DJ Próvaí, one of the members of Belfast hip hop group Kneecap pictured at Belfast High Court last month. Photo by Press Eye
APPETITE for our artistic offerings shows no sign of waning as productions from Northern Ireland take to the Edinburgh Fringe and Kneecap scores a hattrick of awards at the Galway Film Fleadh.
Whilst praise for the arts has never been higher, funding remains dismally low.
The arts are a prized jewel in Northern Ireland’s cultural crown - be it music, theatre, or screen - and are of profound importance to our quality of life and our tourism industry.
Our thriving cultural scene makes Northern Ireland a better place to live, stimulates the economy, and acts as a vital resource for education, health and cultural expression.
Yet the Department for Communities (DfC) - which holds responsibility for funding - has acknowledged that cash flow "has decreased, in real terms, by 30% over the last decade".
Northern Ireland spends significantly less on the arts than our neighbours. At just £5.07 a head, we have the lowest arts spend in the UK. And the Republic’s £21.58 per head spend puts us to shame.
Some funding streams do flow from Britain but these are not without conditions as rebel rappers Kneecap can attest.
Whether the new Prime Minister, who has hit out at his predecessors’ lack of attention to the arts, can set an example by ushering in a new era of artistic investment, reaffirming the political independence of funding and protecting artistic freedom remains to be seen.
At the very least, the creative community here deserves financial parity with our counterparts in Britain.
Without sufficient public funding, it is difficult for artists without independent means to follow their creative ambitions.
Private sector organisations partially plug the funding gap, but privatisation is not the answer. Plus the pressure of securing scarce grants is enough to stifle anyone’s creativity.
Maria Hassan
The arts have been downgraded in our schools, with fewer pupils in exam years electing to study creative subjects because STEM seems like a safer bet.
This blocks creative access for the budding artists (and prospective audiences) of the future.
The amount needed to support our arts sector is small compared with the soaring cost of Casement Park (which also falls under DfC's remit).
Given appropriate funding, the next generation of artists would no longer have to perform under economic pressure and would have the freedom to create (and not just what is profitable and palatable).
When we consider the benefits not only to artists but to our wider society, investment in the arts begins to look like a bargain.
Our artists have proved that with a little, they can do a lot. Imagine what they could do with a fully funded sector?