A Gloucester project is among thousands of good causes throughout the UK to share in more than £1 billion awarded by the National Lottery during the last year to support people and projects cope with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As the first anniversary of lockdown approaches, new figures revealed today show that over £1.2 billion of good causes funding has been awarded by The National Lottery in the UK during the last year, providing a much-needed boost for the arts, heritage, sport and community/charity sector.
The funding has helped protect the future for thousands of organisations across the UK during the last year.
Gloucester Culture Trust, spearheaded by Chief Executive Hollie Smith-Charles, are a small charity who champion the mantra of ‘connect, enable and champion’ and were awarded a £25,385 National Lottery grant by Arts Council England.
The project, which seeks to put Gloucester on the cultural map as part of a prudent ten-year strategy, have used the funding to develop a poetry walking trail called Of Earth And Sky, engage with new artists and widely distribute creative arts packs.
Gloucester Culture Trust have provided a vital creative outlet for people in the city and Hollie, whose poetry project developed 90,000 meaningful engagements across a ten-week period, hailed National Lottery players for keeping the arts alive.
Hollie said: “When the pandemic hit, our real fear was that momentum would be lost and the green shoots of change we’d seen emerging over the previous three years would die away.
“The role of culture in Gloucester and the value that it brings has been strengthened in the past year. The value that it brings to people’s lives has been much better understood – and our National Lottery funding has definitely helped to do that.
“The players are not only buying a ticket to try and win – they’re also funding amazing projects like ours to thrive and stay alive.
“It has made a huge difference to what we’ve been able to do and the activities we’ve been able to put on over the last 12 months – so thank you to all the ticket buyers.”
Gloucester Culture Trust is one of thousands of projects nationwide to have benefited from the £30 million raised by National Lottery players every week.
The £1.2 billion awarded by the National Lottery in the last year has gone towards thousands of initiatives and programmes designed to tackle loneliness and isolation, provide support for the elderly and vulnerable young people, and those promoting physical and mental health in the community.
Gloucester Culture Trust’s poetry trail engaged with 11 different funding partners across the city, while the project’s commitment to local residents and artists saw them distribute 2000 creative packs.”
The Trust used the funding to commission 14 artists to commission 25 different activities and Hollie says it’s laid the foundations for a brighter cultural future.
She added: “People can’t come to creativity so we took creativity to them.
“Our role is to connect, enable and champion – we coordinated art packs that could go out to people who would benefit most from them throughout the city.
“We want to empower people to be leaders within the arts themselves.
“I think there’s a real opportunity for the arts over the coming months. I think it’s positive, and there’ll be lots of activity happening to get Gloucester back up and running.”
To find out more about how The National Lottery supports good causes throughout the UK, visit www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk
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