Chichester theatre and gallery could get district council grant of £300k between them

The Festival Theatre and the Pallant House Gallery have received cultural grants of £187,500 and £130,000 respectively since 2018.

The funding had been extended to March 2024 to allow for the completion of a joint social and economic impact assessment between the theatre, gallery and the Novium Museum.

But the pandemic had skewed parts of the data, not giving a fair impression of what the three venues contributed to the district, so fresh data from January to December 2023 was gathered.

During a meeting of the district council’s cabinet on Tuesday (January 9) members were told that the assessment data was still being examined.

So they recommended that the grant funding be extended for another year.

The final decision about whether to do so will be made at the next meeting of the full council.

Jess Brown-Fuller, cabinet member for culture & events, explained that the grants were used to pay for the learning and education work conducted by the venues.

She added: “I was incredibly impressed to learn about all of the work Pallant House Gallery is doing – reaching out to areas of the community that wouldn’t have access to art provision.

“And with Chichester Festival Theatre [and] all of their work with the youth, especially school refusers and those with learning difficulties [and] Afghan families.

“They’ve got so many things happening at both that our funding goes towards making sure it’s delivered.”