We are thrilled to announce that we have received funding from the government’s #CultureRecoveryFund!
This will mean that Valcato Entertainment will have a level of financial security through the winter to enable us to invest into our touring productions, support our hardworking cast, crew and venue partners and help expand our Live Streaming and community outreach programmes.
Hooray for Culture!
This latest funding follows on from the Small Business Grant Fund scheme that we recieved a payment from in April, allowing us to keep the lights on and our enquiry lines open throughout the Summer months; after losing more than £94,500 in cancelled and postponed bookings as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
We are proud to remain a small, family run independent production company, and we’re particularly proud of the joy we bring to audiences around the world with our touring productions. However, without vital support these financial losses would have been unsustainable, and despite our best efforts to restructure the business, cut costs and reduce overheads, we faced the very real prospect of closure. As a husband and wife team that welcomed our first child into the world in April, this would have had a devastating effect on our family, not to mention the families of our performance cast and technical crew; all of whom have lost work not just from us, but from other productions and events as a result.
We are one of 1,385 cultural organisations across the country set to receive a lifesaving financial boost from the government £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund to help them through the coronavirus pandemic. We feel exceedingly privileged and lucky to be one of the few, and want to ensure that this funding benefits not only us, but the wider community too.
The funding will be split into five main strands and will allow us to
- Book rehearsal space and cover paid rehearsal time for our cast and crew, allowing us to re-space and redevelop our shows to be covid-secure, and to provide vital new technical equipment to allow us to work fully self-contained in more venues; removing our reliance on shared equipment and facilities.
- Provide a subsidy scheme for our touring productions, allowing struggling venues coping with reduced capacities to book at a discounted rate, allowing venues to re-introduce live entertainment to limited audiences, whilst allowing us to pay our cast and crew their full day-rate.
- Purchase new live streaming technology, allowing our productions and venue partners to find new audiences and revenue streams by offering ‘hybrid’ shows; with limited live audiences and a wider online audience watching from home.
- Overhaul our website and social media offering to support our new streaming services and raise our profile to reach out to and work with new venues, creatives and clients.
- Expand our existing Film-First Community Outreach programme in the areas of Stoke on Trent and Newcastle Under Lyme, allowing local filmmakers and creatives to avail of free and discounted equipment hire services; to capture their stories using industry-leading video, sound and lighting equipment.
The Cultural Recovery Fund will enable us to do all this and more, providing a secure future for our business, and for our hardworking cast and crew.
Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said:
“This funding is a vital boost for the theatres, music venues, museums and cultural organisations that form the soul of our nation. It will protect these special places, save jobs and help the culture sector’s recovery.
“These places and projects are cultural beacons the length and breadth of the country. This unprecedented investment in the arts is proof this government is here for culture, with further support to come in the days and weeks ahead so that the culture sector can bounce back strongly.”
Chair, Arts Council England, Sir Nicholas Serota, said:
“Theatres, museums, galleries, dance companies and music venues bring joy to people and life to our cities, towns and villages. This life-changing funding will save thousands of cultural spaces loved by local communities and international audiences. Further funding is still to be announced and we are working hard to support our sector during these challenging times.”
