Music Venue Trust (MVT) has announced a major new funding initiative, which will provide grants of up to £5,000 for UK grassroots music venues.
This new fund has been established with the support of members of the Music Venues Alliance, and its launch has been funded by donations from ticket sales of MVT’s recent ‘Revive Live’ programme of gigs around the UK, which was a partnership with The National Lottery.
The Pipeline Investment Fund is now open for small scale grant applications (up to £5,000) from UK Based Grassroots Music Venues to support two key areas of work:
Small scale capital applications; including lights, sound, access, ventilation and minor building alterations. Staff and Training; workforce diversification, succession planning, skills development and strengthening local community ties. The fund will prioritise support for organisations who may be excluded from other available funding.
Funding is open to all venue operators and organisations that meet any of the three definitions of a Grassroots Music Space, which can be found on the MVT website here.
Applications are open now via the membership portal for MVA members and a simplified application process can be found here, or requests for an application pack can be sent to info@musicvenuetrust.com
Music Venue Trust is actively seeking further donations, particularly from the wider music industry, to maintain and expand the Pipeline Investment Fund and make it a permanent source of support for Grassroots Music Venues. Please contact ozlem@musicvenuetrust.com for details of how this work can be supported.
Mark Davyd said: “We have been working on music industry based funding support for Grassroots Music Venues since 2018. The launch of the Pipeline Investment Fund is an important indication of how the grassroots sector supports and nurtures each other. It provides a targeted opportunity for individuals, companies and organisations right across the industry to get involved and provide direct and meaningful financial assistance to the venues which support artists to launch and build their careers. We hope that the industry will see this as a real chance to make a genuine difference.”
Following a dramatic 28% reduction in the number of shows taking place in the grassroots circuit in the last year, nearly 50,000 fewer shows in the last 12 months than in the same period in 2019, Music Venue Trust has also called on PRS For Music and The Arts Council to continue providing support to the grassroots live music sector at its annual ‘Venues Day’ gathering, which took place in London on 18 October 2022.
Addressing delegates at Venues Day, MVT CEO Mark Davyd said: “This is the wrong time to take money out of the grassroots ecosystem, whether that’s for venues, for artists, or for touring. We strongly urge PRS for Music and Arts Council England to think again. The number of opportunities for new and emerging artists to perform is absolutely vital to the future health of UK live music, and we need to see those opportunities financially supported more than ever before. This is not the time for cuts to funding.”