THE Arts Council has provided a £68,000 cash boost for two well known groups in Newcastle.
The resort’s popular Community Cinema has secured £55,366 and the Glees Musical Society has been given £13,045 under the so-called stability and renewal programme for organisations affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
Almost £11m in funding is being distributed by the Arts Council to support 168 cultural organisations across the province affected by the pandemic.
The stability and renewal programme is part of the £29m NI Executive allocation that was made to the Department for Communities to support the arts, culture, heritage and language sectors which have been severely impacted by Covid.
Both Newcastle Community Cinema and the Newcastle Glee Singers were among the 168 groups offered grants to help them respond to the continuing negative impact of the crisis, with the support programme specifically designed to stabilise organisations financially to prevent closure and/or to allow continued delivery of outcomes, and support renewal plans.
Since its inception 11 years ago, Newcastle Community Cinema has grown from its humble beginnings, screening films once a month in rented community halls, to taking on an unused church hall in Main Street in the resort and converting it into a unique cinematic and arts space. NCC — as it is more commonly known — has developed a unique brand of immersive cinema experiences blending screenings that entertain, challenge and raise awareness of important social issues.
In addition, it creates memorable cultural events including the annual Full Moon Film Festival, a long weekend of film, events and workshops.
NCC also curates a schools programme with Into Film and participates in the group’s annual film festival and also runs a number of programmes alongside students studying moving image arts courses in local schools.,encouraging students to engage and programme their own
films screenings to showcase their own work.
Over the years NCC has collaborated with Belfast Film Festival, Cinemagic, the Soma Music Festival, Belfast Culture Night, Sunflower Festival, QFT, Strand Arts, Access Cinema, Cinema for All and Into Film.
It also represents community cinemas and film societies on the NI Film Hub steering group and in 2012 and 2013, NCC won the British Federation of Film Societies ‘Film Society of the Year’ award.
Confirmation of the cash boost for the Glee Singers comes as members and friends of the organisation are currently are involved in an innovative fundraiser that runs until the end of this month.
A fundraising target of £2,000 was passed just after four days after the initiative was launched, with donations continuing to pour in.
While the coronavirus has forced the curtain to come down on live performances at the group’s base at the historic Annesley Hall in the resort, members have donned their running and walking gear to raise money to carry out much-needed work at the building.
They are being joined on their fundraising crusade by family and friends who will also take to the roads to run, walk or cycle 5km a day all this month to help generate crucial funding to help maintain and safeguard the future of the iconic hall.
The fundraising target was set to help maintain the safety of the Society’s ancestral home and to carry out a swathe of modifications to make the building safe for performers and audiences post-Covid.
And with the fundraising total steadily increasing, the Glees are delighted as the cash will help ease the bills that they are facing and meet the hall’s annual running costs of £12,000. They say that every penny raised counts.
Arts Council chief executive Roisín McDonough, said the £11m funding that will benefit 168 cultural organisations is as a result of Stormont communities minister Deirdre Hargey making the emergency funding available.
She said the money was needed to help stabilise the wider arts, cultural and entertainment sectors in these difficult times and to plan for eventual recovery.
Ms Hargey said the arts and creative sectors had been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic and that this financial support was vital to stabilise some organisations and prevent many from closing permanently.
She added: “This funding will eliminate deficits which organisations have accumulated from April 1 2020 because of reductions in income, coupled with unavoidable ongoing costs.
“The arts and creative industries have an important role to play in helping us all emerge from this pandemic, and this support is designed to stabilise organisations until they can reopen and resume delivering their important benefits to our community.”
Ms Hargey said the closure of theatres and venues, the cancellation of festivals and events and the disappearance of live audiences had been devastating to those who work within these sectors.