“More than £165m in emergency loans to some of the UK’s biggest arts and heritage organizations have been announced to ensure they survive the pandemic,” writes Mark Brown in Thursday’s (12/10) Guardian (U.K.). “The Royal Opera House will get £21.7m, the National Theatre £19.7m, the Royal Shakespeare Company £19.4m, the Royal Albert Hall £20.7m, the Southbank Centre £10.9m and English National Opera £8.5m. In total, 11 ‘nationally and internationally significant organizations’ … will get the loans. Each will have an initial repayment holiday of up to four years, a low interest rate and a repayment term of up to 20 years. The loans are one of the final pieces of the jigsaw in the government’s £1.57bn cultural recovery fund to help a sector which has been one of the hardest hit by the pandemic…. Edward Gardner, principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, said … ‘This support will help our mission to bring the most adventurous music making to the most people.’ … None of the organizations see the loans as a panacea. Alex Beard, chief executive of the Royal Opera House, said … ‘the road ahead is not smooth for our industry.’ ”
Change font size
