Arts Council Allocates Massive Funding Boost 25 Feb 2003 The Arts Council today allocated more than £7.1 Million to 129 arts organisations throughout Northern Ireland The value of the awards, almost £1.5 million more than last year, represents an increase on overall funding of 24.5 per cent. Click Here for List of Funded Organisations in Excel 97 Format Click Here for List of Funded Organisations as Web Page Prof Brian Walker, Chairman, announced funding geared to "strengthen those organisations which are the backbone of the arts" in Northern Ireland. "We welcome the extra revenue from the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure which has helped us begin to redress years of chronic under-funding in the arts," he said. "The extra funding to the Council means that we have been able to inject an extra £1.5 million into our Annual Support for Organisations Programme (ASOP). The remainder will appear in other programmes and initiatives which we shall be announcing during the year," he said. "As well as significantly increasing funding to all our arts organisations, we have been able to direct resources to youth arts and health arts organisations which provide so many in our community with a valuable experience of performance and participation," he continued. "This confirms the delivery of the Council’s commitment to long-term change in arts funding." Annual Support for Organisations Programme
"The arts community can look to the future with unprecedented confidence, because the excellence of our arts practice and the quiet efficiency of our arts administrators has at last achieved something close to the recognition from our society which they all deserve," Prof Walker concluded. Council Chief Executive, Roisín McDonough, described how funding was shaping up according to the objectives of the Council’s five-year strategy. "This budget is more than a beginning," she said. "It builds on the achievements of the last two years. We have taken immediate steps to stave off erosion of the arts infrastructure, to enhance provision in the youth arts and disability arts sector and to bring new arts organisations on board. We are on target to secure the radical change described in our strategy."
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