Accessibility Features
Accessibility | Skip to Start of Article | Skip to Search | Skip to Navigation Menu | Skip to Themes | Skip to Regions | Skip to Members Sign InAccessibility Features
Accessibility | Skip to Start of Article | Skip to Search | Skip to Navigation Menu | Skip to Themes | Skip to Regions | Skip to Members Sign In
The Arts Council has announced that it has fulfilled its pledge to plough the hard-won uplift of £1.7m it secured through the NI Budget 2008-11 straight back into the arts in Northern Ireland.
96 organisations will benefit from an increase of £1.6m through this year’s round of annual Arts Council grants, totalling £9.6m with the remaining £100,000 earmarked for support for individual artists.
Overall 96 organisations will receive funding to support their year-round running costs. The announcement will come as welcome news to the arts sector, which had been bracing itself for another year of standstill funding aggravated by declining Lottery funds.
Making the funding announcement, Arts Council Chief Executive, Roisín McDonough, said, “We’ve managed to lift levels of funding for most of our core arts organisations, building stability where it’s needed most. These organisations will now be able to begin important and long-awaited development work, instead of just surviving.
“The Council continues to have to make difficult strategic decisions, but we have been able to offer support to many organisations we feared might become casualties of funding shortages.
“We were forced to close one of our major funding programmes at the end of last year due to the raid on Lottery funding for the arts to fund the London 2012 Olympic Games, leaving 56 of our arts organisations clearly at risk. Thanks to the additional monies made available to us in January through the NI Budget 2008-2011, I’m delighted that we’ve now been able to bring most of these organisations back in from the cold”, Ms McDonough concluded.
32 at risk organisations will now benefit from the added security of annual funding, including Maiden Voyage, one of the leading contemporary dance companies in Northern Ireland; the Open House Traditional Arts Festival of innovative music, arts and culture; Ransom Productions, producing quality-driven Northern Irish theatre productions and promoting local professional talent at home and abroad; and Youth Action Northern Ireland, employing the arts to improve skills and confidence especially amongst marginalised and vulnerable young people.
Thanks to the additional £1.7m from the NI budget, the future looks brighter for the arts in Northern Ireland. However, there is still much ground to make up to achieve the levels of funding enjoyed by the rest of the UK and Ireland.
Footer
NICVA | 61 Duncairn Gardens | Belfast | BT15 2GB
Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action is registered as a company limited by guarantee in Northern Ireland (No 1792) and is registered as a charity for tax purposes with the Inland Revenue