Culture Recovery fund has thrown a lifeline to the Academy Music Group which runs the Forum, and the Lawn Road gallery which plans a display on ex resident Agatha Christie
North London music and heritage venues have been helped by large and small grants from the Government’s Culture Recovery fund.
The latest round of awards from the £1.57 billion fund to help cultural organisations through the pandemic includes hefty grants for legendary jazz venue Ronnie Scott’s and the Academy Music Group, which runs live music venues including the Forum in Kentish Town and the O2 Islington Academy.
In addition to nearly £3 million across their 20 venues there was £2.358 million for the
London Venue Group which includes the Lafayette in King’s Cross. Headed by Mumford and Sons’ Ben Lovett their venues provide a crucial platform for grassroots musicians and rising UK artists.
Both organisations “make a huge contribution to England’s cultural life, providing opportunities for audiences to experience a huge range of music and a platform for artists like The Chemical Brothers, Adele, Michael Kiwanuka, Liam Payne, James Bay,” said Arts Council England which has so far administered the grants to 2,000 arts and cultural organisations of all sizes.
Further down the scale Hampstead’s Isokon Gallery was awarded £12,900 under the Emergency Heritage at Risk Response Fund, to fund new exhibits, improved displays and conservation work on original items in the collection.
John Allan, Chairman of the Isokon Gallery Trust, said although their activities in 2020 had been “severely curtailed” they were confident about reopening in March 2021 with a special exhibition on notable Isokon resident Agatha Christie: “It is especially encouraging that in a sector dominated by major historic institutions this award has been made to support a small venue devoted to modern heritage and sustained by a network of committed (unpaid) volunteers,” he said.
The Gallery in Lawn Road tells the story of the pioneering Grade I modernist building which opened in 1934, and its distinguished residents including Bauhaus masters Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer and László Moholy-Nagy.
“It has received over 20,000 visitors from all over the world since opening in
2014 and continues to attract both a local and an international audience,” added Allan.
Full details of the Isokon Gallery at
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