FUNDING for arts groups in Liverpool will be maintained at Capital of Culture levels for the next two years, after the city council approved an £8.45m budget.

A total of 67 arts organisations are to benefit after they successfully applied through a new bidding process which has radically altered the council’s approach to the arts.

From this year, the emphasis is on better value for money for council tax payers, with the bids scrutinised on how arts organisations can support the  city’s vision for culture and regeneration in return for the council sponsoring individual and organisational creativity. 

Last night, council leader Cllr Warren Bradley said: "Liverpool’s cultural offer is internationally renowned and the dynamism and diversity that made ’08 such a success has shone through in this process.

"I’m delighted we will be able to consolidate all the huge strides the city has made over the past five years through this new budget.

"To be able to maintain capital of culture funding levels should leave no one in any doubt of the council’s commitment to fostering a successful ’08 legacy."

Overall, the city council is investing £2m more in culture than before it established the Liverpool Culture Company in 2005.

The two-year programme divided funding across three categories – Cultural Drivers, Cultural Contributors and Grass Root Innovators.

Cultural Drivers are those organisations whose programme form the backbone of the city’s annual cultural offer in terms of their performance/exhibition programme and has a well- developed, sustained participation programme that engages with the wider community as a core element of their activity. 

Seven organisations fit this category and will collectively be eligible to receive £6.2m until April 2011.

They are: DaDa Fest, FACT, Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse Theatres, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society, Unity Theatre, and the Bluecoat

Cultural Contributors make up a range of arts and cultural organisations who are seen as making a key contribution towards the development of world class arts and culture infrastructure and the role they play in creating a unique offer for the city.

A total of 26 organisations will collectively be eligible to receive £1.126m over the next two years.

Grass Root Innovators is a strand which replaces the previous small grants programme.