Following high demand for funding support across the arts and cultural sectors, the Welsh Labour government has made a further £10.7 million available to support organisations and individuals during the pandemic, taking the total funding package available through the Cultural Recovery Fund to £63.7 million.

This is in addition to an £18 million portfolio package provided in April, which was delivered by Welsh Government, Arts Council of Wales, Creative Wales and Sport Wales.

The announcement comes as many organisations and individuals are already benefiting from the Cultural Recovery Fund. This additional funding will be targeted towards the large number of applications, which have already been received by the Welsh Government – supporting organisations in the cultural, creative, events and heritage sectors – to ensure this money reaches more parts of the sector as quickly as possible.

The funding will be used to open a third phase of the successful Freelancer Fund which will see a further £3.5 million being made available nationwide across all local authority areas from 10am on Monday 23 November to freelancers in the creative sector.

The £7 million Freelancer Fund has already supported 2,800 freelancers with a grant of £2,500 each. This additional funding will support a further 1,400 people.

To date more than £30 million has been distributed through the Welsh Government’s Cultural Recovery Fund, with the Arts Council of Wales allocating a £20 million package for the sector last month.

Finance Minister Rebecca Evans said:

“We recognise and understand the financial challenges that the sector is continuing to face. The additional funding we are announcing today will boost the level of support that we have already provided to help the industry to survive these unprecedented times and recover, post-pandemic.”