The Clore Duffield Foundation has announced grants totalling £8.2m to fund 11 creative learning spaces for children and young people across England.
Grants range from £125,000 to £2.5m and will go to cultural organisations such as museums, galleries and heritage sites creating six Clore Learning Studios, one interactive gallery for children under five and four Clore Learning Centres.
The grants take the total sum given to charity by Dame Vivien Duffield, chair of the foundation, to £400m - £200m to UK charities and £200m to organisations in Israel – since she inherited her father’s fortune 32 years ago.
She said: “I am delighted that we have been able to support such outstanding projects created by some of the best architects, in museums, galleries and theatres across the country – even in a royal palace. Now more than ever, I believe that culture should be at the heart of our children’s learning.”
The new learning spaces will be located at the Donmar Warehouse, the Holburne Museum, Kensington Palace, Kettle’s Yard, the Museum of Liverpool, the National Theatre, the Porthcurno Telegraph Museum, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Tate Britain, the Turner Contemporary, and the Whitworth Gallery.
The grants were made as part of an ongoing programme - there are now 42 Clore learning spaces or centres throughout England, Scotland and Wales and the foundation has invested over £23m in them since 2000. Dame Vivien said it was important to note that just four of the new projects are in London while seven are elsewhere in England:
“There has been a lot of comment that it is easier to raise money in London, that most philanthropy for the arts is London-based,” she said. “Even though we are a London-based charity we think it’s very important that we get outside of London to support access to the arts everywhere else too.”
The foundation’s director Sally Bacon added the announcement was not driven by any desire to respond to cuts to the government’s arts budget but she said the foundation recognised cultural institutions were facing threats and wanted to ensure that learning by children and young people did not suffer. “We would be concerned if we saw organisations retreating from that agenda.”
Dame Vivien added: “I’ve always felt it is the duty of philanthropists not to fill in for what the government could be doing but to do things the government really can’t do,” she said. “We’re not the staple diet, we’re the icing on the cake.”
New £1m poetry and literature grants programme
The Clore Duffield Foundation has also launched a new funding programme worth £1m over the next five years. The Clore Poetry and Literature Awards have been created with the aim of providing children and young people with opportunities to experience literature and poetry in exciting and compelling ways, in and out of school.
These Clore Awards aim to support organisations and schools in trying out new ways to engage children and young people in poetry, literature and creative writing, both now and in the future. They follow previous similar programmes around performing arts and visual arts.
Schools, further education colleges, community groups, libraries and literature organisations, and other arts/cultural organisations are able to apply. The £1m will be spent in two funding rounds per year, 2011 to 2015. The maximum amount any applicant can apply for is £10,000.
Additional reporting by Kirsty Weakley
