Dan Jarvis is 'pressing' ministers to 'fill the financial gap' faced by Sheffield culture groups that have lost £11 million because of Covid-19

A study by Sheffield University, run with support from the city council, surveyed the operators of the Crucible Theatre, the Graves Art Gallery and the FlyDSA Arena, as well as the Showroom Cinema, the Doc/Fest and others.

Cultural attractions had missed out on more than 1.25 million visitors, the poll found, while £10.9 million had been lost from ticket sales, retail, sponsorship and donations.

Dan Jarvis, the City Region mayor, said: “Our region’s arts, culture and heritage sectors have been hit hard during Covid-19. With South Yorkshire’s museums, galleries, theatres and music venues closed, I'm working hard to ensure these organisations are still there for us when we emerge from the crisis.

“Art, culture and music can be a vehicle to recovery and renewal, contributing to healthy and sustainable communities and vibrant town centres. I have been in touch with the Government, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, and Arts Council England, and am pressing them to fill the financial gap that is affecting these assets and the artists, musicians, crew members and tech support teams who depend on them.”

The university's report said culture needed to be viewed as a means of surviving a ‘collective trauma’. It called for more support to help organisations improve their digital services as a contingency measure if coronavirus spikes again.

The report will be submitted to Parliament’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee.

Mr Jarvis said he was ‘leading on a recovery plan’. “But just returning to the status quo is not good enough: this must be a moment of renewal for our region and the country, when we tackle fundamental problems that have been neglected for far too long.”

In 2018, Creative England identified Yorkshire as a hotspot for creative industries. In Sheffield the sector contributed £248.12 million to the local economy, with 7,230 people employed in the field alongside a wider network of freelance support estimated at 21,000.

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