Northern Ireland

Emergency funding has finally been approved. Will it reach the sector in time to ensure its survival?

Although museums and galleries in England and Scotland can prepare to reopen, the  performing arts remain in lockdown and fears grow for the future of venue-based organisations.

Organisations visited more neighbourhoods, worked with more schools and made more money last year – but attendance is still precarious. 

Annually Funded Organisations are suffering “damage to long-term sustainability”, having slashed marketing budgets in the face of core funding cuts of almost 40% over three years.

“The future is bleak unless new innovative solutions to the funding challenge can be found,” says the Chair of Arts Council Northern Ireland.

A £120k pilot scheme will see ten Northern Ireland secondary schools collaborate with artists on a range of projects to improve wellbeing and increase interest in cultural careers.

51 regularly funded arts organisations have supported a statement expressing no confidence in the funder’s Chair, who has spent weeks embroiled in controversy.