Arts Council grant £5.7 million in core funding

The Arts Council has awarded grants totalling more £5.7 million to 113 arts organisations throughout Northern Ireland.

This year, projects received £80,000 more than in 2001 in spite of the total annual budget for the Arts Council falling from an initial figure of £7.4 million.

The distribution of funding has followed the strategic directions laid down in the council’s five-year plan to balance allocations in favour of artists and creative production. Independent theatre companies, arts and disability, and community-based productions such as Kabosh, Tinderbox, Replay, Prime Cut and Big Telly have benefited with average revenues increasing by almost 18 per cent.

A spokesman for the Arts Council said: "The principle of this latest round of funding is simply to send out a message that we want to make changes from support of buildings to the support of artists. This will give some uplift in the area that most needs it."

The Council hopes that organisations under local authorities, which generally received 10 per cent less funding this year, will find alternative ways to maintain their sites. The onus now falls on local authorities and organisations – such as the Ardowan Theatre, Verbal Arts Centre, and Riverside Theatre – to make up the difference.

The level of funding from government has inhibited the council’s capacity to respond to new clients, of 16 requests from organisations not currently in receipt of revenue funding, six new organisations have been included in the allocations.

The largest awards this year went to the Ulster Orchestra Society (£1,344,000), the Lyric Theatre (£500,000) and the Ormeau Baths Gallery (£250,000).

The full list of the recipients is available at www.artscouncil-ni.org

(GMcG)