Iconic venue Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club and the London Venue Group are among a number of arts organisations to receive distributions from the latest round of the government’s Culture Recovery Fund.

In the latest round, over £18 million in funding will go to eight arts and cultural organisations across the country. This funding builds on £75 million in grants over £1 million for venues such as Shakespeare’s Globe and the Sheffield Crucible last month. 

Legendary London venue, Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, is set to receive £1,272,631 to ‘explore streamed performance opportunities’ for emerging and established British musicians.

Furthermore, the London Venue Group will receive £2,358,902 to maintain well-known venues in the capital during closure and enable them to explore streaming options in the future. Omeara, The Social and Lafayette, the group’s main spaces in the capital, offer a vital platform for grassroot musicians and host a variety of record label showcases and some of the leading rising artists in UK music. These venues served as a launchpad for some of the UK’s biggest artists, from Adele and the Chemical Brothers to Ella Eyre and James Bay.

Academy Music Group, London, is set to benefit from £2,981,431, which will help meet the operating costs of 20 leading live music venues across the country, including O2 Academy venues in London, Leeds and Liverpool. The 20 English music venues within the Academy Music Group organise around 3,000 events every year, hosting concerts from some of the world’s biggest acts, including Ed Sheeran, Beyonce, Coldplay, Madonna and Dua Lipa.

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Meanwhile, The Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury, will receive £2,999,999 in grant funding to cover core operating costs during the pandemic and help the theatre prepare for reopening in Spring 2021.

Culture Secretary, Oliver Dowden, said: “These grants will help the places that have shaped our skylines for hundreds of years and that continue to define culture in our towns and cities. From St Paul’s and Ronnie Scott’s to The Lowry and Durham Cathedral, we’re protecting heritage and culture in every corner of the country to save jobs and ensure it can bounce back strongly.”

Sir Nicholas Serota, Chair, Arts Council England, added: “Culture makes a huge and increasing contribution to our national life, bringing communities together, fuelling our creative industries, and representing our country on the world stage. These grants add to those announced last month, and will put these organisations in a better position to bounce back and help their communities recover from this crisis. The Arts Council is grateful to the government for the special support being made available to the arts and culture through the Culture Recovery Fund and we’re proud to support all the organisations receiving awards today.”

The government’s Culture Recovery Fund is a £1.57 billion investment in the protection of the UK’s arts and culture organisations. Regular rounds of distributions are awarded to music venues, theatres, museums and historical sites.

The previous round of funding saw five music venues among the beneficiaries: Fabric (£1.5 million), Bournemouth’s BH Live (£2.4m), North Music Trust (£1.8m), which runs Sage Gateshead, Performances Birmingham Ltd (£2.5m), and the ACC Liverpool Group (£2.9m). A number of music-related organisations, such as venues, promoters and festivals, were included in earlier rounds of funding.