Arts Council Allocates Annual Funding The Arts Council allocates more than £7.3 million to 129 arts organisations throughout Northern Ireland Rosemary Kelly, Chairman, announced funding to secure those major arts organisations operating a year-round programme in Northern Ireland. “These organisations are the life-blood of the arts, working on tight budgets to provide the standards of excellence we have come to equate with our arts community here,” she said. “As well as maintaining funding to these organisations, we have been able to direct resources to organisations applying for the first time and boost funding to key partners across the region,” she continued. Among the new organisations funded is the Void in Derry City Council area (£30,000). This ambitious centre seeks to fill the gulf in international contemporary visual arts programming in the city after the demise of the Orchard Gallery. Void’s programme for the coming year is exciting and of a very high quality. Gallery provision is to be accompanied by much needed artists’ studio space and an innovative education and outreach programme. Maydown Youth Training (£28,600) is an important resource for Derry City Council area. Using the well-equipped Waterside Theatre, it is a centre for the promotion of the Ulster Scots concept of culture and a venue for locally developed young talent. Share Discovery 80 (£15,000), based in Fermanagh’s residential arts centre, is geared to creating accessibility to the arts for people from rural areas, marginalised sections of society and for people with disabilities. An innovative and grass-roots initiative, the organisation seeks to create new opportunities for the people of south-west Fermanagh. Another highlight is the doubling of the grant to Belfast’s Andersonstown Traditional & Contemporary Music School (£50,000), which provides more than 45 musical instrument classes to around 400 young people. The school has recently entered into cross-community initiatives with the Shankill Women’s Centre and Best Cellars Music Collective in Ballybeen and stands out among music schools in Northern Ireland for the professionalism of its administration. “The Council is proud to be able to fund organisations which are setting the standard both of sound administration and high-altitude artistic merit,” Ms Kelly concluded. Council Chief Executive, Roisín McDonough, described how funding was shaping up according to the objectives of the Council’s five-year strategy. “These allocations represent how seriously the Council takes its commitment to extending the reach of the arts. The awards sustain our major organisations in their activities in the mainstream arts and also, as our new successful applicants demonstrate, enhance the opportunities for participation in the arts for communities on the margins as well.” |
