ARTS organisations from across the region have been given the thumbs-up on the funding front – with a particularly hefty hike for Eden Arts.

Arts Council England has maintained its investment in many of its current National Portfolio Organisations across Cumbria with two arts providers getting sizeable uplifts in their regular ACE funding.

Eden Arts will receive £300,000 over three years from April 2015 – an increase from £117,499 in the period 2012/15.

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Director Adrian Lochead said it was great news, especially coming hard on the heels of being awarded Cumbrian Tourism Event of the Year for Eden Arts’ C-Art project.

He added: “Incredibly what this means is that Eden Arts is the recipient of the third largest proportional increase in funding in all of England for the period 2015-2018.

“While we remain a ‘small’ organisation the increase is substantial and will make a real difference to how we work and how we go forward for another three years.”

Grizedale Arts will receive £593,079 between 2015/18, up just over 20 per cent on its 2012/15 period.

Keswick’s Theatre by the Lake is breathing a sigh of relief after ACE confirmed that it will continue its funding until at least 2018.

The theatre will receive the same amount as it did in 2014/15 - £604,067 per year for the next three years.

Meanwhile, The Brewery at Kendal will receive £322,000 each year over the next three, less than one per cent up on the previous period.

Brewery chief executive Richard Foster said: “We are obviously extremely pleased to maintain our funding stream from the Arts Council given the prevailing climate of public sector spending austerity.”

Other NPO’s receiving funding over 2015-18 include:

Barrow’s Ashton Theatre Group, £241,483 Octopus, also from Barrow

£120,696 Rosehill Theatre, Whitehaven, £186,862 Lancaster’s The Dukes, £768,570 Lakeland Arts, £362,088 Carlisle’s Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery, £3.13million Prism Arts, also of Carlisle, £151,839.

Elsewhere, Julie Tait’s Kendal Arts International had decided not to apply for NPO funding for 2015/18.

Instead, Ms Tait said KAI has combined forces with the Lake District National Park Authority to workup plans for a new Mintfest.

This will involve the full participation of South Lakeland District Council, Mintfest’s founder partner.

KAI has landed Grants for the Arts funding of £12,000 from Arts Council England.