97 Arts Organisations To Benefit From £12.8m Annual Funding

The Arts Council of Northern Ireland (ACNI) has announced grants of £12.8 million to be divided among 97 key arts organisations across the region.

The move brought bad news for some organisations however, with the number receiving support from the Annual Funding Programme (AFP) to be reduced from 102 to 97, leaving five initiatives in search of alternative financial support.

Government funds of £8.4 million will maintain the core costs of the programme, while a £4.3 million contribution from the National Lottery will also support costs.

The standstill funding comes after a budget decrease of 4% from the Department for Communities was anticipated.

Chair of the Arts Council, John Edmund, said: "Today I announced that the Arts Council is able to award £12.8 million of annual arts funding to support the valuable work of our artists and arts organisations, all of whom are delivering great art for the benefit of everyone in Northern Ireland.

"However, within the context of reducing public funding, this year in particular from the National Lottery, the Board had to make the difficult decision to reduce the number of annually funded organisations while protecting the balance of arts forms for the year ahead. It is with regret that we had to refuse AFP 2019 funding to five current AFP clients. All of these organisations are eligible to apply to other Arts Council programmes in the future.

"The vast majority of applications received for Annual Funding this year were eligible, but there simply weren't the resources to fund all that was asked for. Thirty-four organisations were offered standstill funding, five were offered strategic uplifts, while the remainder received cuts, in the majority of cases, cuts of 5% to programming costs."

Among those losing their funding is PLACE, an environmental organisation that runs public tours, talks, exhibitions and festivals to educate people on their built environment.

The initiative has been running for 15 years and organises events such as the annual Open House Belfast architecture festival and the Urban Design Academy for young people.

Responding to the "disappointing and shocking" funding cut, a spokesperson claimed that they were informed without warning of a final three months of funding to facilitate their exit from the Arts Council programme.

The PLACE board and staff said in a statement: "The impact will be strongly felt by the organisation's three employees and the PLACE board, as well as several freelancers, our team of volunteers and the thousands of people who enjoy our activities and projects.

"There is no other organisation delivering the same unique mix of activities that PLACE does. We connect architecture, public art, placemaking and urbanism to the general public, helping people to understand and influence transformations in the built environment. We believe that this understanding inspires active citizenship, creating, in turn, more democratic, inclusive, and safer places which promote wellbeing.

"In this, our 15th year, we are ready to deliver our most ambitious programme to date. We have developed new partnerships with community organisations, with fellow arts and cultural organisations and with architectural and engineering practices. We are ready to reach out to more communities, more young people, more built environment professionals, and more artists than ever before. We are looking forward to working with our partners and stakeholders on projects that are already underway. 

"We will do whatever it takes to ensure the future of our organisation. While we do this, we call for your support. If you have positively benefited from our programming over the past 15 years, please share your experience with us via our social media channels. 

"We stand in solidarity with other arts organisations who may also have received shocking news yesterday morning."



(JG/CM)