News Story
We’re delighted to announce that as a part of the Arts Everywhere Fund, we’ve received funding from the Creative Foundations Fund.
We’ve been awarded this funding to be able to urgently replace our failing 40 year old auditorium lighting infrastructure. An inspection last year deemed half the system unsafe, forcing costly temporary measures and increasing the risk of show disruption.
This project will install modern power, data and lighting systems that improve safety, energy efficiency and creative flexibility. This investment is essential to allowing us to continue our award winning programmes, protecting our business viability, and enabling continued collaboration with leading creatives while meeting the technical demands of high quality contemporary productions.
Claire Murray, Executive Director and Joint CEO of the Watermill said, “This vital investment in the theatre’s electrical infrastructure will improve the creativity we can bring to our production design, reduce our long-term costs, and perhaps most importantly will give us confidence that we can maintain our award-winning work for the future. We are enormously grateful to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and Arts Council England for this Creative Foundations Funding which will enable these essential works to happen within the next 12 months.”
The Arts Everywhere Fund is providing funding to cultural venues, local museums and libraries in our local area to ensure that everyone can access arts and culture in the places they call home.
In total, 130 organisations across the country are receiving a share of funding, marking the first projects receiving cash from the government’s Arts Everywhere Fund. As the cost of living continues to affect families across Britain, funding for these venues will help provide welcoming, affordable spaces for communities to visit, come together and celebrate what makes their local area special.
Other venues in our area receiving funding include, Theatre Royal Winchester, Whitchurch Silk Mill and Surrey Libraries, who will use a much needed cash boost to help open up access to facilities, complete building projects and upgrade technology on site.
