North East venues get £4.8m to help recovery

Two North East venues have been given a combined £4.8m from the Government as part a scheme to help arts and culture recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Newcastle's Theatre Royal has been awarded £3m the Cultural Recover Fund and Sage Gateshead has been given £1.8m.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport and Arts Council England have announced that 35 of the country’s major arts and cultural organisations have received grants between £1 and £3m from the Government’s £1.57 billion fund. 

This comes after £334m of funding was awarded to nearly 2,000 cultural organisations earlier this year.

More grants are due to be announced in the next few weeks.  

The funding has been welcomed by both venues.

Philip Bernays, Chief Executive, Newcastle Theatre Royal, said:

Sage Gateshead Managing Director, Abigail Pogson, added: 

Both pointed out that the venues still faced a great deal of uncertainty in the longer-term.

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said: