Westminster Council awards £320k to local arts projects

Westminster City Council has shared £320,000 across 39 local arts organisations through the council’s Community Grants programme.

The fund offers organisations up to £10,000 to deliver initiatives which improve residents’ access to arts and culture.

Recipients include Paddington Arts, which received funding to work with young people to create live performance for festivals in Queens Park, Westbourne and Paddington.

English National Opera (ENO) is benefiting from funding to stage ‘operettas’ on walking tours in August as part of the council’s annual Inside Out Festival.

The festival, which is focused around transporting artwork from galleries, libraries, theatres, and film to the outdoors, also features open air music performances at the National Gallery’s Summer on the Square this year and reached 250,000 residents in 2021.

“It was great to see the high number of bids we received for this funding, and the range of projects which will now be on offer to residents in Westminster,” Councillor Tim Roca, Cabinet Member for Young People, Learning and Leisure said.

“I am looking forward to the Inside Out festival this summer, to showcase some of these brilliant projects and get our residents and visitors excited about art and culture in the city.”