Culture sector charities are being urged to apply for a £25m fund set up to help tackle income losses amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Garfield Weston Foundation is to launch the Weston Culture Fund on 5 October to suppor mid to large scale cultural organisations.

It aims to help them “restart work, re-engage with audiences, adapt to changed circumstances and generate revenue” and is specifically for charities that before the Covid-19 pandemic had an annual income of £500,000 ore more.

The closing date for applications will be 9 November and decisions regarding successful bids will be made by the end of January 2021.

Arts, culture and heritage charities have been particularly impacted by the pandemic due to loss of revenue during lockdown through closures and restricted vistitor numbers.

Last week Historic Royal Palaces, which manages among others the Tower of London, announced plans for 145 redundancies to meet Covid-19 income losses.

Meanwhile the charity overseeing the heritage of the Bletchley Park Second World War code breakers is considering reducing its workforce by a third.

In addition, the National Trust revealed that it is considering 1,200 redundancies.

According to research released by New Philanthropy Capital charities working in arts and culture had seen almost 3,000 redundancies due to the health crisis.

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