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Belfast?s arts community has declared itself a ?community in crisis? following a cut by Belfast City Council in its annual funding to major arts organisations in the city.

Earlier this year Belfast City Council removed £100,000 of its annual funding for arts organisations, diverting the cash to a development and outreach arts funding stream that targets marginalised communities. But across the city, arts professionals are protesting that the cuts are threatening to destabilise the arts infrastructure.

Although the cash is still available for arts projects, it is no longer being targeted at work taking place through the city?s key arts institutions, including community arts organisations dedicated to increasing access to the arts in the city?s most disadvantaged areas.

To signal their objections to the cuts, which have been described as ?an action of monumental disrespect?, arts organisations across the city are boycotting Belfast City Council?s Gala Arts Awards on the basis that participation in the awards would ?give a false impression of mutual respect between Belfast City Council and Belfast?s artists.? A petition, which lists key representatives of arts organisations across the city, has been compiled, calling on the Council to restore the level of investment in Belfast?s professional arts organisations to that which existed prior to the cuts and to enter into direct, meaningful dialogue with the arts sector. Brian Friel, Adrian Dunbar, Michael Longley, Tom Paulin and Stephen Rea are numbered among those who are campaigning for grants to be restored.

The frustrations expressed by the group about the funding cuts are part of a wider unease about the arts strategies of Belfast City Council, and its relationships with the sector. The Council currently allocates an arts project budget of £1.1m, £200,000 for development and outreach, £600,000 for annual project funding, £125,000 for small grants and a further £175,000 for other arts and heritage projects, and the overall budget for the Culture and Arts Unit has grown from £780,000 in 1997/8 to £1.4m this year. But its recent consultation exercise into future arts funding strategies was felt by many in the arts community to have offered little in the way of progress towards a more sustainable future for arts organisations in the city. Siobhan Stevenson, Belfast City Council?s Culture and Arts Manager, said ?The consultation findings are still under discussion, and we have offered to meet with Belfast?s professional arts lobby to discuss funding issues. In terms of next year, budgets have yet to be finalised but it looks likely that the Culture and Arts Unit allocation will grow at above the general rate, and that a funding approach targeting strategically significant initiatives will be adopted.?