Arts Council England has published the eligibility criteria for £500m worth of grants that they are distributing as part of the Cultural Renewal Fund. 
 
And the comedy industry finally gets a mention. The Live Comedy Association has reported the eligibility criteria as follows.

• Comedy Clubs and Venues have explicitly been mentioned as being eligible HERE.
• Comedy is listed as a sub-genre under Theatre HERE - the wording around these sub-genres is ‘if you are an organisation whose primary role is to create, present or support one (or more) of these genres or sub genres, then you are eligible to apply to the Culture Recovery Fund’. Festivals are also named as a sub-genre.
• Organisations can apply for grants between £50,000 and £3 million.
• Organisations must have been financially sustainable before Covid-19 but are now at imminent risk of failure and have exhausted all other options for increasing their resilience. Organisations will need to provide at least one year’s full independently certified or audited financial statements.
• Nowhere does this say that this is open to brick and mortar venues/organisations only - all organisations are eligible (but individuals are not).

Some clarification may still follow but this sounds like positive news for the comedy industry in England at least. The recent survey by the LCA underlined how deeply the live comedy scene is being affected by the pandemic. 

HOW TO APPLY

Applications will be made through the ACE portal called Grantium. Register quickly as it can take up to 10 days to become registered on their system before you can then apply for any funding.
 
Round One will open on the 10th August and the deadline is the 21st August
Round Two will open on the 21st August and the deadline is the 4th September
 
ACE have stated that they expect to allocate at least 75% of the overall budget in Round One of this fund and therefore we would strongly encourage applicants to apply to this round if possible. 

If you are involved in thecomedy industry and not already a member of the Live comedy Association then do join at they aim to help out applicants with a crib sheet offering advice. It's free - join here.

They will be hosting a Q&A Zoom session about these applications ahead of the first round of submissions. This will take place at 1pm on Mon 10th Aug - Zoom link.
 
This session will also be recorded and uploaded for those unable to make the session - please email Owen if you’re unable to make it but have questions you’d like answered.
 

OTHER FORMS OF ACE FUNDING AVAILABLE

If your venue is a mixed space that also features music as a major part of your programming, it’s also worth looking at the Emergency Grassroots Music Venues Fund.
 
Any organisations requiring over £3million will only be eligible for the repayable finance section of the Cultural Recovery Fund. More details here.
  

FUNDING IN SCOTLAND, WALES & NORTHERN IRELAND

*The LCA is still waiting on information as to how funds will be distributed in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

And one cautionary note. This still does not mean that comedy has been recognised as an art form by The Arts Council. The criteria for the Culture Recovery Fund were designed by DCMS.