Funding has been allocated to the Letchworth Heritage Foundation from the national charity Art Fund, to support Broadway Gallery and the Garden City Collection Museum.

The gallery and museum were among 22 organisations to receive much-needed funding from the charity's Reimagine grants programme.

The money will help the selected organisations build expertise, capacity, connections and access as they navigate their way to recovery from the pandemic.

The foundation will be using its new funding to recruit an arts and heritage officer to support a community-driven cultural engagement programme that will focus on new exhibition programmes, workshops and artistic development and undertaking a community consultation to create a new cultural programme that directly reflects community need and maximises engagement.

The Heritage Foundation’s executive director of communities, culture and heritage, Stuart Sapsford, said “We are thrilled to receive funding from Art Fund which will support the ongoing recovery of our cultural services.

"We know that arts, culture and heritage can play a significant role in inspiring, enriching and improving lives, contributing to community cohesion, reducing social exclusion and isolation, and making communities feel safer and stronger.

"Our renewed, community-led approach to cultural services will enable us to ensure access to all.”