Arts Council urges sector to respond to Funding Inquiry

19/02/2009

 

The Committee for Culture, Arts and Leisure (CAL) at Stormont, which scrutinises the work of the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure (DCAL), is conducting an inquiry into ‘The Funding of the Arts in Northern Ireland’. 

The Arts Council would encourage artists and arts organisations in Northern Ireland to respond to this welcome invitation to contribute to the evidence being gathered by the CAL Committee.  It would be helpful if ‘umbrella organisations’ would submit responses on behalf of their sectors.

It is not necessary to respond to each of the points in the Terms of Reference; our advice is to restrict your responses to those areas in which you have relevant experience and can substantiate your observations.

Written submissions can be sent by email to committee.cal@niassembly.gov.uk or by post to: The CAL Committee Clerk, Room 424, Parliament Buildings, Belfast BT4 3XX (Tel: 028 90521 841).  Please also send a hard copy in the post if original submission is emailed.

The closing date for written submissions is Friday 27th February 2009.

There will also be an opportunity for some groups to make oral presentations, at the discretion of the Committee.  Oral evidence will start on Thursday 5th March and will continue until April 2009.  It is hoped to conclude the inquiry by July and publish in September 2009.

Further information on: http://www.niassembly.gov.uk/culture/2007mandate/inquiry/tor_arts.htm

 

CAL INQUIRY TERMS OF REFERENCE

The terms of reference for the inquiry are:

• To compare the per capita spend on the arts in Northern Ireland with that of other European countries/regions, and to establish the rationale which other countries/regions have used in order to increase their spend on the arts.

• To explore innovative approaches of sourcing additional funding across the arts sector, including reviewing models of best practice that exist elsewhere.

• To carry out a stock take of the research which has been carried out to date, regarding the measurement of the economic and social benefits of investing in the arts.

• To examine how those organisations which provide public funding to the arts in Northern Ireland allocate their funding across the various art forms, and to consider whether the method of allocation sufficiently takes into account the need to:
  a) find a balance between the community and professional arts sectors;
  b) target social need;
  c) encourage community regeneration; and
  d) engage with communities which have historically found it difficult to develop an arts infrastructure and therefore access arts funding.

• To compare those organisations which provide public funding to the arts in Northern Ireland with similar organisations across these islands, in terms of how they allocate funding across the various art forms.

• To consider whether there are any art forms which are currently not receiving adequate funding, given their levels of participation and/or impact with regards to targeting social need and regenerating communities.

• To report to the Assembly making recommendations to the Department and/or others.

 

CAL GUIDE TO SUBMITTING WRITTEN EVIDENCE

• All organisations and individuals are welcome to submit evidence

• Written evidence should give a brief introduction to the persons or organisations submitting it (perhaps stating their area of expertise, etc).  It should also set out any factual information they have to offer form which the committee might be able to draw conclusions (or which  could be put to witnesses for their reactions).  It would also be helpful to include any recommendations for action by departments or others that you or your organisation would like the committee to consider for inclusion in its report.

• Written evidence should be in the form of a brief, self-contained memorandum with numbered paragraphs but without page numbers, and should be prefaced with a 1-2 page summary plus, if appropriate, a table of contents.  Colour printing should be avoided.

• Submissions should be structured so that each of the issues/concerns specified in the terms of reference are addressed in turn.

• Written evidence should be emailed to the committee as ‘Word Documents’.  If this is not possible, fifteen copies of the material should be submitted.  If this would cause delay or difficulty, a single copy will suffice.  Memoranda should be stapled rather than bound so that further copies can easily be made.

• Witnesses should be aware that if they decide to publish the evidence that they provide to the committee, the publication would not be covered by Assembly privilege.  Witnesses who nevertheless decide to publish their evidence should provide the committee with advance notice of their intentions.

• Unless indicated otherwise it will be assumed that those submitting written evidence have no objections to it being made public by the committee.  If witnesses give oral evidence, copies of their written evidence will usually be made available to the press and public at the hearing and treated as being in the public domain thereafter.  Written evidence submitted by those not giving oral evidence will usually be made public by the committee at the end of the inquiry, by publication or other means.

 

ARTS COUNCIL SEMINAR – ‘UNDERSTANDING THE CAL COMMITTEE’

The Arts Council would like to thank the wide range of artists and representatives of arts organisations who attended our seminars about understanding the workings of the CAL Committee, on Monday 16th in Belfast and Tuesday 17th February in Derry City.  The seminars, hosted by Fiona MacMillan, Public Affairs Officer at the Arts Council, who attends the Committee as an observer each week and has been involved in a number of previous Assembly Committee Inquiries, were very well attended. 

For artists and groups who were unable to attend the seminars, the following background information about the Assembly committees may be of help:

Departmental Committees at Stormont
Departmental committees at Stormont cover the work of the 11 Government Departments.  There are six standing committees covering various areas including public accounts, audit and standards and privileges.

Committee for Culture, Arts and Leisure
The Committee for Culture, Arts and Leisure is a Statutory Department Committee established in accordance with paragraphs 8 and 9 of the Belfast Agreement, Section 29 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 and under Assembly Standing Order 46. The Committee has a scrutiny, policy development and consultation role with respect to the Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure and has a role in the initiation of legislation.
The Committee has power to:

• Consider and advise on Departmental Budgets and Annual Plans in the context of the overall budget allocation;
• Approve relevant secondary legislation and take the Committee stage of relevant primary legislation;
• Call for persons and papers;
• Initiate inquiries and make reports; and
• Consider and advise on matters brought to the Committee by the Minister for Culture, Arts and Leisure.

Membership
The CAL committee has 11 members, including a Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson, and a quorum of five members.

Previous inquiries by the CAL committee
To date the CAL committee has held an Inquiry into the development of a Museums Policy and the Libraries Bill.  When completed, Inquiries are presented to the Assembly in a full debate and the appropriate Minister is given an opportunity to respond.  Subsequently Ministers usually appear before the Committee to discuss their report and recommendations; although the Minister is not obliged to implement any of these or indeed take them on board.

Assembly Research Team
Each Committee has a designated researcher.  During an Inquiry they would also use the services of other researchers in the team.  This normally is desk research, although members of the Committee may make site visits if appropriate.

Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure
In Northern Ireland this is the Government Department responsible for arts and creativity, museums, libraries, sport, inland waterways and inland fisheries, linguistic diversity, public records, and for advising on National Lottery distribution.

Statutory Bodies
DCAL supports a wide range of statutory bodies including the Armagh Observatory, the Armagh Planetarium, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, the libraries, aspect of the Education and Library Boards, the Fisheries Conservancy Board, National Museums Northern Ireland, the Northern Ireland Museums Council and Sport Northern Ireland. DCAL also co-sponsors (with its Irish counterparts) two North/South Implementation Bodies, Waterways Ireland and the Language Body, comprising Foras na Gaeilge and the Ulster-Scots Agency.

Ad-hoc Committees
Ad Hoc Committees are established from time to time to deal with specific time-bound terms of reference that the Assembly may set.  These have included criminal compensation, local postal services and reform to sexual offences legislation.

All party groups
All Party Assembly Groups and All Party Groups provide a forum by which MLAs and outside organisations and individuals can meet to discuss shared interests in a particular cause or subject. There are approximately 14 of these including issues as diverse as children and young people, international development, climate change, autism, disability, construction and energy.

 

USEFUL FACTS

The Arts Council is preparing a full submission to the CAL Committee inquiry.  For your submission, you might wish to consider, within the context of the Terms of Reference, how the following funding patterns impact on your work.

Arts spending per capita in the UK and RoI for 2008/09:
Scotland	£14.04
Wales	£10.10
England	£ 8.47
Ireland	€17.92
Northern Ireland	£ 7.58

 

Demographic spread of Arts Council funding, 2003-08:

• More than half (56%; £31.5m) of the funding awarded by the Arts Council through its main funding programmes has gone directly to the most deprived areas in Northern Ireland.

• 97% (£5.7m) awarded in the Derry City Council area through the Arts Council’s main funding programmes has gone directly to the Londonderry’s most deprived areas.

• Arts Council funding programmes have targeted social need, notably ‘Art of Regeneration’ and ‘Re-imaging Communities’ programmes, helping to kick-start sustainable regeneration in local communities throughout NI.

 

Geographic spread of Arts Council funding, 2003-08:

• Every parliamentary constituency has received grant-in-aid from the Arts Council.  Initiatives such as the ‘Start Up’ scheme have encouraged applications from ‘cold spot’ areas.

• The level of revenue funding allocated within Belfast reflects the concentration of organisations, many with a national remit.

• Other funding programmes show the true spread of funding outside of Belfast, eg: 85% (£2.03m) Art of Regeneration Programme; 58% (£1.4m) Re-imaging Communities Programme.

• In 2008 the Arts Council achieved its long-term ambition to provide an arts facility within 20 miles of every person in NI.