Newbury Corn Exchange receives £40,000 from Garfield Weston Foundation

The Corn Exchange Newbury has received a grant of £40,000 towards its core costs from Garfield Weston Foundation.

This funding will enable the Corn Exchange to continue to deliver the full range and breadth of its activities, including its work in the community with children, young people and families; its work with older people; its work in the outdoors at 101; and presenting the best theatre, comedy, dance, music and film.

The arts organisation "works for its community and championing artistic excellence and this funding will help them to continue providing West Berkshire with world-class performances indoors and outdoors, supporting a wide spectrum of artists and practitioners, running its extensive participation programme and engaging more than 130,000 local people a year with its creative activities.

"Involving local people and enabling them to be engaged with creative activities lies at the heart of what the Corn Exchange does and the grant from Garfield Weston Foundation will help support the Corn Exchange Newbury's work in 2022/23."

The Garfield Weston Foundation is a family-founded, charitable grant-making foundation, which supports a wide range of causes across the UK. It supports organisations that "delight and inspire audiences across the UK". From small community theatre groups to national art galleries, the foundation has long supported the nation’s cultural life.

The foundation was established in 1958 by Willard Garfield Weston, a businessman who moved to the UK with his family in 1932. He was the creator of Associated British Foods and the Foundation was endowed with a donation of family-owned company shares. As a result, the Foundation is still the ultimate controller of the company today.