BRIDPORT Arts Centre will receive £287,000 of "essential public funding" until 2022 - but still needs to find £80,000 each year to keep the doors open.

The venue has once again been included in Arts Council England's national portfolio - which is almost doubling its investment in Dorset.

The arts centre will receive £57,412 each financial year until 2022 - but director Laura Cockett warned that the venue is reliant on donations in order to stay open, despite the injection of public cash. Last year, West Dorset District Council announced it was reducing funding to voluntary organisations, including the arts centre.

She said: "It is an essential investment for us. Our public investment comes to 17 per cent of what we require in total.

"The public investment is absolutely vital. It goes towards the core running costs of the arts centre, towards salaries and our programme of events and community work that we do. It provides us with part of a stable base to generate the income we need to keep the doors open."

She added: "We need £80,000 every year from fundraising income.

"We bring in some money through ticket sales but it's the donations from people that make up a significant amount of that.

"We have to do this fundraising every year and our target this year is £80,000 - that is what the charity needs to keep functioning, just to get through the 52 weeks of the year."

Arts Council England has pledged to invest more money than ever before outside London. Ms Cockett believes that securing funding in rural areas can be a challenge for voluntary organisations.

She said: "For a small rural organisation, it can be much more difficult to secure support from large businesses because of where we are and we are a much small organisation.

"It makes this funding all the more important. It's not just about the money we get from the Arts Council, but the national recognition, which is really hard to get."

Ms Cockett is proud the arts centre is continuing to take "artistic risk" in a tough financial climate.

She said: "Even though funding for arts organisations has been very challenging for a number of years, we have not stopped taking artistic risk and we present work that people can not see anywhere else in the local area, work that has a social message or promotes diversity - and we want to keep taking that risk for our audience .

"I think when the Arts Council looked at what we are doing for the next four years, they recognised and understood what our audience is interested in and where we could develop. "One of the things we are building on is working with young people and families and working with the vulnerable in our community, who maybe don't normally have the confidence to enjoy performances."