Cross artform

The Arts Council of Northern Ireland has made £50,000 available for a new programme supporting artists from a minority ethnic background.

The mentoring and residency programme will offer grants of up to £5,000 for research, learning, networking and cultural exchange opportunities.

Applications are open until October 4, with artists at every stage of their career encouraged to apply.

Chief Executive Roisin McDonough said the programme seeks to address the "numerous and complex barriers to access, progression and representation in the arts" that minority ethnic artists face. 

The council is in the process of establishing a Minority Ethnic Deliberative Forum to strengthen diversity within the sector and inform future decision making.

The first iteration of the British Council's newest cultural exchange programme has begun.

A UK-Australia season featuring theatre, film, visual arts, dance, music, literature, and higher education and public engagement programmes is launching in both countries this month.

Its theme of Who Are We Now will "reflect on our history, explore our current relationship, and imagine our future together", the British Council says.

The season's webpage indirectly acknowledges the colonisation of Australia and its "traditional custodians".

"We pay our respect to their elders past, present and emerging and extend that respect to all Aoriginal and Torres Strait Islander people."

The collaboration with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs aims to celebrate the "diverse and innovative artists" in both nations, the council says.

The UK's creative and cultural industries generated £150.4bn in 2019, according to new data.

DCMS figures show the industries' value grew by 8.3% in the year from 2018, adding £11.5bn to the economy before the pandemic hit.

While the creative industries' value continues to dwarf the cultural sector's at £155.8bn, cultural businesses generated nearly £36bn in 2019 - more than gambling and sport combined (£8.3bn and £16.9bn respectively).

Among all DCMS sectors, culture drew the largest proportion of its value from London. Activity in the capital added £2.2bn more to the economy in 2019 - a 10% rate of growth.

The sector's gross value added grew by 6% in all other regions except the West Midlands, where it fell by about £1m.

Northern Ireland's arts sector is feeling the effects of Brexit more than most.

A report by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland (ACNI) warns the country's arts and artists are becoming "less visible" internationally as companies struggle to tour, British arts suppliers are unwilling to ship to Northern Ireland and the small sector's voice is lost in cross-national negotiations.

It notes "anecdotal evidence" that arts organisations with the means to do so are establishing themselves in the Republic of Ireland to circumvent some of these issues and remain eligible for EU funding.

But ACNI says it has no way of substantiating how many organisations might be doing this - or whether they are at all. 

"The most we can say is that this is potentially more likely as a consequence of Brexit and the third party status of Northern Ireland-based arts and culture organisations.

"Creative Europe funding, in particular, has been an important source of funding for a number of organisations in Northern Ireland – especially touring and production organisations who will now find it more difficult to form creative partnerships across Europe.  This will impact on the diversity of product audiences will be exposed to and participants will be able to engage in."