Cash boost for the arts

The cash will help fund a "culturally diverse arts sector"

The Arts Council of England has announced £90m in arts grants with £29m earmarked for black, Asian and Chinese projects.

A design centre in memory of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence and money for Bradford's proposed centre for South Asian performing arts are among projects sharing a £90m payout.

Prince Charles inaugurates an architecture scholarship in memory of Lawrence

The council hopes the money will reinvigorate black, Asian and Chinese arts groups which have received their largest ever allocation from lottery funds.

"This is a very positive first step by the Arts Council to address the lack of funding for the culturally diverse arts sector," said Peter Hewitt, chief executive of the Arts Council.

Plans for a new Chinese Arts Centre in Manchester will receive £2.1m, while the Stephen Lawrence Technocentre in Deptford, South East London, gets £11.5m.

The Lawrence Centre will specialise in teaching architecture and design and was proposed by a charity set up in his name.

Significant

Jala Sangam, the Academy of South Asian Performing Arts in Bradford, West Yorkshire won £1.5m toward the cost of a new £3.5m centre for music and dance.

Artistic director Dr Geetha Upadhyaya said that the grant was very significant for the centre.

"It will enable us to translate our initial vision into reality and work towards Kala Sangam becoming a national centre for excellence for South Asian arts and a real asset to Yorkshire," she said.

Arts Council of England chief executive Peter Hewitt

The Arts council says it has been committed to encouraging cultural diversity for some time, granting a minimum of £20m for the sector last year and improving on that again this year.

"Better networks and lines of communication are now firmly established between the Arts Council and the culturally diverse arts sector, and we are committed to making sure they remain strong," said Hewitt.

Other big winners include the Turner Centre in the artist's birthplace of Margate, Kent which will get £4.1m and a grant of £3m to the Newcastle Playhouse and Gulbenkian Studio.

The Unicorn Children's Theatre in London gets £4.5m to build a new permanent home and Liverpool's century-old Bluecoat Arts Centre picked up £2.75m towards the £6m cost of enhancing gallery space, studios and offices.

The Roundhouse theatre in north London has picked up £2.5m to re-establish itself as an internationally renowned venue.