15 April 2021

In a press release, Thames Festival Trust in London announced that the trust has received a grant from the British Government’s Culture Recovery Fund.

In the latest round of support from the British Culture Recovery Fund, more than £300 million has been awarded to thousands of cultural organisations, including Thames Festival Trust in London.

Thames Festival Trust has received a grant of £59,562 from the Government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund to help the organisation recover and continue through these difficult times. 

Launched in 1997 with a Guinness World Record setting tight rope walk across the Thames, Thames Festival Trust has captivated Londoners and travellers alike with river-related culture and events via their festival Totally Thames.

Alongside the annual festival, the organisation produce projects that delve into the rich heritage and archaeology of the River Thames, building a collage of how London and the river developed. It gives visitors an aural and visual document of what it was like to live by the river through history.

Thames Festival Trust’s education programmes, Rivers of the World and The Story of Water, give the trust the opportunity to reach out to schools across the world, placing artists in schools to produce river-related art with students and teachers.

The grant will help Thames Festival Trust with ongoing organisational costs as well as support the development of the organisation’s projects goals and digital tools to be more inclusive and reach further into the community.

‘Our award from Arts Council England’s Culture Recovery Fund is a really significant lifeline for us – it’s a massive morale-booster – we can now plan for commissions and collaborations in a post lockdown world,’ Adrian Evans, director of Thames Festival Trust, said.

The second round of awards will help organisations to look ahead to the spring and summer and plan for reopening and recovery. After months of closures and cancellations to contain the Corona virus and save lives, this funding will be a much needed helping hand for organisations transitioning back to normal in the months ahead.

In mid-December last year, HTBS wrote that Thames Festival Trust had moved to Trinity Buoy Wharf in London.