We've heard a great deal in past weeks about the swingeing cuts to English arts funding as a result of the re-routing of lottery monies to feed the insatiable money-eating monster that is the 2012 Olympics. Virtually unmentioned in this debate, however, is the effect these cuts are having on arts organisations elsewhere in the UK, in particular Northern Ireland, where funding for the arts is already shockingly low.
A month ago, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland (ACNI) published its first big bad news story of the year - standstill funding for the third year running, meaning frozen grant levels to most of its client organisations. Then, last week came the sucker punch: a 27% decrease in lottery funds, with £3m available for Northern Irish arts organisations this year as compared to £4.1m in 2006. The ACNI explicitly blames the recent government decision to fund the London Olympics via lottery proceeds as the cause for an increasingly steep decline in lottery funding to the arts in Northern Ireland.
Ulster arts insiders say that the ACNI was days away from announcing its 2007 lottery decisions when news came from Westminster of this year's cuts, forcing it to disappoint some organisations with lower levels than had already been signalled. Many organisations had devoted considerable time and resources to creating three-year plans, only to receive standstill single-year funding (which, under the circumstances, might actually be a best-case scenario, in that groups who were awarded multi-annual contracts this year are now locked into low funding levels).
The timing of these events is woeful, given the recent, historic moves forward in Northern Irish politics: just as the political divide shows decisive signs of narrowing, Northern Ireland is reminded yet again that when it comes to the arts, it never seems to cut a break. To trot out the depressing statistics: per capita spending on the arts in Northern Ireland is by far the lowest in these islands - £6.13, literally half the amount spent per head by the Republic of Ireland, and well below the per capita spends by the Scottish Arts Council (£11.93) and the Arts Council of England (£8.09).
Northern artists and arts workers have been decrying these problems for years - in February, for example, the ACNI launched a five-year strategy including a demand for funding parity with the rest of the UK, and full of talk of regeneration, the promotion of cultural tourism, and improving Northern Ireland's image abroad. Some insiders say, however, that ineffective lobbying by and poor management at funding bodies is part of the larger problem.
As a longtime observer and admirer of the arts in Northern Ireland, particularly its theatre, I simply don't know how artists and arts professionals there keep going, as events continually call for yet another protest, yet another emergency coalition, yet another belt-tightening. Being defined by your resilience and indomitability must surely be bloody exhausting.
Recognition from the rest of the UK of just how scarce resources are in the North would doubtless be a good start towards moving forward, but I suspect any complaint about such things disappears into a general haze of Northern Ireland-oriented Bad News.
Are things as bad in Wales and Scotland? If not, why?
