It has been announced that �480,000 has been awarded to two major Norwich cultural organisations by Arts Council England.

The Norfolk and Norwich Festival (NNF), currently in full swing with its annual events, and Writers' Centre Norwich (WCN) will both be receiving �240,000.

The funding will ensure NNF can continue to bring performances such as Erth's Dinosaur Petting Zoo and the dramatic festival opener, Close Act's Invasion, in the future.

While the �240,000 for WCN, based in Princes Street, has been awarded as part of the Catalyst Arts scheme.

The news follows hot on the heels of Norwich becoming England's first Unesco City of Literature, after a WCN-led bid, and will enable both organisations to raise further funds from private donors, charities and trusts.

NNF artistic director William Galinsky said: 'It's great to have been awarded this innovative new grant for three years which will help us reach and increase our fundraising targets which will secure the festival's reputation as one of the best and most innovative in the UK.

'Catalyst will help us support the commissioning of original new work giving the festival an original offer for audiences from home and further afield and increase access to our programme for those who would not normally have good access to the arts.'

The Catalyst grant enables WCN to create a digital platform for those interested in the best in world literature and to commission new work and support artistic development to a level it has not previously been able to achieve.

Chris Gribble, chief executive of WCN, said: 'We appreciate enormously the scope this Catalyst grant will give us to support the fundraising development of our important new International Centre for Writing as the physical expression of Norwich's new status as England's first Unesco City of Literature.

'As a leading national literature development organisation, WCN recognises that we have to be innovative in our approach to fund-raising as well as in the work we deliver every day with writers and readers, in and out of schools, in our region, nationally and internationally.'

NNF and WCN are two of 173 organisations nationally which have been awarded just over �30m thought the Catalyst Arts scheme.

- Has your organisation secured crucial funding? Contact reporter David Freezer on 01603 772418 or david.freezer@archant.co.uk