NI arts organisations warned of 10% funding cuts

Arts organisations have been told that their annual funding available from the Arts Council could be cut by 10%.

In 2022-23, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland (ACNI) awarded more than £13m to almost 100 organisations.

About £8.5m of that money came from Stormont, through the Department for Communities (DfC).

But the ACNI has written to the organisations it supports to warn them it faces a reduction in funding for 2023-24.

It provides financial support to arts organisations, music venues, theatres and other groups and venues across Northern Ireland.

That includes big venues like the Lyric Theatre and the Grand Opera House in Belfast and the Millennium Forum in Londonderry.

But it also includes a range of other venues and organisations like the Oh Yeah Music Centre in Belfast, the Armagh Rhymers or Array Studios.

In their letter to the 95 organisations that get money under ACNI's Annual Funding Programme (AFP), the Arts Council warned that it had been told to "assume a 10% reduction on 2022-23 resource funding levels".

"At a time when the Northern Ireland arts sector is facing significant challenges in this period of ongoing post-Covid recovery and inflationary cost pressures, this is extremely disappointing news," the letter continued.

"Difficult decisions will be required in relation to AFP grant allocations to live within budget while also enabling organisations to develop and meet their full potential after years of lack of investment."

"A 10% cut is the indicative allocation which ACNI must now use as the necessary planning figure in relation to the AFP budget."

Dylan Quinn Dance Theatre in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, received £47,000 in Arts Council funding last year.

Its founder, Dylan Quinn, said cuts to the arts budget affected people's jobs and livelihoods as well as arts activities.

"We provide community projects, education projects and professional performance," he told BBC News NI.

"We would raise money ourselves from delivering services, like teaching workshops or other projects.

"But the really important thing about Arts Council funding is that it provides core funding for arts organisations."

Mr Quinn told BBC News NI that a 10% cut to the arts budget would be "absolutely devastating".

"We have had continual cuts over the last few years and this is coming on top of significant increases in the cost of living but also in the cost of doing business," he said.

"Arts organisations are small businesses and non-profitable or charitable organisations like ourselves.

"We are ploughing everything that we have into delivering services and creating art.

"It's very difficult to put into words how big an impact this could have."

A Stormont budget for 2023-24 has not yet been set in the absence of an executive by Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris.