Drake Music has been awarded £85k as part of the Government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund (CRF) to help face the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic and to ensure a sustainable future.
Drake Music is one of 588 cultural and creative organisations across the country receiving urgently needed support – with £76 million of investment announced.
This follows £257 million awarded earlier in the week to 1,385 organisations, also from the Culture Recovery Fund grants programme being administered by Arts Council England on behalf of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
Carien Meijer, Chief Executive of Drake Music commented:
“Our communities of musicians, artists, producers, makers and music leaders are often marginalized, discriminated against and isolated – now more so than ever. And as we face a very tough winter, many Disabled people will need to continue to shield for the foreseeable future.
Since the start of the pandemic Drake Music has experienced difficulty reaching a substantial segment of our communities. There is little or no infrastructure to support Disabled people who do not have access to the internet, do not own digital devices and/or who cannot make music without face-to-face support and access to instruments.
During these challenging times music is a vital source of comfort, self-expression and community. This support from ACE, the government and tax payers will enable us to design and pilot new resources and initiatives to re-connect with Disabled musicians of all ages who – for various reasons, including digital poverty – have been unable to access music-making since the beginning of lockdown in March of this year.
As a Disabled-led organisation we are passionate about music and about access, equality, innovation and experimentation. The Culture Recovery grant will enable Drake Music to continue to advocate for, collaborate with and support Disabled music-makers, meeting everyone’s musical, creative and access requirements in person-centred ways. This money will allow us to re-imagine and adapt our projects and programmes to ensure they remain relevant, exciting and safe.
We are Here For Culture. We are here for Disabled people. We are here for our communities, for disability arts and Disabled artists. We will continue to do everything we can to work intersectionally and make our activity accessible to all.”
Chair, Arts Council England, Sir Nicholas Serota, said:
“Culture is an essential part of life across the country, helping to support people’s wellbeing through creativity and self-expression, bringing communities together, and fuelling our world class creative industries.
This latest set of awards from the Culture Recovery Fund builds on those announced recently and will help hundreds of organisations to survive the next few months, ensuring that the cultural sector can bounce back after the crisis. We will continue doing everything we can to support artists and cultural and creative organisations, with further funding to be announced in the coming weeks.”
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