Opinion
Roisin McDonough, Chief Executive of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, on the issues facing the Arts in Northern I
Art Attack
Following the announcement of the Northern Ireland block grant on 20th October, everyone is now waiting apprehensively to see how the budget will be carved up across the various departments.
The outcome could well prove decisive for the future of the arts in Northern Ireland.
The arts must, of course, deliver their part in finding appropriate savings and making themselves as effective and efficient as possible, but any reductions must be fair and proportionate.
There is a view in some quarters that the arts in the UK and Ireland over the last ten years enjoyed something of ‘a golden era’. Sadly, not so in Northern Ireland. Here we have endured a pattern of consistent under-funding, which has kept our arts trapped at the bottom of the funding league and which leaves them poorly equipped to cope with cuts.
Early indications are that the arts may lose up a quarter of its current funding and all of its Capital funds, and this reduction would come on top of significant losses already sustained this year. As we are forced to claw back on the support we can offer and the opportunities for artists and arts organisations dry up, there is a real danger of Northern Ireland becoming a ‘no-go’ zone for artists. There is also a real concern about the impact on local communities. Over half of the Arts Council’s funding goes to the most deprived areas of Northern Ireland, so cutting deeper into the arts budget will damage not only the professional arts but the arts in and of the community as well.
To put these spending figures into perspective, the Arts Council’s annual grant is the equivalent to the underspends of some of the larger government departments such as health (-£16.6m) or education (-£15.5m) [at year end 2008-09]. In individual terms, current public sector funding for the arts wouldn’t cover even the cost, per person per year, of a couple of tickets to the cinema.
What does this say about the value we place on the one, unique thing that distinguishes us from regions and countries elsewhere? We mustn’t make the mistake of thinking that the arts are a luxury or just the ‘icing on the cake’, when it is clear that the quality of arts, alongside healthcare, justice and education, is one of the measures by which a society is judged.
Although tiny in relation to the overall budget for Northern Ireland, public investment in the arts produces major returns to the Northern Ireland economy. For instance, every £1 invested by the Arts Council generates at least £3 return; the creative industries are becoming our main source of job and wealth creation, employing over 33,000 people and generating £582m annually; and we all benefit from Cultural Tourism, which is the fastest growing sector of the tourist market, with 39 percent of visitors to Northern Ireland coming here for our distinctive arts and cultural assets. The arts are also responsible for the positive rebranding of Northern Ireland as the kind of vibrant and enterprising place where you might wish to live and work and as an incentive for businesses to relocate or invest here in preference to elsewhere. The arts therefore represent extremely good value for money.
Cuts to the arts would erode the very product upon which growth has been secured because that product is dependent upon the quality of our arts and our artists. The arts are not, in other words, just additional; the arts serve a public purpose as essential as any ‘frontline’ service.
During the coming weeks of consultation on the draft budget, the Arts Council will continue to work strenuously with, and on behalf of, the sector to try to avoid the worst of the cuts. More information about what you can do to support the arts is available on http://www.artscouncil-ni.org
