The Arts Council of Northern Ireland has announced spending on the arts will now exceed £10 million a year, following an extra £18 million over three years injected into the sector from the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure. In the current year, spending on the arts totalled £7.3 million. Arts council Chairman, Professor Brian Walker, criticised the government’s spending last month, after figures indicated arts spending per capita in Northern Ireland is the lowest in the UK, at just £4.34. In comparison, England spends £5.90 per capita, Wales £6.43 and Scotland, £6.69, according to arts council figures. However, following the announcement today of the additional funding and initial spending plans for the period, Professor Walker commented that by 2005 per capita spending on the arts would be on par with the rest of Britain. ‘This uplift means the council’s allocation for the first time exceeds £10 million per year, raising the per capita spend on the arts from £4.34 in the current year to £6.45 by 2005,’ he said. ‘Our arts organisations are rightly keen to know more about the new funding, and my council has moved quickly this week to agree our spending priorities with government.’ The funding has been distributed in accordance with the council’s five-year plan, published in 2001, which emphasised the need for: developing infrastructure, securing sustainability and promoting creative confidence. Spending items include:

£4.5 million invested over the three years to secure the sustainability of arts organisations and venues

£1.1 million directed into a Challenge Fund to encourage district councils to support community arts projects and venues in their areas

a doubling of funds (from £500,000 to more than £1 million per year) for the Support for the Individual Artist programme

£1.5 million towards the council’s programme to support and raise awareness for theatre, dance, disability and language arts, and emerging crafts and architecture strategies

£1 million to assist arts and cultural venues meet the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act, through a grant-aid scheme to improve physical access and training for venue staff

£750,000 to target development initiatives to encourage and sustain creativity in children and young people Professor Walker commented that the funding reinforced the directions taken in the five-year strategy, and that work would now focus on distributing the funds to arts organisations. ‘We can now being the exciting work of determining the destination of our total funding to our hard-pressed arts organisations who rely on us for their day-to-day existence,’ he said. Allocations to arts organisations under the new funding are due to be announced in February next year. For more information on the Arts Council of Northern Ireland visit: www.artscouncil-ni.org/ Related Article Arts Council Chairman says arts funding in Northern Ireland 'unacceptable'