The Margate School receives grant from Government’s £1.57bn Culture Recovery Fund

The Margate School is among more than 2,700 recipients to benefit from the latest round of awards from the £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund.

This award will help The Margate School to adjust our creative hub and educational art provision in line with COVID compliance rules.

The Margate School in Margate, Kent has received a grant of £67,500 from the Government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund to help the organisation recover and reopen.

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

The Margate School (TMS) will utilise the fund to sustain our creative and educational provision in and for Margate, including additional development work for adapting our provision, additional marketing and business development work, a better online presence and adaptation of resources, an improved physical environment that can better cope with potential continued restrictions, a professional live streaming platform. It will help us to continue to reach out to our local communities and consolidate our commitment to expand our creative apprenticeships alongside our MA provision.

Over £800 million in grants and loans has already been awarded to support almost 3,800 cinemas, performance venues, museums, heritage sites and other cultural organisations dealing with the immediate challenges of the coronavirus pandemic.

The second round of awards made today will help organisations to look ahead to the spring and summer and plan for reopening and recovery. After months of closures and cancellations to contain the virus and save lives, this funding will be a much-needed helping hand for organisations transitioning back to normal in the months ahead.

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."

Hugo Fenwick, TMS Board Director, said: We welcome the Cultural Recovery Fund award, which not only will help The Margate School to progress its ambition as post-graduate liberal arts school and creative community hub in and for Margate but also have substantial impact on revitalising Margate’s High Street.

Uwe Derksen, TMS Founder and Director, said: The Cultural Recovery Fund comes at a crucial moment for our School’s and creative hub development right in the heart of Margate. The funding will allow us to build on our achievements offering the only European Masters degree in Fine Art in the country with our partners L’École Supérieure d’Art et Design Le Havre-Rouen, having MA students graduating for the first time in Margate and being the first creative organisation to offer creative apprenticeships in Margate. We hope that post lockdown we will again welcome similar visitor numbers to our exhibitions and community events as we did in 2019 and early 2020, which were around 16,000 visitors. We believe that this funding will also actively and implicitly support the Arts Council strategy Let’s Create by improving and diversifying access to a quality arts experience and grounded creative cross-disciplinary practice.

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.”

The funding awarded today is from a £400 million pot which was held back last year to ensure the Culture Recovery Fund could continue to help organisations in need as the public health picture changed. The funding has been awarded by Arts Council England, as well as Historic England and National Lottery Heritage Fund and the British Film Institute.