Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation has been awarded £224,228 funding, which will be used to reopen some of its venues that were forced to close during lockdown.

In July, many of the Foundation’s arts and heritage venues and services closed their doors, and have been unable to reopen thus far.

They now plan to use this funding to reopen the Garden City Collection and Museum at One Garden City, as well as launch new projects and support the development of a programme of exhibitions at Broadway Gallery for 2021.

Stuart Sapsford, the Foundation’s director of communities, culture and heritage, said: “We are very grateful to the Arts Council for this funding, which is a hugely important lifeline for these services and for our town. 2019 was an incredible year for our arts and heritage services, with programmes and activities running for families, schools and young people, so we were devastated when we had to close them due to COVID-19.

“The immediate priority is to build capacity to help us get these services back up and running and develop strong local partnerships to support our thriving arts and cultural community.”

The funding will support a range of activities and plans until April 2021, including the launch of the Letchworth Culture Project.

Further details will be announced in the coming weeks. You can keep up to date with the latest announcements by following the Heritage Foundation on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.