Collaboration and philanthropy to be sought to boost ‘shoestring’ arts funding

Collaboration and philanthropy will be pursued to boost funding for the arts sector in Northern Ireland, which has been described as “operating on a shoestring”.

The region continues to fall behind neighbouring nations in terms of public spending on the arts.

According to figures released by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland (ACNI), Northern Ireland spent £5.07 on arts funding per head of population in 2023/24 compared with £10.51 in Wales and £21.58 in the Republic of Ireland.

Communities Minister Gordon Lyons was pressed to act by leaders and influencers from the arts sector during a meeting at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast on Thursday.

Those at the meeting included Snow Patrol frontman Gary Lightbody, Arts Council chairman Liam Hannaway, Auveen Sands from Ulster Orchestra and Mimi Turtle from Strand Arts Centre.

Lightbody described the meeting as positive, but said the fall in funding for the arts has left it “operating on a shoestring”, and that any further cuts will place the arts “in real jeopardy”.

He said they will reconvene in six to nine months to discuss progress.

Mr Lyons said despite the challenges the arts sector has faced in recent years, the mood of the meeting was “quite positive”.

With the Stormont budget under pressure, he said he wants to explore collaboration with other public bodies, and philanthropy, to invest in the arts.

“We had a really good conversation about how the arts can help in healthcare, help in education and help in the justice system as well.

“We discussed that as well as the funding challenges, how we can increase investment but also source investment from elsewhere,” he said.

“There are a few things we are going to explore, for example, how we can collaborate with other public sector bodies, with universities, how we can look at philanthropy to try and help tackle some of the issues that are faced.

“But I think the strongest message that came across for me was that this is an investment, when you invest in the arts you invest in people, you invest in society, you invest in the economy and that’s the message that I have been  taking to Executive colleagues and will continue to take to Executive colleagues in the time ahead because I believe it can make a real difference.”

He added that when they next meet he wants to be “in a position where we are improving the situation”.

“I had extra money left at the end of last year to reallocate, I was able to put that into the arts. I’ve secured an additional extra half a million pounds this year for the arts. I want to continue that, I want to put us back up to where it was a number of years ago,” he said.

“Obviously we’re in a constrained budgetary environment, that’s the difficulty. In the absence of being able to do more there, I want to make sure we’re looking at these other sources of funding as well as the overall structure and support for the arts in Northern Ireland.”

Mr Lyons described some fantastic ambassadors for Northern Ireland, adding he wants to “make the most of that”.

“I want to get that message out there, what a great place this is and how much talent we have and how with a little bit of investment we can go even further,” he said.

Mr Lightbody said he appreciated the pressures on the Stormont budget, particularly around housing and homelessness, that he said “we care deeply about”.

“Obviously there are huge priorities in any society, education, infrastructure, healthcare, but the way I see it is that the arts are something that make life worth living and can bring so much joy to life,” he said.

“It’s not just about the things that sustain our lives, but the things that sustain our souls and I feel very strongly about that.”

He said it was impressed strongly on the minister how extraordinarily underfunded the arts is in Northern Ireland, and that it needs to be looked at.

“The minister listened to all our comments and said he would do his best to bring our comments to the Executive.

“I thought it was a positive meeting but it remains to be seen. We will continue to advocate for the arts and put pressure on.

“He talked about having another meeting in six to nine months.

“We realise it is probably going to be an incremental change but at the moment the way the Arts Council see it, is that the budget for arts is now operating on a literal shoestring, it’s gone down 10% every year for the last ten years. If that trend continues we will be in real jeopardy.

“Other places in the UK and Ireland support the arts considerably more financially and generally as well. Northern Ireland is lagging behind in that.”