Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1697804866972.pdf (Ireland)
Arts Council Northern Ireland – opening statement Thank you for the opportunity to address the Committee.

The Arts Council of Northern Ireland is the official funding and development organisation for the arts in Northern Ireland.

We fulfil broadly similar functions to those of An Chomhairle Ealaíon.

At the heart of what we do, is a commitment to increasing public access to, and participation in, the arts.

Enhancing community engagement is a strategic priority for us.
We want the arts to contribute to the creation of an innovative, creative and diverse society where everyone has the opportunity to fulfil their creative potential.

The Arts Council’s investment in community and local arts provides an important assurance that traditionally hard-to-reach communities, and underrepresented communities, have the same opportunities as others to enjoy the benefits of the arts.
We support the widest possible range of arts organisations throughout Northern Ireland, including support organisations such as the Community Arts Partnership, the University of Atypical, which supports disabled, D/deaf and neurodivergent people’s involvement in the arts; and others, like Beyond Skin and Arts Ekta, who are engaged in working with refugees and asylum seekers.
The Arts Council provides grants to small community groups who want to develop events and activities that will bring their local communities closer together through participation in the arts.

Where we identify gaps in service across the region, we intervene with targeted resources.

Three current interventions are producing pioneering work in the area of arts and health.
The Arts and Older People Programme, the Young People and Wellbeing Arts Programme, and the Creative Schools Partnership, each benefit from a pooling of expertise as well as funding, with professional artists introducing new creative dimensions to the work of a range of partners, from the Public Health Agency to the Education Authority.

With the Review of Public Administration in 2015, local authorities assumed greater responsibility for the arts in their council areas.
However, district council spending is under considerable pressure, and this additional responsibility has not always been met consistently across the region.
The Arts Council has taken measures to incentivise spending on, and the integration of, Oireachtas Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media 1 Arts Council Northern Ireland – opening statement the arts at a local level, with initiatives including the 2017 Local Government Challenge Fund, which offered match funding of up-to £150,000 to each of our eleven local councils.
In 2019 we introduced a capacity and resilience programme, co-designed with Belfast and Derry and Strabane Council, to support fourteen key arts organisations to adapt to the changing environments of these growing cities.
We also established a deliberative forum for Rural Communities in 2021, to strengthen the voice of artists and activists living in rural communities, and this forum has led to the development of the Arts Council’s three-year £1.5 million Rural Arts Engagement Programme, now in its second year.

The lack of a sitting Executive in Northern Ireland is undoubtedly impacting on the role that the arts can play in helping to deliver government priorities.
However, the single most critical factor holding us back is decades of chronic under-investment.

Northern Ireland’s arts receive the lowest level of government support across these islands, currently standing at just €5.36 per capita.

Compare this with €25.47 in Ireland.

The Irish government, to its great credit, clearly cherishes its arts and appreciates their value.
A challenging operating environment for artists in the North, where an already under-resourced sector had not had time to recover fully from the impact of the pandemic before being hit by the rapid escalation of energy and living costs, is made harder still following the UK’s withdrawal from the EU and the consequent loss of opportunities for international artist exchange and touring of product by Northern Ireland’s artists, including across the island of Ireland.
Thankfully the strong historical relationship between the two arts councils on this island continues to be significant in this respect, as we explore joint initiatives, such as an all-Island touring programme, which will build on the framework of support that we already offer to our jointly-funded clients.

The Arts in Northern Ireland consistently achieve a level of national and international success whose return far outweighs its government’s investment.
Just think how hard our brilliant, highly-talented, highly-skilled artists are making that money work.

Just imagine the heights we could achieve with even just a little bit more.

Oireachtas Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media 2