Liverpool’s Royal Court to receive over £500k from Arts Council England’s Capital Investment Programme

The Royal Court will use their capital grant of £551,200 to make the theatre fit for the future by improving access for audiences and participants, upgrading equipment and technology and improving its environmental sustainability.

The Arts Council England Capital Investment Programme is an open access programme to support cultural organisations to adjust buildings and equipment so that they can operate safely post pandemic and improve access, seize on technological opportunities, and reduce environmental impact.

The grant will allow the theatre to move forward with a number of different projects with long term sustainability in mind. Solar panels are planned for the roof and a new electric van will be purchased to replace the current diesel version. A long planned air cooling system can now be installed which will be a huge benefit to audiences in the summer months.

There are also plans to re-instate the theatre’s projection room with a new film projector to be purchased. This will allow the showing of films in the main auditorium with a classic film series in the pipeline aimed at a similar audience to the theatre’s Variety Lunch Club attendees.

Another part of the grant will be spent on upgrading the audio description equipment and purchasing a captioning system to make all shows more accessible to those with hearing difficulties.

They are among the first recipients of Arts Council England’s new Capital Investment Programme, which was announced last year and is designed to enable cultural institutions and companies to respond to the impact of Covid-19. The money will enable them to upgrade their buildings and equipment to become safer, improve access and reduce their environmental impact.

Supporting capital projects would help ensure the resilience and long-term stability of England’s cultural infrastructure, the Arts Council said.

ACE said it used its list of priority places to guide the decision making and had invested 78% of the funding outside London.

Gillian Miller, Chief Executive Of Liverpool’s Royal Court, said:

“We are delighted to receive this grant from Arts Council England to continue our journey to making Liverpool’s Royal Court fit for the future.  Support will enable us to purchase more equipment for our theatre set-building workshop in Everton, an electric van four touring our work into schools and to re-instate the projector room in the beautiful art deco theatre auditorium so we can develop a daytime film programme.  The funding will also help us to make the theatre more accessible and welcoming for audiences and participants and improve our unique theatre experience for all.  Our Board and staff would like to thank all at Arts Council England for their continuing support for Liverpool’s Royal Court Theatre.”

Darren Henley, Chief Executive, Arts Council England, said:

 “World-class creativity and culture needs a resilient and sustainable infrastructure to allow it to flourish. With these investments in the buildings, equipment and digital systems of cultural organisations across England, we are helping to secure the future of that infrastructure and making sure that people from every part of the country can continue enjoying all the benefits it delivers for years to come.”

For more information please contact Iain Christie – iain@liverpoolsroyalcourt.com