Council speaks on support for Wigan artists and reopening The Fire Within

Wigan Council is inviting freelance artists and creative professionals to apply for grants from a £30,000 pot if they are suffering financial hardship due to the coronavirus.

And the town hall is preparing to reopen the exhibitions in The Galleries Shopping Centre which make up the headquarters of The Fire Within as well as launching the next stage in its five-year cultural manifesto.

The council says it can offer the grants, worth between £500 and £1,500, due to the pandemic meaning some planned spending did not happen.

The announcement was made as the Government put together a massive £1.57bn package for the culture sector, which was welcomed in the borough amid some questions and concerns about how much places such as Wigan will actually receive.

Town hall bosses also want to underline how important they feel the creative sector will be to Wigan’s long-term recovery from Covid-19 and its economy in the future.

Coun Chris Ready, portfolio holder for communities and culture at Wigan Council, said: “We feel we’ve done so much in culture over the past two years and there are a lot of practitioners and artists who have slipped through the net.

“We thought it was important to provide funding immediately because we don’t know what the Government’s timescale for its funding will be or how much groups and individuals here will receive.

“It’s only a small amount but we wanted to help people in these strange times and hopefully it will lead in to the Government money.”

The council asked artists across the borough to fill out a survey on how the pandemic had affected their income and their financial situation.

While many areas of the economy are currently struggling with an unclear path forward, it emerged that this was all the greater for those working in the arts.

Wigan’s culture scene has also struggled at times to meet the criteria for support given out at a UK-wide level.

Neil Harris, business manager for culture, arts and heritage, said: “The majority of their events and activities, particularly if they are performance-based, have had to be rescheduled now venues aren’t open.

“It’s the immediate shock of the loss of work and the lack of clarity due to following the social distancing guidelines on when that work may or may not pick back up again.

“The uncertainty they face continues to make this really difficult for them.

“We’ve also carried out an analysis of funding grants from national agencies and we know a number of artists and creative practitioners in the borough for one reason or another haven’t been able to secure money from some of those funds.”

Wigan Council is asking artists to explain the positive effect on their work that the money from the town hall funding pot will have.

The local authority also wants to know how creatives can help to further develop the aims of its ground-breaking five-year plan for culture.

However, it is not specifically commissioning work or saying that people must be involved in certain art forms to gain help.

Wigan Council says it sees the borough’s artistic talents as a key part of its future and still wants to build on the start of The Fire Within and the work done before Covid-19 and lockdown hit.

Lesley O’Halloran, assistant director of customer and culture at Wigan Council, said: “During the pandemic we’ve remained committed to supporting this sector, despite the uncertainty of these unprecedented times.

“We know how important it is going to be in our future recovery and we really appreciate the sector for the benefits it brings to everyone in our borough. We want to keep things going through difficult times. Before the pandemic we were working better than ever with our cultural sector.”

That includes getting culture enthusiasts returning to The Fire Within’s base in Wigan town centre.

The council says it hopes to reopen the art installations in The Galleries at the end of this month and give residents a last chance to see the current exhibition, Love Is A Rebellious Bird.

It is then hoped that in September the next part of the cultural manifesto, Digital Wigan, will be launched with another exhibition of local and regional talent again created by internationally-acclaimed artists Al and Al.

Mr Harris said: “It will really play with ideas of how digital is impacting on the arts and delve into the age of digital.

“We’re really excited about for the launch of the show. We won’t be able to have a big festival launch as we would love to do, but there is lots to come and it’s safe to say there will be things people haven’t seen before in the borough.”

Originally slated to begin in June, the rescheduled start date in autumn means Digital Wigan will run through until either April or May 2021.

The rescheduled programme will include a host of exclusive online content and give borough residents more opportunities to engage with culture and the arts through websites and the internet.

This is something arts bodies have been discovering a lot about over the last few months as they have tried to find ways to continue engaging with audiences when venue doors have to remain firmly shut.

The council praised the borough’s culture sector for its efforts, which have ranged from venues live streaming pre-recorded events to dance sessions being staged online.

For more information about Wigan Council’s support fund for artists struggling due to Covid-19, visit the firewithin.org.uk