Tamara Rojo and Sir Nicholas Serota among those on government taskforce to help cultural sector restart

Cultural restart: Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden announced a new taskforce to help the sector get up and running
PA

Tamara Rojo and Sir Nicholas Serota are among those joining a new taskforce set up by the government to help the cultural sector get up and running again.

Figures from the arts, cultural and sporting worlds will join five new ministerial-led taskforces, developing blueprints for how and when businesses and venues closed due to the coronavirus pandemic can reopen safely.

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden will be chairing the cultural renewal taskforce which will also involves former footballer Alex Scott, former BBC and ITV chairman Lord Grade and tech entrepreneur Baroness Lane-Fox.

It will also include Commissioner for Cultural Recovery and Renewal Neil Mendoza, Edward Mellors from Mellors Group Events and Mark Cornell from the Ambassador Theatre Group.

Arts Council England, which Serota is chair of, made £160 million of emergency funding available for arts organisations impacted by the pandemic earlier this year.

Rojo, who is the artistic director of the English National Ballet, has been leading dance classes online as well as making previous shows available for free streaming.

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The first meeting of the cultural renewal taskforce will take place on Friday, and they will meet every week.

Speaking at the Downing Street press conference on Wednesday, Mr Dowden said: “Normal life, as we have known it, is still clearly a long way off and the path to get there is a narrow one.

“But these things will return, when it’s safe for them to do so, and thanks to the same drive and creativity that makes a great performance or a great piece of art.

“I really think that when they do, and when we have overcome this crisis together, we will appreciate them that much more.”

Additional reporting from Press Association

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