage organisations with cash flow and other critical issues. This includes two grant programmes administered by the Welsh Museums Federation and Sport Wales.
£250k Digital Library Resources, which will enable public libraries to provide additional digital resources to the public and gives people resources to read and engage with whilst self-isolating.

The Deputy Minister said:

“We’ve listened to our many stakeholders in these vulnerable sectors. These are uncertain times for business and organisations across Wales and we recognise the massive and unprecedented challenges coronavirus is having on the fabric of Welsh life.

“The Welsh Government is committed to doing everything possible to support the resilience, creativity and partnership which is being shown by the sector.

“I’d like to thank our partner organisations for working with us in delivering this additional package of support.

“Taking this further step will enable this sector to withstand this difficult time and to hopefully thrive again – and bring communities together once more when the emergency has passed.”