Northern Ireland ’s arts sector, supported by the Arts Council, today organized the Keep Our Arts Alive rally in a bid to save the arts and to improve the allocation contained within the Draft Budget 2008-2011, currently out for public consultation and which closes on 4th January 2008.
The arts in Northern Ireland are in danger of dying from neglect. That was the message of artists, arts professionals and supporters who gathered at Carson’s statue at Stormont to make a public call for increased arts funding.
Dressed in costume and carrying the tools of their arts and banners, supporters presented the Chair of the CAL Committee, Barry McElduff, with a letter which calls upon government to rethink the final budget settlement. This letter explained how the draft budget proposal pushes the sector into continuing downward spiral of decay and highlighted the negative impact it will have on the economy as a whole.
Artists Danny Devenney and Mark Ervine also unveiled a blank canvas to represent Northern Ireland without art – a consequence that Northern Ireland may have to tackle.
The advantages to be gained from meaningful investment in the arts have not been recognised by Northern Ireland’s main political parties, which gave overwhelming support in October to a Private Members’ Motion, calling on the Executive ‘to raise the level of arts funding to at least the United Kingdom average within the forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review’. Regrettably this support is not reflected in the Draft Budget.

http://www.artscouncil-ni.org/news/2007/new10122007.htm