Arts and creative organisations to benefit from £10m of funding

Date published: 11 February 2021

Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey has said that £10million of funding being offered today to a wide range of arts and creative organisations, will help stabilise the sector which has been disproportionately impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Minister Hargey pictured at her desk in Causeway Exchange
Minister Hargey pictured at her desk in Causeway Exchange

She made the comments as letters of offers totalling more than £10m were issued to 168 organisations who had applied to the Stability and Renewable Programme for Organisations, which is being delivered by the Arts Council on the Department for Communities’ behalf.

The Minister said:

“I know that the arts and creative sectors have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic and that this financial support is vital to stabilise organisations and prevent many from closing permanently.

“This funding will eliminate deficits which organisations have accumulated from 1 April 2020 because of reductions in income, coupled with unavoidable ongoing costs.

“The arts and creative industries have an important role to play in helping us all emerge from this pandemic, and this support is designed to stabilise organisations until they can reopen and resume delivering their important benefits to our community.”

The aim of the fund, which is now closed, is to stabilise the arts and creative industries sectors and secure a future which is representative of their spread, diversity and reach prior to the pandemic. Organisations will use the funding to put their finances back on a stable footing.

Roísín McDonough, Chief Executive, Arts Council of Northern Ireland said:

“Today’s announcement of £10million of funding will be of benefit to 168 arts and cultural organisations across NI. The Arts Council thanks the Minister for Communities for making this emergency fund available.  It is very much needed to help stabilise the wider arts, cultural and entertainment sectors in these difficult times and to plan for eventual recovery.” 

This funding is part of the Department for Communities’ Covid-19 Culture, Languages, Arts and Heritage Support Programme.

Awards to self-employed individuals, which will be distributed by Arts Council on behalf of the Department, will be announced later this month.

Notes to editors: 

  1. The £29m Executive funding for arts, culture, heritage and languages was announced on 24 September 2020.
  2. The Arts Council initially received an indicative budget of £7.75m at the end of October for the Stability and Renewal Programme for Organisations.
  3. The Stability and Renewal Programme closed for applications on November 27, 2020.
  4. A full list of projects will be published in the coming weeks.
  5. For case studies please contact the Arts Council, Gráinne McCann, gmccann@artscouncil-ni.org
  6. Media enquiries to DfC Press Office on email:
  7. The Executive Information Service operates an out of hours service for media enquiries only between 1800hrs and 0800hrs Monday to Friday and at weekends and public holidays. The duty press officer can be contacted on 028 9037 8110.
  8. Follow us on Twitter @CommunitiesNI

Share this page

Back to top