Magna Vitae '˜delighted' with Arts Council funding for SO Festival

Magna Vitae has secured another round of Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) funding, working jointly with East Lindsey District Council and other funding partners.
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SO Festival, launched in 2009 and now into its 9th year, has brought high quality entertainment and shows to residents and visitors to East Lincolnshire.

The NPO funding will enable Magna Vitae to continue to provide access to cultural activities in areas of low cultural engagement across East Lindsey.

Peter Knott, Area Director, Arts Council England, said: “Creative talent is everywhere but opportunity is not, which is why we’re delighted to be funding SO Festival to inspire people, no matter what their background, to enjoy arts and culture.

“It’ll be great to see SO Festival continue to provide opportunities for artists and arts organisations to develop new work and encourage new audiences to get involved with outdoor arts.”

Mark Humphreys, Chief Executive at Magna Vitae, said ‘We are delighted to have been offered this ACE grant award and to have secured the support of East Lindsey District Council for a further four years. It recognises SO Festival as being of National importance and is a great accolade to the work of everyone involved.

“We look forward to developing the SO Festival programme into a new format over the coming years to continue to deliver high quality cultural offerings to the local area’

Leader of East Lindsey District Council, Councillor Craig Leyland, added: “This award is testament to the commitment of both the District Council and Magna Vitae to enable the local area to continue to benefit from events such as SO Festival, which raises the profile of East Lincolnshire as a visitor destination and creates opportunities for the community locally to experience great events.”

SO Festival is part of the Without Walls consortium and Associate Touring Network, managed by XTRAX.

Josephine Burns, Chair of Without Walls said: ‘Without Walls is managed by XTRAX. We are delighted to be awarded National Portfolio Organisation funding.

“It recognises the artistic achievements of the past 10 years and how outdoor arts has flourished, bringing delight and challenge to audiences across the UK and beyond.

“Now we can plan with artists, companies and partners - existing and new - to deepen our impact and make ambitious new work.

“The decision to fund a consortium where the leadership is distributed across a wide range of partners allows us to go on a bold adventure together, to create work of the highest calibre with exceptional established artists and those new to presenting outdoor arts.’

• For more information, visit www.sofestival.org