LOCAL charity Cinderford Artspace has been awarded a £5,000 grant by housing provider Two Rivers to help it continue its work providing creative activities for the community.

The grant from the Newent-based housing group comes from its community benefit society Two Rivers Initiatives, which provides funds to support local charity projects.

The funding helped support a parent-child creative programme ran by Artspace during the autumn, the art from which is set to be collated into an online exhibition.

General manager Hannah Elton-Wall said the grant will also help them offer “more inclusive” arts activities and workshops for people with specific disabilities and needs.

The latest award follows a £150,000 grant from Arts Council England as part of its national portfolio last month, which will support the charity’s work providing creative and performing arts courses for people of all ages throughout the year.

General manager Hannah Elton-Wall said of the Two Rivers grant: “As a small charity, we often need to rely on external financial support to provide our workshops and programs, so this grant will really help us continue to deliver fun projects for our members and the community.

“Recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic was a challenge for us, as we had to engage new people who hadn’t visited the Artspace before.

“Now we’re back in the building, but we’re keeping an element of our program online to help maintain that connection with the people who can’t physically be here. 

“We would like to give a huge thank you to Two Rivers Housing for the support and for helping keep our organisation running.

“We’re very grateful for the opportunity to continue our work at the Artspace and deliver to the local community.”

Garry King, Chief Executive at Two Rivers Housing, said: “Many small, local charities saw a huge drop in donations throughout the pandemic.

“These organisations play a vital part in supporting our communities and tackling issues such as loneliness and isolation as well as providing a warm, safe place for people to come together.

“It’s important that local groups like Artspace continue to thrive, particularly in our more rural communities and I am very pleased that we have been able to support this important project through our Community Grant Fund.”