Today Arts Council of Wales opens the second round of its Urgent Response Fund for Individuals. The fund is an important part of the Arts Council’s overall support to the country’s creative community during the Covid-19 outbreak.
The second round of applications opens just over a week after applications closed for the first round of the Fund, with over 280 artists applying for support in the first round. This next round of applications closes at 5pm on 6th May.
The Urgent Response Fund for Individuals is for freelance creative practitioners who are experiencing financial hardship or loss of income due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This is short‑term emergency funding to enable individuals to survive financially and creatively.
The Fund helps individuals to meet their most urgent financial needs while they explore the potential help available from Government schemes or from other ways of sustaining their activities.
The Urgent Response Fund is a strand of the Arts Resilience Fund, set-up by Arts Council of Wales with the Welsh Government, with funding from the National Lottery and contributions from Tŷ Cerdd, Literature Wales and the Freelands Foundation. The overall value of the Arts Resilience Fund is £7.5m.
Nick Capaldi, Chief Executive of Arts Council of Wales, said:
“Arts Council of Wales wants to give individual artists and arts organisations the best chance of surviving the Covid-19 emergency, to get back on their feet and help them to sustain themselves through the coming months.
“We hope that the comprehensive package of support that we are offering will help the many individuals and creative freelancers who are really struggling and facing great hardship due to the Covid-19 crisis.”