News: Live Theatre announces an award of £249,000 from the Weston Culture Fund

Live Theatre announces an award of £249,000 from the Weston Culture Fund

Live Theatre, Newcastle is delighted to announce the award of a grant of £249,000 from the Weston Culture Fund.

The money awarded will be used to help Live Theatre to continue and build upon an exciting creative programme to support new and emerging writers, freelance theatre makers, children and young people. 

Image: Stephen Oliver

Jim Beirne, Chief Executive, Live Theatre commented: “This is excellent news. Myself and the team at Live Theatre are so excited to have received this generous award from the Weston Culture Fund. The award will enable us to take forward our creative programme projects, commissioning and staging new performances and productions, developing original works from our Live Theatre Bursary winners, implementing community outreach activities, supporting and connecting with children and young people and volunteers through Live Tales and engaging with our talented freelance theatre makers.”

Philippa Charles, Director of Garfield Weston said: “Our cultural sector is at the heart of our local communities providing not only entertainment but education and inspiration for many. Our Trustees were impressed by the entrepreneurial spirit shown across the arts in response to Covid-19 and it was a privilege to hear what organisations had been doing to not only survive but also to reinvent the way they reach audiences. What really stood out was the level of collaboration and support they had for each other and the determination to keep going, despite the increasingly difficult situation.

We all want and need our cultural sector to thrive and, if anything, our time away from the arts has shown just how important they are to us – bringing much needed pleasure and enrichment to our lives. Arts organisations are desperate to re-open and get back to what they do best, and we hope that this new funding will help many of them do exactly that.”

Jim Beirne added: “Throughout the challenging Covid-19 Pandemic the team at Live Theatre has continued to work creatively behind the scenes to support the theatre sector and to bring new works to audiences.  Live Theatre’s digital programme Live Wired has seen the critically acclaimed 10 Minutes To… and 5 Plays of Christmas shared and viewed widely on digital platforms and we are about to commence our popular Introduction To Playwriting Course. Thanks to the Weston Culture Fund we can look forward to 2021 and beyond.”

For more information on Live Theatre go to: www.live.org.uk