Cabinet members and councillors at Conservative-run East Sussex have joined local cultural leaders in welcoming the news that a number of organisations in the County are set to benefit from more than £8 million of Government funding to support arts and heritage.
Arts Council England announced its 2023 to 2025 investment commitments including eight organisations in the county which will between them receive a total of £8.3 million; a 25 per cent increase for the county since the last spending round.
The organisations to benefit from this investment are;
- Project Art Works in Hastings, which works with people with complex needs
- Hastings Contemporary
- De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill
- Glyndebourne
- Towner Eastbourne, which is hosting the Turner Prize in 2023
- Hastings-based Home Live Art
- Devonshire Collective in Eastbourne, a cultural and community organisation
- Hastings Borough Council-run Hastings Museum and Art Gallery
Devonshire Collective and Hastings Museum and Art Gallery are the newest East Sussex organisations to secure a three-year funding arrangement.
Welcoming the news, Conservative counicillor Rupert Simmons, East Sussex County Council’s lead member for economy said: “This is fantastic news for the individual organisations and for East Sussex as a whole. This significant investment in our cultural sector will help to secure jobs, ensure work for our creative freelancers, keep our venues open and bring great experiences to our residents and visitors.
“East Sussex County Council champions all of the cultural sector through the East Sussex Cultural Strategy and Culture East Sussex and values all the organisations in the county that add to our quality of life, support our physical and mental wellbeing, give marginalised communities a voice, protect and celebrate our heritage and help to contribute to our visitor economy.”
The successful organisations have gone through a rigorous application process, providing a detailed three-year business plan, plans for how they will work with their local community, how they will uphold diversity and inclusion, how they will adopt or improve their environmentally responsible practices and how they have and will maintain excellent standards in programming.
