The recent funding uplift from Northern Ireland’s Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure (see AP163) is being ploughed back into the arts, with 96 organisations set to benefit from an increase totalling £1.6m in core funding through this year’s round of annual Arts Council grants.
A further £100,000 has been earmarked for support for individual artists. Making the funding announcement, Roisín McDonough, Chief Executive of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland (ACNI), said, “We’ve managed to lift levels of funding for most of our core arts organisations, building stability where it’s needed most… 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.” ACNI was forced to close a major funding programme at the end of last year due to the Olympic Lottery funding raid. Fifty-six arts organisations were then left at risk, but now 32 will receive annual funding.