Equity calls for the Communities Minister to Save the Arts in Northern Ireland

• Over 130 members of the community showed up to Equity’s Save the Arts, Resist the Cuts public meeting this afternoon.
• Actor Seamus O'Hara; MLA and Chair of the All Party Group for the Arts Sian Mulholland and Una Nic Eoin, Executive Producer Prime Cut explained the impact of the cuts to artists, communities and NI creative output.
• Equity will hand in letters signed by the meeting’s attendees to Minister Gordon Lyons on a date to be confirmed at Stormont.

Yesterday (Monday 25th March), over 130 people showed up to Equity’s Save the Arts, Resist the Cuts public meeting.

Held at the Europa Hotel, the meeting was an opportunity for members of Northern Ireland’s community to call on Minister Gordon Lyons at the Department for Communities to stop the cuts and invest in the arts in Northern Ireland. The meeting was organised by Equity, the performing arts and entertainment trade union.

On-stage speakers were General Secretary of Equity, Paul W Fleming; Una Nic Eoin, Executive Producer from Prime Cut Productions, one of the island of Ireland’s leading independent companies; and high-profile Equity member and actor Seamus O’Hara; MLA and Chair of the All Party Group for the Arts Sian Mulholland; President of Equity Lynda Rooke; and MP Claire Hanna, Chair of the Westminster Performers Alliance All Party Group.

The audience included representatives from Arts Council NI and theatre production companies (eg Derry Playhouse, Brassneck Theatre Company and Replay Theatre Company) MLAs, Local Councillors and Gerry Murphy ICTU Assistant General Secretary.

All attendees of the public meeting were given the opportunity to sign their own letter to Gordon Lyons MLA, Minister at the Department for Communities, calling on him to reverse the cuts to arts funding and invest in the arts. These letters will be handed in at Stormont by a delegation of activists led by Equity’s Northern Ireland Official Alice Adams Lemon on a date TBC.

MP Claire Hanna says “This region will thrive based on its human capital - on people who can think, create and interact and the arts sector excels at these skills, as well as at regenerating unused spaces, attracting investment and building cohesion. In our traditionally divided society it has also provided, for decades, naturally shared space and opportunities to better understand each other. Money invested in the arts creates an incredible return”.

Actor Seamus O'Hara, says “We are a proud, strong, competent, confident industry and it’s time we were heard and respected .. enough is enough”.

Una Nic Eoin, Executive Producer at Prime Cut, said “We are in a crisis. We have against all the odds, found other sources of funding, nurtured and created new work, made beautiful and exciting work, with brilliant, inspirational artists but we are close to burn out. Something has got to give.”

Sian Mulholland MLA says “So often the Arts Sector are tasked with doing so much with so little. The sector needs a fully resourced strategy that puts arts workers and the communities they serve at the heart of it. I will be asking the Minister for Communities and all Executive Ministers to consider the Arts in the upcoming Programme for Government and Budget. This is not subsidy, it’s investment."

Paul W Fleming, General Secretary of Equity, says "At today’s rally, Equity brought together trades unions of every sector, arts workers, politicians, and the producers we negotiate with. We have one message for Gordon Lyons: continued cuts are wrong; they’re economically illiterate, and morally inexcusable."

About the Save the arts, Resist the Cuts campaign 

Last year, the Department for Communities told Arts Council Northern Ireland to expect a 10% funding cut for 2023-24. This was announced during the period when power-sharing in Northern Ireland was defunct and there was no democratically approved Minister leading the department.

Equity Northern Ireland jumped into action, launching our ‘Save the Arts, Resist the Cuts’ campaign. We set up a petition that received over 12,500 signatures, organised rallies, and gained the backing of nine MLA and Belfast City Council. The 10% cut was reduced to 5%.

However, this is against a backdrop of over 40% of cuts to Arts Council Northern Ireland funding over the past ten years. Prior to the 2023 cut, Arts Council Northern Ireland supported between 85-100 arts organisation through its annual funding programme. These organisations included venues, festivals, visual arts, music and community organisations. In 2023/4 11 were no longer funded and 74 were funded at a standstill, contributing further to that 40% cut in real terms over 10 years. Now that power-sharing has been restored, we have a chance to persuade the newly appointed Minister for Communities, Gordon Lyons, that the arts is worth investing in – for NI artistic output, to generate income and for our communities.