(Councillor Nicholl to raise)
Minutes:
Councillor Nicholl, who had requested that this item be placed on the agenda, drew the Committee’s attention to difficulties which were being faced currently by grassroots arts organisations in the City and suggested that it might wish to obtain further details from representatives of those organisations who were in attendance.
The Committee agreed that it would be beneficial to hear from the representatives and, accordingly, Ms. J. Morrow, Interim Chief Executive, University of Atypical, and Mr. R. Hilken, Visual Arts Ireland, were welcomed by the Chairperson.
Ms. Morrow informed the Committee that there were currently approximately seventeen studios/artist-led organisations in the City, accounting for around 450 artists. Those organisations were unique in the context of the cultural infrastructure and, whilst their contribution could not be measured using traditional methods, such as income generated through ticket sales and audience numbers, their importance to the visual culture of the City had long been recognised.
She reported that essential support infrastructure for artist-led galleries, organisations and studios was being severely threatened due to the insecurity of short-term leases on the buildings in the City centre from which they were operating and funding issues generally. A number of organisations had closed in the past year and several others were facing imminent closure. That, she pointed out, would impact upon activities such as the Late Night Art initiative, which helped to promote the City’s night time economy. She explained that these difficulties could be attributed primarily to three factors, namely, regeneration and property speculation in the City centre, the politics of austerity and the consequential loss of public funding and a lack of specific support for grassroots infrastructure as an essential part of a vibrant arts ecosystem.
She highlighted the fact that the Arts Council of Northern Ireland’s INSPIRE | CONNECT | LEAD five-year strategic framework for developing the arts 2019-24 had made no mention of studios, workspaces or other production resources for artists. In addition, the Council’s core multi-annual funding (CMAF) scheme presented difficulties, in that income/turnover and time/sustainability thresholds had to be met, which had a detrimental impact upon those grassroots organisations and artist studios with low operating costs.
In terms of potential solutions, Ms. Morrow requested that the Council, firstly, affirm its support for grassroots arts organisations in the City and, secondly, make available to them capital grants to raise match funding, secure charitable loans to purchase buildings and establish co-ownership schemes. She called also for the introduction of a developer contribution initiative, similar to that in place for public realm projects, and for discussions to take place at a strategic level between the three main funders of grassroots art activity in the City, namely, the Council, the Arts Council for Northern Ireland and the Department for Communities to address the issues which she had raised.
Mr. Hilken reiterated the points which had been made by Ms. Morrow and invited the Members to attend a meeting of the Belfast Visual Arts Forum being held on 25th February to discuss the current crisis in this sector and the potential impacts should a resolution not be found.
Mr. Hilken and Ms. Morrow were thanked by the Chairperson.
After a discussion, the Committee:
i. agreed that officers seek a meeting with the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and the Department for Communities to discuss cultural and arts infrastructure requirements within the City;
ii. agreed that the Council should seek to identify potential studio space for artists within the City centre through existing work streams;
iii. agreed that support for the culture and arts sector should continue to feature prominently within the Committee’s priorities;
iv. noted that a report would on 26th February be presented to the Committee in relation to the allocation of CMAG funding for culture and arts organisations and making reference to other potential funding streams; and
v. agreed that a report be submitted to a future meeting providing an update on the progress which had been made since this meeting and agreed also that it should receive update reports on a regular basis thereafter.