Solway Aviation Museum at Carlisle Lake District Airport has received a grant of £17,000 from the Government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund to help the organization recover and reopen.
Nearly £400 million has been awarded to thousands of cultural organizations across the country, including Solway Aviation Museum, in the latest round of support from the Culture Recovery Fund, the Culture Secretary announced today.
Solway Aviation Museum is the only Aviation Museum in Cumbria and draws visitors from across the country and a growing number of international visitors.
It is home to several rare aircraft, including an Avro Vulcan B2 bomber and a Sikorsky S-55 Whirlwind helicopter, and is on the site of the former WW2 airfield of RAF Crosby-on-Eden.
The grant will be used to create an aircraft heritage adventure trail at the museum, implement an online booking system, increase the museum’s advertising reach and assist with the additional energy costs that keeping the museum well-ventilated will entail.
Over £800 million in grants and loans has already been awarded to support almost 3,800 cinemas, performance venues, museums, heritage sites and other cultural organizations dealing with the immediate challenges of the coronavirus pandemic.
This brings the Government’s total investment across grants, capital and repayable finance from the Culture Recovery Fund so far to more than £1.2 billion across over 5,000 individual cultural and heritage organizations and sites.
The second round of awards made today will help organizations to look ahead to the spring and summer and plan for reopening and recovery. After months of closures and cancellations to contain the virus and save lives, this funding will be a much-needed helping hand for organizations transitioning back to normal in the months ahead.
Culture Secretary, Oliver Dowden, said:
Our record-breaking Culture Recovery Fund has already helped thousands of culture and heritage organizations across the country survive the biggest crisis they’ve ever faced.
Now we’re staying by their side as they prepare to welcome the public back through their doors – helping our cultural gems plan for reopening and thrive in the better times ahead.
Solway Aviation Museum Chairman, Dougie Kerr, said:
We are really pleased to have secured this Culture Recovery Fund grant. We have already been able to complete most of the work to make the museum Covid-secure, including with grant money from the first round of funding, but this will help us go the extra mile. Nearly all of our income comes from visitors, and it’s been 18 months now since we closed the museum’s doors at the end of the 2019 season.
Without the funding we’ve received, we would really have struggled to make the visitor experience as safe as our supporters deserve. The museum is already looking fantastic for the start of the new season, and we are looking forward to welcoming visitors from Friday the 28th May.
Duncan Wilson, Chief Executive of Historic England, said:
The value of our heritage sites and the people who run them has been amply demonstrated, as they have provided an anchor for so many of us through the dark days of the last year. Vital grants from the Culture Recovery Fund have helped them survive and will now help them recover, as the places we all cherish start to reopen in the months ahead.
The funding awarded today is from a £400 million pot which was held back last year to ensure the Culture Recovery Fund could continue to help organizations in need as the public health picture changed. The funding has been awarded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Historic England, as well as the British Film Institute and Arts Council England.
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About Historic England
We are Historic England, the public body that helps people care for, enjoy and celebrate England’s spectacular historic environment, from beaches and battlefields to parks and pie shops. We protect, champion and save the places that define who we are and where we’ve come from as a nation.
We care passionately about the stories they tell, the ideas they represent and the people who live, work and play among them. Working with communities and specialists, we share our passion, knowledge and skills to inspire interest, care and conservation, so everyone can keep enjoying and looking after the history that surrounds us all.