The Arts Council of Northern Ireland has hit back at critics who accuse it of backing ‘middle class’ interests.
ACNI chief executive Roisín McDonough said that analysis of the organisation’s grantmaking showed that more than half of the Arts Council’s main funding goes directly to the most deprived areas of Northern Ireland
Launching ACNI’s annual review, McDonough said, “This research on Arts Council funding refutes two commonly held beliefs about where and how arts funding is spent - key findings show that arts funding is neither ‘a middle income, middle class interest’ nor is it ‘centred on Belfast’. In fact the arts engage fully across all areas of society; 56% of main Arts Council funding has gone directly to the most deprived areas in Northern Ireland and there is a wide geographical spread of other funding streams outside Belfast .”
She added that last year the Arts Council also achieved its ambition to provide a dedicated arts facility within 20 miles of every person living in Northern Ireland .
Figures contained in the review show that 85% (£2.03m) of Art of Regeneration Programme, 73% (£24.4m) of Capital Building Awards (since 1995) and 58% (£1.4m) of Re-imaging Communities Programme was awarded outside Belfast.
But ACNI continues to press for more government funding. Despite an uplift of £7.55 million over the next three-years ‘funding remains far short of the increase needed to deliver a per capita funding figure that matches that of our neighbours on these islands, “ she added.