Arts in Northern Ireland headed for major crisis? (Friday 26 October 2007)
There never seems to be a shortage of high-quality art created within Northern Ireland, but that impression belies the fact that funding for the arts in NI has chronically been poor, and now it seems about to get significantly poorer.
• Earlier this week, Roisín McDonagh, Chief Executive of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland (ACNI), wrote to client organisations inidicating that its programme of Multi-annual funding was being terminated, "given the severe financial constraints it faces which have been further compounded by the loss of £4.5 million to fund the 2012 Olympics."
• Yesterday, NI's Minister for Finance and Personnel announced the draft budget for 2008 - 2011. It seems that the arts in NI will lose a further £1.3 million over that period. ACNI says that inflation could reduce these funds by an extra £3.
According to a press release from ACNI yesterday,
“This is incredibly bad news for the people of Northern Ireland. If the sector gets the allocation which has been announced today, then it is tantamount to sounding a death knell over large areas of arts activity here”, said the Chairman of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Rosemary Kelly. “This settlement will have devastating consequences for the arts sector and a negative impact on the economy as a whole.
"The people of Northern Ireland should have the same cultural entitlement as their neighbours on these islands. Yet at the same time as arts in England have received a 12 per cent increase (announced earlier this month) this budget proposal pushes the sector here into continuing downward spiralling decay. While the per capita spend on arts in the Republic of Ireland is three times that in Northern Ireland, and Scotland and Wales also streak ahead, Northern Ireland seems unable to recognise what is already an accepted principle in other places across the world – that arts and cultural activity are vital components in social, economic and cultural regeneration”. [bold in press release]
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