The Stage

Arts welcome ACNI £1.5 million Lottery funding

Published Tuesday 10 April 2007 at 18:15 by Michael Quinn

The announcement by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland of new Lottery Project Funding amounting to £1.5 million has been welcomed by cash-strapped arts organisations.

Noting the lowest per capita arts spend in the UK, standstill budgets for the past three years and a reduction over the last decade by more than a fifth in Lottery income, ACNI chief executive Roisin McDonough said that the fact the scheme was over-subscribed by 400% was a measure of the mounting financial difficulties facing the arts in the region. She warned that the decline in Lottery-aided funding, expected to continue to slide to just £4.24 million (from £10.3 million in 1997/98) as money is siphoned off to pay for the 2012 Olympics, is “extremely worrying and comes at a time when the arts here can least afford it”.

Among the 54 organisations standing to benefit, the troubled Belfast Festival at Queen’s is to receive £130,000 and the becalmed Lyric Theatre £42,989. Northern Ireland’s leading new writing companies Prime Cut Productions and Tinderbox are to get £78,750 and £50,000 respectively, with significant sums also going to Cahoots (£41,606), Replay (£36,495) and Big Telly (£36,000).

Five other theatre companies will share £125,640 between them, while the Creative Writers Network is to get £34,070 and Belfast Community Circus £16,200. Two organisations for young people - Musical Theatre for Youth and Youth Music Theatre - will share just less than £30,000.