The grant will come from the council’s metropolitan discretionary response fund.
The money will be used by the Arts Centre of Christchurch Trust Board to help cover the historic centre’s operating costs for the coming year.
"Like many organisations, the Arts Centre has taken a financial hit due to the impacts of Covid-19 and is struggling financially," said city councillor and sustainability and community resilience committee chairwoman Sara Templeton.
"This grant will allow the trust board to retain basic staffing levels so it can keep the centre open and continue to offer community events and programmes.
"The Arts Centre is an important cultural and heritage hub in our city and we do not want to see it closing its doors to the public."
The city council committee also agreed to give metropolitan discretionary response fund grants to:
- Christchurch City Mission: $75,000 for operating costs of its Street Outreach Service, which helps people living on the streets.
- Imagination Station: $35,000 to help pay salary and wage costs.
- Cultivate Christchurch: $20,000 to help pay the wages of the general manager and youth internship co-ordinator at the youth development organisation.
- New Zealand Prostitutes’ Collective: $40,099 for wages and mobile phone for its street outreach co-ordinator to provide support for street-based sex workers.
- The Tramway Historical Society: $15,000 to help with its trolley bus system restoration.
Once the grants have been made, the city council fund will have a balance of $225,913.
The council has also made an extra $500,000 available to community groups this financial year to help support them through the impacts of the Covid pandemic. Some of this funding is being dispersed through the metropolitan discretionary response fund.
