Actors, dancers, musicians, theatre directors, stage managers, cabaret performers, visual artists and more will descend on Stormont on Tuesday 8 September to issue a message of No Confidence in Communities Minister Gordon Lyons, while demanding an end to arts funding cuts and the delivery of a long-promised arts policy.
The Northern Ireland creatives will walk up to the palace of Stormont holding campaign placards and a letter of no confidence. They will assemble for a photo opportunity before entering Stormont for meetings with their local MLAs and sitting in the public gallery for Ministerial Questions, where Gordon Lyons is expected to be asked about the arts funding crisis.
Organised by performing arts and entertainment trade union Equity, the action is timed to coincide with Ministerial Questions, where Gordon Lyons, who is responsible for Arts and Culture under the Northern Ireland Communities brief, will be quizzed at his Question Time in Stormont.
Schedule for Tuesday 8 September:
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10am for 10:15: Meet at main entrance on Upper Newtownards Road (A20).
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10:15: Photoshoot followed by walk up Prince of Wales Avenue to Stormont
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10:45: Photoshoot at the ‘apron’ outside Stormont
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11-13:30: artists holding meetings with their MLAs
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14:00: Action takers in the public gallery for Ministers Questions to hear the question on arts funding crisis
Photography and interviews available on request.
Alice Adams Lemon, Equity Official for Northern Ireland, said: “Artists across Northern Ireland are losing their jobs and communities are being badly impacted. Gordon Lyons keeps promising an arts policy, but while arts and culture suffer he still fails to deliver.
“Equity is sending a strong message of No Confidence in Gordon Lyons as Minister responsible for the arts. His abject failure to address the crisis in funding and set out a policy for the arts is a dereliction of his duty. He has failed and the Assembly is continuing to fail artists and our communities.
“We say Save the Arts, end the funding crisis, and bring forward a policy for the arts now.”
Lack of arts funding and policy
Gordon Lyons was appointed Communities Minister - a role which covers arts and culture – in February 2024.
The Arts Council Northern Ireland provided a 10-year plan for the arts between 2024-2034, which the Communities Minister chose not to sign off.
In 2025, the ACNI stated that “The arts budget continues to present significant challenges to the sector and to the Arts Council’s ability to meet the needs of artists, arts organisations and their audiences.”
In 2025, the Minister promised an Arts Policy. On 3 July 2025 the Committee for Communities also requested that the Minister create an arts and culture strategy and secure proper funding for the arts. This has not taken place.
A budget of £21.27 million for 2026/27 is the level identified by ACNI in February 2026 as necessary to stabilise core infrastructure, strengthen support for individual artists, improve regional distribution and enhance organisational capacity.
At just £5.07 per head in 2023/24, Northern Ireland Arts Council (ACNI) receives the lowest per capita arts council funding of anywhere in the UK - less than half that of the second-lowest, Wales.
A real-terms cut of over 40% to Arts Council Northern Ireland funding over the past 10 years has deeply impacted artists, producers and communities.
