The Stage

Arts Council warns of Northern Ireland shortfall

Published Friday 31 December 2004 at 14:35 by Ruth Gillespie

The Arts Council of Northern Ireland has welcomed an additional £15.5 million from the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure towards supporting arts facilities in the capital but warned of inadequate resources to meet operational costs across the province.

ACNI chairperson Rosemary Kelly said that improved arts facilities were essential to the social and economic regeneration of Belfast and that this was highlighted in the city’s failure to progress in its bid to be European Capital of Culture in 2008.

However, she stressed that the concurrent reduction in the arts council’s own annual grant-in-aid allocation from central government, announced in the latest budget, meant that finding the resources to meet the operational costs of these facilities would require further consideration.

Kelly said: “There is already a concerning disparity in terms of spending per head of population on the arts in Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, and the gulf is widening. This is a sad state of affairs, because it is not just our arts that will suffer but our whole society will lose out.

“The arts council will do everything within its power to safeguard its clients against the full impact of these economy savings and, at least in the short term, we are fortunate to have our Lottery resource to draw upon.”

Despite the strong opposition of the arts community to the reduction of arts spending proposed in the draft budget for Northern Ireland, Treasury support for arts bodies will fall by £1.5 million during the financial period 2005 to 2008. From April 2005 the arts council’s budget allocation from central government, already squeezed at £11,052,000 will be reduced to £10,780,000.

A recent study of the creative economy in Northern Ireland shows that the sector supports 29,000 jobs in Northern Ireland and contributes an annual turnover of £900 million to the economy. Research carried out by by ACNI showed that every £1 of arts council subsidy for the Ulster Orchestra generates a direct and indirect spend of £2.41, and for the Grand Opera House £5.23.

In a letter to Ian Pearson, the minister responsible for the Department of Finance and Personnel for Northern Ireland, Kelly said: “Any reduction to our resources will profoundly impinge upon our ability to deliver an adequate level of support for our arts practitioners. In the short and long term, even a moderate reduction of Treasury funds will affect front line services.

“It will threaten the survival of many small, yet significant, arts organisations that have been operating on tight margins. It will impact upon the quality and quantity of locally produced writing, theatre, dance, music and visual arts. It will impede the development of under resourced areas of the arts, such as dance.”