This year, County Durham Community Foundation is supporting Lumiere 2021 with a £50,000 match funding scheme.

The scheme awards £50 for every £100 put forward by local organisations to support the festival, with funds raised supporting local people to get involved in Lumiere through the festival’s Learning and Participation programme.

Margaret Vaughan, chief operating officer for the foundation, said: “Supporting businesses to enable Lumiere’s community work to go from strength to strength is about looking to the future, and having hope that events will restart and help our communities celebrate and rebuild.”

Beyond its support of Lumiere, the foundation has now awarded £4.5m in grants since April 2020 – supporting local community groups to keep going through the pandemic. Businesses wanting to find out more about how to support Lumiere through the scheme can contact Sarah Coop, development director, at sarah.coop@artichoke.uk.com 0207-650-7611.