Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to support the arts and culture industry in Coventry as they begin to commemorate Coventry as the city of culture 2021.

The Government recognises the huge contribution the arts and culture sector makes, not only to the economy and international reputation of the UK, but also to the wellbeing and enrichment of its people. It is for this reason that we have invested an unprecedented £1.57 billion, the biggest ever one-off cash injection, into UK culture to tackle the crisis facing our most loved arts organisations and heritage sites across the country including Coventry, which will be our next City of Culture. The Culture Recovery Fund has awarded over £6 million in funding to arts and heritage organisations in Coventry to help support them through the current Covid-19 outbreak.

The Government has supported Coventry City of Culture Trust (the organisation responsible for planning and delivering the programme) with an investment of £15m for capital and resource projects. In addition, Arts Council England, has allocated £3.4m to support Coventry’s success as City of Culture.

The arts and cultural sector is instrumental to Coventry’s success and the Trust has employed local arts freelancers, invested in cultural infrastructure and, during the first lockdown, initiated a £100k resilience fund for the local arts community. In addition, through its programming, the Trust has provided a much needed injection of funding into the sector and supported artists in the region, nationally and internationally.

Coventry North West has received four awards totalling £221,063 from the Culture Recovery Funds: Mercurial Arts Limited received £64,548; The Highlife Centre received 2 amounts of £79,515 and £61,000; and the Canal and River Trust received £16,000.