Arts Council Hosts Stunning Arts Showcase March 6th 2003 The Arts Council hosted a showcase of arts performance and exhibition in Belfast to mark the allocation last week of more than £7.1 million to 129 arts organisations throughout Northern Ireland. Speaking at the event, held in 23 Donegall Street in the heart of the city’s Cathedral Quarter, Prof Brian Walker, Chairman, said that "the entire arts community can afford to congratulate itself on maintaining a remarkably coherent front over the years while, at the same time, continuing to be prolific in arts production and intelligent in managing the funds available to it". "If there is one place where culture matters, where artistic expression can be said to have a potent social and economic clout, it is here", he said. "In Northern Ireland, the public is not indifferent to the arts. They are not, because we have all of us together pressed the argument that the arts can and do transform the living environment of our communities; that arts buildings regenerate in a unique way the fabric of our towns and cities; that artistic practice can repair common civic loyalty and affection; that artists themselves inhabit, interpret and revitalise the creative impulses of the people and places they live among." Taking part in the event were Best Cellars Music Collective, Cahoots NI, Compántas Amharclainne Aisling Ghéar, Drake Music Northern Ireland, Gillian Jones Scottish Dancers, Irish Pages journal, Medbh McGuckian, Streetwise Samba Band, Ulster Youth Jazz Orchestra and Wheelworks. |
