Responses to Funding Announcements
Community Arts Forum
welcomes historic Arts Council spending announcement
The Community Arts Forum (CAF), the umbrella and developmental body for community arts in Northern Ireland, warmly welcomes the increase in community arts spending announced by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland (ACNI) today.
For the first time in six years, CAF is delighted to be able to respond positively to ACNI annual spending. CAF believes that the very substantial increases announced today represent the first real recognition of the value of the community arts sector by the Arts Council.
Will Chamberlain, CAF Chairperson and Director of Belfast Community Circus said, "Crucially, today's announcement represents new and innovative thinking by the Arts Council. Consequently, it also represents a new beginning and gives new hope to all those who have spent many years attempting to deliver arts in a community context."
Gavin O'Connor, CAF Executive member and Director of Wheelwork's Children's Arts Project said, "It is a historic development and one which CAF hopes will lead to a greater quality of life for many more of our citizens, particularly our children and young people, than was previously the case."
On a cautionary note we would point out that the overall increase still represents approximately only 25% of the level of funding required to build a comprehensive arts infrastructure right across the entire Northern Ireland community. There is still a long way to go before we can truly say that there is democratic and free access to the arts in our society. CAF pledges to work closely in partnership with the Arts Council and others to achieve this ultimate goal.
Martin Lynch, playwright and Co-ordinator of the Community Arts Forum said, "Over the last six years I have not been slow to publicly criticise the Arts Council for not funding community arts. Today, I have no hesitation in giving credit where credit is due. On behalf of CAF, I would like to place on record our gratitude to those officers in DCAL, the new Chief Executive of the Arts Council and the new Board members of the Arts Council who have made the new changes possible. Perhaps now, we can all go forward together to genuinely create greater access to the arts for all."
Click Here to Go To CAF Web Site
Cuirtear fáilte roimh airgead na healaíne
Le Marcas Mac Ruairí
31 Ean 01
Tá fáilte fhorleathan curtha roimh shraith deontas do na healaíona Gaeilge sna Sé Chontae.
D'fhógair An Chomhairle Ealaíon ó thuaidh, Dé Máirt, go mbeadh ardú suntasach airgid ag dul i dtreo na Gaeilge i mbliana.
Tagann an nuacht tar éis na mblianta d'fheachtais ó ghrúpaí teanga a chreid nach raibh go leor tacaíochta á thabhairt dóibh.
Tá Cultúrlann MacAdam Ó Fiaich le £100,000 a fháil – ardú £44,000 ar an méid a fuarthas anuraidh.
Gheobhaidh Conradh na Gaeilge i nDoire £45,000 agus Compántas Amharclainne Aisling Ghéar, £50,000 – ardú £35,000.
I measc na ngrúpaí eile a bhainfidh tairbhe as an tsraith deontas seo, tá Féile an Phobail, a dhiúltaíonn Comhairle Chathair Bhéal Feirste tacaíocht di. £45,000 atá ag dul chucu ón Chomhairle Ealaíon, ardú £35,000 ar a bhfuair siad anuraidh.
Agus faigheann an Compántas Amharclainne, JustUs, £15,000.
Diúltaíodh tacaíocht ar bith do JustUs le cúpla bliain anuas de bharr ar léiríu a rinne siad a chuir drochtheist ar an RUC.
Ag cur fáilte roimh an nuacht, arsa stiúrthóir Aisling Ghéar, Gearóid Ó Cairealláin, "Tá muid sásta leis seo agus thar a bheith buíoch as.
"Céim shuntasach chun tosaigh atá ann.
"Is é an sprioc s'againn go mbeidh muid ar aon chéim le hAmharclann de hÍde a fhaigheann tacaíocht £150,000 in aghaidh na bliana.
"Tógfaidh an deontas seo ualach mór ó Aisling Ghéar mar chompántas dramaíochta agus tá súil agam go rachaidh sé i dtreo beirt eile a fhostú.
"Bainfear úsáid éifeachtach as le drámaí den chéad scoth a chur ar fáil do phobal na Gaeilge agus daoine eile nach iad."
Ag cur a fháilte féin roimh an nuacht, arsa Reachtaire Imeachtaí na Cultúrlainne, Cormaic Ó Cuinn, "Is deontas tábhachtach é seo dúinn.
"Cuirfidh sé lenár n-ábaltacht freastal ar an phobal agus imeachtaí s'againne a leathnú amach.
"Bheadh dóchas agam go bhféadfaimis duine eile a fhostú anois."
Ag fógairt na ndeontas, chuir Cathaoirleach na Comhairle Ealaíon, an tOllamh Brian Walker, chuir sé síos ar dheontais na bliana seo mar 'buiséad inspioráide do na healaíona" ag am atá an tearcmhaoiniú i réim go coitianta.
Lá: 1 February 2001
Welcome for Arts Funding
(Translation Of Above Article)
"A series of grants made available for Irish language arts has been broadly welcomed. On Tuesday, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland announced that there would be a noticeable increase in funding for Irish language arts this year. This news comes after years of work by language groups who felt that support was inadequate.
Cultúrlann MacAdam Ó Fiaich will receive £100,000, an increase of £44,000 on the previous year's allocation.
Conradh na Gaeilge in Derry will receive £45,000 and Compántas Amharclainne Aisling Ghéar, £50,000, an increase of £35,000.
Amongst other groups to benefit from this round of grants is Féile an Phobail which Belfast City Council refused to support. It will receive £45,000 from the Arts Council, an increase of £35,000 from last year.
And JustUs Theatre Company will get £15,000. JustUs has been denied support for a couple of years for a production which challenged the RUC.
Welcoming the news, the Director of Aisling Ghéar, Gearóid Ó Cairealláin, said, 'We are happy with this and more than grateful. This is definite progress. Our aim is to be on a par with Amharclann de hÍde which receives £150,000 in funding each year. This grant will lift a load off Aisling Ghéar as a theatre company and I hope it will allow us to create two posts. We will put it to good use by mounting productions of high quality for the Irish language community and for others.'
Also welcoming the announcements, Events Manager of Cultúrlann, Cormaic Ó Cuinn, said, 'This is an important grant for us. It will allow us to extend our current service to the community and to broaden our range of events. I would hope that we can now employ another member of staff.'
Announcing the grants, the Chairman of the Arts Council, Prof Brian Walker, described this year's grants as 'an inspired budget for the arts, in what is still a climate of under-funding'."
Click Here to Go To Lá Web Site (Part of Irelandclick.com)
Anderstown News
Hefty increases in West Belfast funding a step in the right direction
Story by: jacqueline hogge
Féile Director Caitriona Ruane criticised a magazine editor for branding this week's increased funding to community arts as "social engineering".
The extraordinary outburst was a small blip in an otherwise triumphant week for local arts. John O'Farrell, editor of Fortnight magazine, was taking part in a Radio Ulster debate when he launched his scathing attack on the Arts Council's decision to provide realistic funding for local groups.
But the community arts were vociferously defended by Caitriona who condemned Mr O'Farrell for being narrow-minded and elitist in his focus.
"John O'Farrell rubbished any arts coming from working class communities, and if that's his opinion he is discounting the marvellous work and achievements of Ronan Bennett, Seamus Heaney and Sean O'Casey to name but a few," said Caitriona.
"His viewpoint was very anti the art that comes from community-based groups and his opinions dismiss entire generations of working class actors, producers and playwrights all over the country."
The outburst came in the wake of huge increases in the Arts Council's annual funding of community art.
Feile an Phobail is one of three groups to receive big increases, and the extra money has been welcomed by those involved as "a step in the right direction".
An Cultúrlann receives the biggest increase, with a grant of £100,000 for the coming 12 months – an increase of £56,000 from last year, while Féile an Phobail and Irish language drama group Aisling Ghéar have received an extra £35,000 each.
Welcoming the news of increased funding to Irish Arts programmes in particular, Gearóid Ó Caireallain said that the money would prove hugely significant to both the Cultúrlann and Aisling Ghéar, but that it was only a step in ensuring adequate funding for Irish language arts.
"This increase in funding is an important step and we are looking forward to working alongside the Arts Council to further develop our programme of arts here," said Gearóid, who is Artistic Director with the group.
"In real terms, this extra money means we will be able to offer our full-time members of staff full-time salaries and we will also be able to enhance the delivery of our arts programme. However, we will need to continue our fund raising in conjunction with this funding, but it is, of course, to be welcomed as a positive step forward in the funding of Irish language arts."
Caitríona Ruane also welcomed the increase in funds for Feile from £10,000 to £45,000.
"We're very pleased at this increase in funding and it is definitely a step in the right direction.
"It is recognition of the value and artistic integrity of Féile an Phobail and this money will help us to develop our programme over the coming year.
"We are looking forward to working with the Arts Council in the future," said Caitriona.
Gearóid paid particular tribute to Arts Council Chief Executive Roisín McDonough.
The former Chief Executive of the West Belfast Partnership Board said that the new budget reflected the Arts Council's support for the individual artist, extending participation for all and encouraging arts organisations to develop new audiences for their work.
A spokesperson for An Cultúrlann said the increase in funding would enhance and increase the current artistic programme.
"It is only in the past number of years we have been allocated funding from the Arts Council and we have long been operating on a shoestring budget. It is refreshing to see the long legacy of underfunding of the Irish arts being addressed and we welcome the announcement of extra funding."
The new Arts Council funding package has been hailed as the most far-reaching reform of arts funding in the north for a decade.
Journalist: Leona Breslin
Click Here to Go To Anderstown News Web Site (Part of Irelandclick.com)
Irish News
Arts Council raises its funding profile
By Frank McNamara
TRADITIONAL Irish cultural events have been given a huge boost by the Arts Council of Northern lreland.
The largest cash boost will mean a 350 per cent increase for Feile an Phobail in west Belfast – now recognised as one of Europe's biggest community festivals.
The increases come as the Arts Council undergoes 'a radical re-shaping' in funding policy.
A spokesman said chief executive Roisin McDonough has used her understanding and experience of the arts in west Belfast to target areas that need regeneration.
"The awards this time round follow a strategy worked out by the Arts Council in the year prior to her appointment. Everything in the awards has been considered within that strategy," he said.
Funding for Feile na Phobail goes up from £10,000 to £45,000 while across the north other gaelic events have seen similar boosts.
Professor Brian Walker, Arts Council chairman, described the grants as "the most far-reaching reform of arts funding" for a decade.
"It is an inspired budget for the arts in what is still a climate of under-funding," he added.
Caitriona Ruane, feile director, said: "The increase is very welcome but it follows 10 years of under-funding of the arts.
"There have been a lot of inequalities among groups getting funding so we see this as only the first step. The gaelic phrase 'Tus maith leath na hoibre' (A good start is half the work) sums it up well," she said.
"Feile organisers view this as recognition for the work we are doing and would like to see increases each year."
Ms McDonough said funding allocations had been based on the recommendations of the Everitt report.
She added: "We have begun the integration of lottery funding into achieving art form objectives; we are supporting the individual artist, extending participation for all and we are directing arts organisations to develop new audiences.
"Our announcements reflect the re-profiling of our funding to target our new strategic priorities."
The Arts Council's 'new profile of support' includes:
an Culturlann, the Irish language arts organisation, funding up from £44,000 to £100,000
233 per cent increase for Aisling Ghear, the Irish language theatre company, from £15,000 to £50,000
£45,000 to promote Conradh na Gaeilge Irish classes in Derry.
Andersonstown Music School gets a 900 per cent grant increase from £1,500 to £15,000.
Some £5.6m is going directly to 146 arts organisations.
But a cut in funding for the Grand Opera House, Belfast, from £555,000 down to £508,400 was criticised by director Derek Nicholls.
"It seems to be a sad fact that according to the arts funding system success in reaching very wide audiences with an attractive programme of productions is inevitably rewarded with a cut in grant."
Mr Nicholls said the Grand Opera House Trust had led the way in audience development since its formation in 1994.
Click Here to Go To Irish News Web Site
North West Edition
£450,000 secures future of arts projects
By Sarah Brett
ARTS groups in the North West were celebrating today after securing more than £450,000 in funding.
In the most far-reaching reform of arts funding in ten years, the Arts Council for Northern Ireland almost doubled the annual allocation of money for the local region.
A total of twelve groups will share the funding of £452,000.
The Playhouse Theatre in Derry was the biggest beneficiary, receiving £85,000.
Fund-raising and marketing officer Max Beer said he was delighted with the additional funding.
"I think it reaffirms all the good work the Playhouse has done over the last year, particularly with marginalised communities.
"The North West and particularly Derry has done really well out of this year's funding. It's wonderful news for the arts and for the city in general."
SDLP councillor and member of the Arts Council Martin Bradley also welcomed the new funding.
"The announcement is very welcome indeed and provides a timely and substantial boost to a significant number of important arts-based projects.
"Each beneficiary deserves praise for the outstanding work they have done in the past and encouragement for the service they will continue to provide to the arts and cultural identity in Derry long into the future," said Mr Bradley.
The other North West recipients were the Nerve Centre ( £70,000), Orchard Gallery ( £62,000), Big Telly Theatre Company ( £55,000), Derry Theatre ( £50,000), Conradh na Gaeilge ( £45,000), Verbal Arts Centre ( £28,150), Context Gallery ( £16,000), Sole Purpose Productions ( £15,000), Eden Place Arts Centre ( £12,000), Flowerfield Arts Centre ( £8,500) and Limavady Arts Festival ( £5,000).
Click Here to Go To Belfast Telegraph Web Site
Arts Council's funding package is welcomed
By Stephen Breen
"Perhaps now, we can all go forward together to genuinely create greater access to the arts for all. "Stormont Arts Minister Michael McGimpsey said:. The Arts Council of Northern Ireland's decision to provide more cash for community arts projects received a warm welcome today.
The increased funding package was praised by the Community Arts Forum (CAF) and popular Ulster playwright Martin Lynch.
But the CAF warned the overall increase represents only 25% of the level of funding required to build a "comprehensive arts infrastructure".
Will Chamberlain, CAF chairman, said the cash injection represented the first "real recognition" by the council of the value of community arts schemes.
He said: "For the first time in six years, CAF is delighted to be able to respond positively to the very substantial increases announced.
"Crucially, this represents new and innovative thinking by the Arts Council.
"Consequently, it also represents a new beginning and gives new hope to all those who have spent many years attempting to deliver arts in a community context.
"But there's still a long way to go before we can truly say there is democratic and free access to the arts in our society." Mr Lynch, who is a CAF co-ordinator, also praised the council for allocating the cash.
He added: "Over the last six years I have not been slow to publicly criticise the Arts Council for not funding community arts.
"But today, I've no hesitation in giving credit where credit is due.
"Perhaps now, we can all go forward together to genuinely create greater access to the arts for all."Stormont Arts Minister Michael McGimpsey said:.
"We must recognise the important contribution to society which is made by the arts in Northern Ireland."He added that "unlocking people's creativity is essential to our future economic and social prosperity".
Click Here to Go To Belfast Telegraph Web-Site
New start for
the arts in Northern Ireland
FRONT/row: The Arts Council of Northern Ireland is taking new directions. This year's revenue funding allocations mark a break from the past. "The directions are new and they do give an indication of the way we'll be going in the next few years," confirms the Council's Director of Public Affairs, Damian Smyth.
Briefly put, a lot of the money is now going to community arts organisations, to widen access to the arts. The Cultúrlann Mac Adam Ó Fiaich, an Irish-language cultural centre on the Falls Road received £100,000 this year, for instance, an increase of £44,000 on the previous year. Féile an Phobail, the summer festival in nationalist West Belfast will receive £45,000, an increase of £35,000.
Both had lobbied long, loud and at times, bitterly, for more Arts Council funding. iona Ruane, Director of Féile an Phobail: "No-one," wrote Smyth, "is going to mistake Féile's old crock's football challenge, bus run to Butlins, taxi tours, the annual black mountain walk, the Pound Loney day (all pints £1), Sooty's disco or the West Belfast guider grand prix - splendid though they are - as specifically artistic experiences."
Among the other community arts initiatives which have received major funding increases are the Aisling Ghéar Irish-language theatre group, whose funding went up from £13,000 to £40,000, and the Community Arts Forum, whose funding doubled, to £50,000. JustUs Theatre Company, which has up to now staged controversial plays about the nationalist, working-class experience, got their first Arts Council grant, £15,000.
Meanwhile, some more traditional venues have lost out. The Grand Opera House's revenue funding has been cut by £46,000. The Arts Council of Northern Ireland's funding stands at around £15 million, of which £9 million was disbursed in the revenue funding allocations which were announced. The council's funding has not increased significantly in the last 10 years and the Minister for Culture, Arts and Leisure stated last year that jobs would be lost due to the Government's failure to support the arts to a greater degree.
However, this year the Arts Council managed to use Lottery funds as part of their revenue funding, rather than being forced to spend them on capital projects. Aided by this, support for the individual artist in the North will more than double this year, to roughly £500,000.Informed by Anthony Everitt's assessment of the council's delivery of its last plan, To the Millennium, the council is making a pitch to Government with a new five-year plan. Like An Chomairle Ealaíon, it wants to move to multi-annual funding - and it wants more money.
The council's new direction is also informed by Everitt's report, as well as the existence and vision of DECAL, as the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure is affectionately known. Responsibility for the change is also being laid at the door of the new chief executive of the council, Róisín Mc Donough, who has a background in community development organisations such as the West Belfast Partnership and there have been accusations of "social engineering".
Mc Donough argues that the North is a special case in terms of its levels of division and exclusion; that's why, she says, there is an emphasis on funding art "located in places and communities which provide a very rich product and access for people who wouldn't maybe go to traditional arts venues." She echoes Damian Smyth's denial that the council's funding seems tilted towards nationalist communities.
Smyth cites the increase in funding from £13,000 to £40,000 to the Beat Initiative in East Belfast which runs the Belfast Carnival, for instance, and adds that links between community arts workers are so strong that you can't judge exactly to which community funding is going to from the street the organisation is on "any more than you have to be a Catholic if you're a bus driver on the Falls Road."
"We know," says Róisín Mc Donough, "that some of the differences we have in Northern Ireland are because we have such a strong sense of place and identity and people's vision is driven inwards. By making the arts more accessible, we're hoping to open out people's vision."
So the arts are being used to engineer a new society. But in 10 years' time, I suggest, there might no longer be a need for such engineering - there might be a quite different Northern Ireland. "We hope very much there will be," says Mc Donough.
Edited by Victoria White
Click Here to Go To Irish Times Web Site
Ian Hill, News Letter, February 5th 2001
Two West Belfast arts organisations, condemned on artistic grounds, get up to 350 per cent increased Arts Council grants; an organisation making community videos receives a 460 per cent grant rise; Grand Opera House and Ulster Orchestra suffer swingeing cuts as council staff gain a £114,000 salary increase.
We ask: what is going on behind the closed doors of the council's lavish mansion in the leafy suburb of Malone?
Belfast intends to become European City of Culture, 2008. ! Everyone says so.
But here’s Roisin Mc Donough, new chief executive of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, setting a course which, in my considered opinion, could dim the city’s bright chances.
The ACNI, in its new grant allocations, has reduced financial support to the majority of major institutions providing the city with professional artistic excellence.
Instead, grant increases of up to 900 per cent go to a raft of predominantly amateur community arts organisations. Thus the city-centre Grand Opera House, the only place in the Province where citizens can see internationally-acclaimed large-scale imported ballet, opera and theatre, suffers a nine per cent reduction in revenue while the small, interesting but almost entirely amateur Irish Language F'a11s Road theatre Aisling Ghear gets a whopping 233 per cent increase.
The Belfast Festival at Queen's, cornerstone of the Assembly's bid for out-of-state cultural tourism, is on a standstill budget, a 2-3 per cent reduction taking inflation into account. Féile an Phobal, the West Belfast Peoples' Festival, welcomes an increase of 350 per cent.
Last year, the Arts Council dismissed the event’s plea for a funding increase, writing: "No one is going to mistake Feile’s ‘Old Crock’s Football Challenge’ or the ‘Bus Run to Butlins’ or ‘Taxi Tours’ or the ‘Annual Black Mountain Walk’ or the ‘Pound Loney Day (all pints £1)’ or ‘Sooty’s Disco’ or the ‘West Belfast Guider Grand Prix’, splendid though they are, as specifically artistic experiences."
The primarily amateur JustUs Theatre Company, condemned last year by the Council for falling far below acceptable artistic thresholds, gets a grant leap from zero to £15,000.
Now obviously grant-aiding is so circumscribed by regulation and fail-safes that there is absolutely no possibility of partiality or conflict of interest. But perceptions are paramount in these day of spin. Those who have lost out will ask what alchemies have taken place amongst the newly favoured?
Whatever way you read it the council, and its chairman Prof Walker were either entirely wrong last year or entirely wrong this year. Just the sort of situation likely to attract calls for an independent enquiry.
It will be argued that such cosmic shifts are in response to the council’s Everitt Report. But shouldn't the Council, and its sponsoring DCAL Department walk carefully here?
Five years back, the arts ‘bible’ was the Towards The Millennium Strategy. Last year, Everitt rubbished most of its content. Who is to say that putting all your eggs in another consultant’s basket doesn’t yet again risk jumping from the frying pan into the fire?
Moving On Music, the year round tourer of internationally-rated chamber, jazz and world music, is slammed with a one-third cut as the Andersonstown Music School gains 900 per cent, Belfast & District Set Dancing 70 per cent.
The identifiably middle-class Studio Symphony Orchestra loses all. Castleward Opera, community opera for the well-off, sees no rise.
The impression from this new regime contains at its core a de- pressing message for those pursuing high-quality professional artistic disciplines, work seen as accessible only to what used to be called the middle classes.
Their efforts are in general rewarded with either a standstill or a decreased funding. Amateurs, particularly those in troubled ghettos, gain huge benefits.
The magnificent 1895 Grand Opera House and Cirque suffers a decrease of £46,600. The Ulster Orchestra, which mixes its Fridays in the magnificent acoustic of the Ulster Hall with representing the Province across the globe, is down by £48,000.
The Lyric Theatre, the principal repertory house, the only place where Belfast sees full-scale professional productions of Brian Friel, Frank McGuinness, David Hare, Shakespeare and Gary Mitchell, witnesses no increase.
ACNI chairman Professor Walker claims the new priorities bring more support to "cutting edge" arts. This is painfully at odds with cutting the budgets of Prime Cut and Tinderbox.
Ridiculusmus – the sole locally-based company with a star rating in arts festivals around the world – had its grant halved. Opera Theatre Company, with its witty inventive takes on ‘opera for all’ sees its efforts rewarded by a 35 per cent cut.
The Fenderesky Art Gallery, which offers unique opportunities to view the best of contemporary painting is on standstill, ie, a minus. The Belfast Print Workshop, also with a truly international reputation, will be driven to the brink with a swingeing cut of 28 per cent.
Catalyst Arts and Proposition Galleries are on that three per cent inflation drop. Both have launched the careers of major conceptual artists. Their cuts are particularly ironic as they stands at odds with the declared intention of boosting the Cathedral Cultural Quarter (where they operate) as a city-centre focus of that European City of Culture (ECC) bid.
The truly adventurous Engine Room Gallery in East Belfast sees it budget on hold, as does the "avant-garde Context in Londonderry, where the Orchard Gallery, with its truly international stature, drops by 14 per cent.
The Belfast International Festival at Queen’s, at the very core of state plans to encourage incoming cultural tourists – but for so long targeted by class warfare – loses out by the rate of inflation.
Aspects Literary Festival, held on what is jokily referred to as the Costa del Oro, suffers the same fate. Professional critical success has become an anathema. To the devil with the "pursuit of excellence".
Arts Focus is a fervent supporter of critically assessed state funding of community arts. CAF’s The Wedding Play, founded on a professional Marie Jones/Martin Lynch script, facilitated by talented professional directors, was breathtaking.
Opening minds, expanding horizons, offering new skills, is admirable. But in the most part, these monies are remedial therapies for good citizens demonstrably let down by the education system.
The invoice thus lies with the Department of Education, not Arts; and therefore not with the Arts Council. For in serving two masters, the council will be seen as slavishly favouring political correctness, fostering an artistic Animal Farm: middle-class professional equals Bad; distressed, ghettoised, socially deprived and amateur equals Good.
For so blinkered is this obsessive drive for socially engineered access, the Council has forgotten that without exposure to outside contemporary professional excellence, generations to come - except those able to travel to England or Europe -will be left in artistic isolation, obsessed with a resurrected past, trapped in recycling victimhood, wearing thin the artistic cliches of such projects.
‘Some arts are more equal than others’ is an illiberal view
News Letter, February 8th
READING Ian Hill’s markedly illiberal diary (February 5), I was struck by how little he knows or understands of the work of the participatory arts, of new media or of the current debates regarding the creative industries in Northern Ireland.
By referring to Northern Visions as "an organisation making community videos", he clearly believes that he has penned the ultimate put-down. We are, in fact, quite happy to adopt this definition which is one aspect of our diverse programme of work. As well as assisting around 200 arts; cultural and community groups a year, we have initiated several media arts projects, such as the Belfast Arts Award-nominated Community Visions which was designed to give maximum access to those social groups who have been traditionally disadvantaged in media expression.
Ian Hill's sideswipe that our work resides in the "amateur" arts is patently a personal one. Northern Visions has been producing films since 1985 when it was the first Northern Irish organisation to produce an independent documentary for Channel Four. The success of this acclaimed documentary led to numerous films for Channel Four and later for RTE, UTV, TG4, ZDF (Germany), RAI (Italy), VPRO (Holland), ARTE (the European Cultural Channel), with sales to television companies in Australia and America. Recently, BBC NI acquired Our Wedding Video, a film which documents the award-winning Wedding Community Play Project –‘shamefully’ a community drama project which even Ian has been forced to admit was "breathtaking".
As an organisation, we have always recognised that community arts initiatives bring new energy, new ideas, new artists and new ways of making art to us all.
Furthermore, our films have picked up international awards, most notably in Paris, South Africa and San Francisco. Ian Hill chooses to ignore this record of our work because it negates his argument that an arts organisation can both "pursue high quality artistic disciplines" and be committed to socially engaged arts and culture. Nor can Ian Hill countenance the obvious conclusion from this which is that the work of artists is not compartmentalised.
To do so would render his assigned division of the arts into community arts equals amateur, conventional arts equals excellence, derisory. We finally hit the end of January sale at the cerebral department with Ian’s assertion that the modest funding increases to participatory arts by the Arts Council, "could dim the city’s bright chances" of becoming the European City of Culture 2008.
Belfast has suffered years of under-funding in the arts and the notion that we can, as a city, compete on an infrastructural level with our wealthier contenders is ambitious.
What makes us unique is the unprecedented level of participatory arts activity that is enjoyed throughout the city; activity, which is widely recognised throughout Europe as an example of how the arts can be made accessible to everyone.
This is what gives Belfast arts its character, its strength, and could indeed win us the bid.
Finally, far from being a ‘socially engineered’ budget this year, the Arts Council has begun the process of a more equitable distribution of public funds. Whilst this leaves Ian Hill in some obvious distress, frankly, everyone in this city pays taxes and, by the same token, everyone should have
access to the arts.
Simon Wood
Northern Visions Media Centre
OPENING UP THE ARTS TO EVERYONE
News Letter, February 15th
IN Ian Hill’s feature article of February 5, discussing the Arts Council’s recent budget announcement, his comments will, in time, come to be placed in the Museum of Outdated Thinking alongside the short-sighted rantings of those who berated Galileo for suggesting that the world was round.
His view of the arts will find room on the shelf alongside the politicians of the day who told the Suffragettes that women didn’t have the brains to be allowed the vote. Putting it crudely, Mr Hill’s views represent the old, this Arts Council budget represents the new.
Mr Hill tells us that giving money to Community Arts organisations will somehow dilute the quality of arts provision in Northern Ireland. He tells us this will damage the pursuit of excellence. He further, ludicrously, tells us that these developments will somehow damage Belfast’s prospects of winning the European Capital City of Culture. This beggars belief.
Perhaps the most offensive of Mr Hill’s remarks concerns his dismissal of Community Arts as ‘amateur’ arts. What a pile of misinformed nonsense!
This is the kind of dross the old Arts Council was churning out for the last ten years as an excuse for not funding Community Arts. This misses the point completely. The fact is, Community Arts is a unique way of creating the arts that combines the important use of professional and community
creativity. Yes, we know it’s a relatively new concept and we know it will take the slow learners like Ian Hill a bit longer to grasp than most, but this can’t be allowed to hold back the overall progress we as a society, and the arts community in particular, need to make.
If he chose to properly investigate, he would discover that the main Community Arts provision organisations that have emerged in Northern Ireland over the last ten years, such as Wheelworks Children’s ArtCart, Northern Visions Film and Video, The Nerve Centre, Cinemagic, Belfast Community Circus, Creative Writers’ Network, The Beat Initiative etc, are now recognised well beyond these shores as highly professional and innovative leaders in their field.
Even Mr Hill in his column is forced to acknowledge that the Community Theatre movement has manifested through its latest production, the award-winning Wedding Community Play, is reaching new areas of innovation and excitement that match any theatre anywhere. In spite of what Mr Hill says, the latest budget announcement by the Arts Council simply reflects the changing society In which we live.
In the old days – for a variety of reasons, but mainly social, economic and educational ones – only a small number of people felt able to create and participate in the arts. The old days are now firmly in the past. More people than ever – whether you are from North Down or North Belfast, Ballymena or Ballymurphy – want the arts, indeed, are demanding the arts. More importantly, not only do they want the arts, they want to participate in the creation of the arts. One of the cornerstones of Community Arts thinking is that there is creativity in each and every one of us.
In fact, it was this kind of short-sighted, elitist attitude emanating from the likes of Mr Hill and previous Arts Council administration which ensured that for 50 years the mainstream arts In Northern Ireland has sustained a pitifully low audience base (17 per cent of the adult population at the last count), and a very narrow pool of creative talent to draw from.
When consultant Mr Anthony Everitt presented his comprehensive review of Arts Council strategy recently, he came upon an amazing title for his document. He called it Opening Up the Arts. This is exactly what needs to happen. There is so much to be lost by keeping the arts at a low participatory base. Apart from anything else, it is stupid and constraining. But there is so much to be gained by opening the arts up to all the people. It makes straight-forward common sense. If we get more people involved in the arts, we get bigger audiences. If we encourage more people to believe that they too can make art, apart from giving more people the chance to creatively express themselves, we consequently create the circumstances for even more Seamus Heaneys, Barry Douglases, James Galways, Marie Joneses, Rita Duffys etc, to emerge.
Perhaps the worst aspect of Mr Hill’s article is the divisory tone he strikes.
It is our view that the mainstream arts organisations in this city sustains such as The Ulster Orchestra, The Lyric Theatre, The Grand Opera House, etc, are crucial cornerstones of our cultural life and should therefore be cherished and supported at every opportunity. Make no mistake. We are for the arts. We are for the arts – not just for some – but for all.
We believe it is in the interests of the mainstream arts organisations that the Community Arts sector should grow. Equally, it is in the interests of the Community Arts sector that we should have a strong mainstream arts infrastructure. Every audience member who walks through a door to attend a community play for the first time is a potential audience member for the Lyric or the Grand Opera House.
The Community Arts Forum has led a campaign for almost ten years now to have decent funding invested in what we have known for a long time is a fast-growing dynamic, vibrant sector. For the first time ever, the Arts Council, under its new and obviously enlightened chief executive Roisín McDonough, has at last begun to recognise the value and the good sense in beginning to put some decent resources into Community Arts.
We acknowledge this has come as a major shock to some of the old guard. It will take some getting used to. We genuinely share the disappointment of those arts organisations who either received a small increase or no increase in their funding this year. We can sympathise more than most. That was us for ten years in a row. We know the feeling.
Finally, we believe the multiple benefits of this new Arts Council budget and the consequent change in direction will become apparent to all, sooner rather than later. Perhaps then, those of us who believe in and love the arts and who feel passionately about its civilising and humanising effect on all our lives, can combine to continue the campaign to persuade the Assembly that the arts
in Northern Ireland is worth its keep) and deserves proper funding.
Martin Lynch & Will Chamberlain
Community Arts Forum
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