Since our closure on Wednesday 18 March, we, alongside many institutions and individuals in the arts and culture sector, have been working with and lobbying the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and HM Treasury on a support package to help weather the impact of coronavirus.

Culture Secretary @OliverDowden and Chancellor @RishiSunak stepped where Britain’s world-class actors tread the boards at @The_Globe today

They were launching a £1.57 billion support package to protect theatres, arts, cultural and heritage institutions https://t.co/WFlbpoAHi8 pic.twitter.com/2lXtDmwNde

— DCMS (@DCMS) July 6, 2020

On Sunday 5 July, the UK Government announced a£1.57 billion investment package to protect the nation’s world-class cultural, arts and heritage institutions. This is a welcome relief, after a period of uncertainty for our future.

Neil Constable, our CEO, said:

“We at Shakespeare’s Globe welcome this significant investment from the Government in our world-leading theatres and cultural institutions. As an independent charity, the Globe needs support throughout this difficult time and will now have the opportunity to plan to reopen fully by early 2021. We will of course be taking opportunities, if social distancing allows, to reopen earlier, and until then this investment allows us to offer our world-class performances and education online for audiences and students across the world, before safely bringing our staff, freelancers, volunteers and visitors alike together in our wonderful iconic theatres.”

Our Artistic Director, Michelle Terry, reflects on the last few months:

“This is unbelievably wonderful news for the organisations, institutions, and individuals that contribute tirelessly and passionately to the artistic and cultural life of our country. Art and artists are at the heart of an ecosystem that is inextricably linked to the communities from which they are born, in which they live, and whom they serve; theatre, museums, music venues, are a conduit between the artists and the audience.

“This period of profound reflection has given us all the opportunity to reconsider and recalibrate who we are and why we are, and find ways of articulating not just the economic value, but the social, civic value that we can contribute to the health, economic, ecologic, sociological and psychological complexities we are all facing. The idea that all of this hard work and resilience and sheer tenacity will be rewarded with financial support is testament to the importance of the conversation, consolation and congregation that the arts provide. We have held the government to account, and now they must hold us to account as we prove to them and to the public that this investment is worth every penny as we all reimagine the contribution that we will make as a force for positivity, active hope and progressive change. The trajectory of loss that we have seen over the past days and weeks may now be stemmed by this incredibly welcome news as we all continue to navigate our way down the path least travelled and rebuild a better, bolder and braver new world.

Patrick Spottiswoode, our Director of Globe Education, looks to the future:

“The education department at the Globe is unique in being the largest of any theatre organisation in the UK, providing storytelling, classes and courses sharing in Shakespeare’s extraordinary works. Reopening will allow us to re-engage with hundreds of thousands of our audiences and students – from preschool to postgraduate and professors. We delight in sharing the unique discoveries we are making at the Globe about Shakespeare’s plays and practice, and the continuance of this is important and timely as ever.”