Five international artists have been chosen as the shortlist to create an artistic landmark and signpost to the future of the London surburban new town of Thamesmead.

A £25m one-off one-month fund to help larger museums, performing and visual arts organisations hit by the Covid-19 pandemic has been announced by the Garfield Weston fund on Foundation.

The fund, opening on October 5 and closing on November 9, is open to arts organisations, galleries and museums with an annual income of at least £500,000 a year, with grants worth from £100,000 to £2m.

“The UK’s performing and visual arts are among the best on the world but they have been hard hit by the pandemic” said the foundation’s director, Philippa Charles (pictured). “It became very clear to our trustees that while we have seen some incredibly, creative responses to Covid-19 many cultural organisations need support to restart their important work and bring audiences back.

https://garfieldweston.org/new-weston-culture-fund-coming-soon/

The National Theatre’s Olivier, the largest of its three auditoriums, is being reshaped to accommodate bigger audiences when it reopens next month.

Cultural organisations set in our high streets will play an important role in our communities’ post-Covid recovery, says Arts Council England.

English National Opera is to reopen with a special performance of Mozart’s Requiem in recognition of the nation’s struggles during the Covid-19 crisis.

A new ten week arts festival is being launched tomorrow that brings together artists and those suffering with mental ill health.

The Royal Albert Hall is appealing for public donations worth £20m to ensure its survival.

Culture secretary Oliver Dowden is believed to working on allowing theatres and concert halls to reopen from November 1 with mass testing for audiences replacing social distancing, with full operation possible Christmas.

A video choir of more than 100 singers representing the three million believed to have been left out of the government’s lockdown safeguard funding has released a song via Facebook directed at Chancellor Rishi Sunak. 

Last week we published an exclusive article by the writer and actor Nichola McAuliffe about the Belarusian government’s treatment of its own national theatre, the Janka Kupal, where a play of hers had been produced. The government-appointed general director came out in support of the demonstrators against the disputed presidential election results and, she reported, was summarily sacked. The theatre’s personal all came out in his support, and now they have found their own voice, their own demands and their own plea to theatre communities and media outlets around the world for their support.

The sculptor Anish Kapoor has created a a new print in hopes of raising £750,000 for Maggie’s Cancer Care Centres.

The Royal Shakespeare Company announced today that its theatres in Stratford-on-Avon and London will not reopen before 2021 because of the Covid-19 crisis.