Significant boost for leisure-time music through Culture Recovery Fund

Making Music, the UK’s membership organisation for leisure-time music groups, is delighted to announce that it has been awarded a grant of £44,000 from the second round of the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund.

After a year of unprecedented disruption to leisure-time music, this grant will be timely in enabling Making Music, as its sector organisation, to continue its work supporting 3,500 member music groups across the UK, as well as advocating on behalf of the wider sector to help it pull through the pandemic and thrive.

Barbara Eifler, Making Music Chief Executive, said:

“The past 12 months have had a tremendous impact on leisure-time music groups, which has also been shared by Making Music as an organisation. We are therefore very grateful that our work and the importance of community-based music activity have been recognised with this grant.

It is especially wonderful that #HereForCulture in this instance means culture and creativity for and by everybody – the community choir and brass band, the amateur orchestra and the ukulele group, and all the other wonderful leisure-time music embedded in communities.”

More than £300 million has been awarded to thousands of cultural organisations across the country in this latest round of support from the £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund, the Culture Secretary announced today.

Culture Secretary, Oliver Dowden, said:

“Our record-breaking Culture Recovery Fund has already helped thousands of culture and heritage organisations across the country survive the biggest crisis they've ever faced.

Now we’re staying by their side as they prepare to welcome the public back through their doors - helping our cultural gems plan for reopening and thrive in the better times ahead.”

Sir Nicholas Serota, Chair, Arts Council England, said:

“Investing in a thriving cultural sector at the heart of communities is a vital part of helping the whole country to recover from the pandemic. These grants will help to re-open theatres, concert halls, and museums and will give artists and companies the opportunity to begin making new work.

We are grateful to the Government for this support and for recognising the paramount importance of culture to our sense of belonging and identity as individuals and as a society.”

Since the onset of the pandemic, Making Music has been continuously responding to the needs of its members by creating a host of resources and online events to help groups stay connected both musically and socially. The Making Music Virtual Concert Series, featuring lockdown performances by over 100 leisure-time music groups of all types, genres and abilities, has amassed over 30,000 total views online.

As lockdown rules ease across the UK, this grant will enable Making Music to step up its work for members and the leisure-time music sector to ensure a smooth and safe return to in-person activity. The organisation looks forward to helping leisure-time musicians to once again experience the joys and countless social, emotional and health benefits of live music making, and help the nation recover from a traumatic year.

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Making Music, 8 Holyrood Street, London SE1 2EL
020 7939 6030
info@makingmusic.org.uk
www.makingmusic.org.uk

Twitter: @MakingMusic_UK
Instagram: @makingmusicuk
Facebook: facebook.com/makingmusicuk
YouTube: youtube.com/makingmusic

Making Music, The National Federation of Music Societies
A company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales no. 308632
Registered Charity in England and Wales no. 249219 and in Scotland no. SC038849

Notes to editors

• Making Music has championed leisure-time music groups since 1935 across the UK with practical services, artistic development opportunities and by providing a collective voice for its members. We represent over 3,500 groups made up of around 190,000 musicians of all types, genres and abilities. We help them run their groups so they can get on with making music! www.makingmusic.org.uk
   
• Arts Council England is the national development agency for creativity and culture. It has set out a strategic vision in Let’s Create that by 2030 that England will be a country in which the creativity of each of us is valued and given the chance to flourish and where everyone of us has access to a remarkable range of high quality cultural experiences. It invests public money from Government and The National Lottery to help support the sector and to deliver this vision. www.artscouncil.org.uk

  Following the Covid-19 crisis, the Arts Council developed a £160 million Emergency Response Package, with nearly 90% coming from the National Lottery, for organisations and individuals needing support. It is also one of the bodies administering the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund. Find out more at www.artscouncil.org.uk/covid-19

  At the Budget, the Chancellor announced the £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund would be boosted with a further £300 million investment. Details of this third round of funding will be announced soon.
   

• #HereForCulture is a movement that unites the public, government and cultural organisations in support of our fantastic cinemas, theatres, music venues, museums, galleries and heritage. Whether on the global stage or quietly in our own lives, culture inspires, uplifts, comforts and entertains us.

  Now, in these challenging times, it’s the government’s turn to provide a lifeline and show our support. The government is #HereForCulture with an unprecedented amount of funding coming through on top of the furlough scheme, bounce-back loans and emergency grants. The public has been #HereForCulture as organisations have innovated online and outdoors. hereforculture.campaign.gov.uk