Viva La Visa receives lifeline grant from Government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund
Viva La Visa has been awarded £75,000 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 they have a sustainable future; the Culture Secretary has announced.
Viva La Visa is one of 588 cultural and creative organisations across the country receiving urgently needed support – with £76 million of investment announced today. 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. Further rounds of funding in the cultural and heritage sector are due to be announced over the coming weeks.
Andy Corrigan created Viva La Visa in 2009 following a career as a musician and touring veteran, he wanted to ensure that tour managers have access to assistance when navigating the minefield of visas and work permits. As visa specialists for the entertainment industry, Viva La Visa has been hit hard by the Coronavirus pandemic, especially as international touring – the life blood of the company – disappeared virtually overnight. Viva La Visa offers invaluable support services to the music, theatre, TV, and film industry among other sectors, by providing comprehensive information to ensure the best chance of success with all applications. Without this funding, Viva La Visa’s future looked pretty bleak, but now we can be sure that we’ll still be here into 2022 and will be able to support our touring colleagues as things normalise.
Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said:
“This is more vital funding to protect cultural gems across the country, save jobs and prepare the arts to bounce back. Through Arts Council England we are delivering the biggest ever investment in the arts in record time. Hundreds of millions of pounds are already making their way to thousands of organisations.
“These awards build on our commitment to be here for culture in every part of the country.”
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.”