Derry MLAs urge Executive to provide stable arts funding for organisations like Echo Echo

Transcript

00:00I know that many of us swell with pride when people from outside Northern Ireland talk

00:05of the region's cultural assets. Shows like Game of Thrones, Blue Lights, Line of Duty

00:11and of course Derry Girls. When news headlines as we have seen in the last week are too often

00:17the worst aspects of Northern Ireland society, our cultural represents some of the very best.

00:25The arts are also a huge economic boom for our prosperity. A 2023 report found that the creative

00:33industries contributed £49 billion to the UK economy in 2022 and supported nearly 1 million jobs.

00:42That is enormous. Derry is the second city of this place and receives 12% of funding. Now I want to

00:49see every region get proper arts funding and every artist support it but I also want to be assured

00:55that the arts potential in our city, a city that most members here knows is bursting with creative

01:00potential, is properly supported. Realistically how can we say that this is the case when organisations

01:07like Echo Echo and others have had their funding cut, removed in many cases completely or when the

01:15Riverside Theatre faces closure in Corain. Regional balance isn't about everywhere getting an equal

01:21size of the pie. Not that we have to worry about that in this case. It is about the gap between the

01:29investment in places and their potential.

01:31Everybody in this chamber will agree that Derry City is well renowned due to having the first city of

01:35culture status and equally everyone will agree that the success of this was wholly due to the

01:40vibrancy, character and dedication of our local artists and our local art organisations. Last November in

01:46Stormont we heard directly from talented Derry based artist Maura McCallion and other equity members of

01:52how they are being forced to immigrate to tell stories of home on a foreign stage. Why are we exporting our

01:58creatives and denying their contribution to their own communities? Unfortunately as we have heard as a

02:03result of austerity we have the lowest per capita in arts investment, approximately £5 per person here, twice the

02:09amount in Wales and four times the amount in the Republic of Ireland. This is something that needs to be addressed

02:15through additional investment and support over a longer period. Just recently in Derry, Echo Echo,

02:21Dance Theatre lost 100% of its core annual funding programme, endangering staff roles, community outreach

02:27and the very sustainability of their dance studio in the city walls. We have a duty to protect them and

02:33so many others. The arts have a significant social value. Art matters have suggested that for every pound

02:39invested in arts there is an £8 return in local economic benefits. I want to finish by

02:45making a call on the Minister. You have rightly acknowledged the need for equitable funding,

02:49but now is the time to act. We need to rebalance distribution geography, ensuring places like

02:53Dairies, Duban, Coleraine, Fermanagh or rural areas receive their fair share and enable and support

02:59art organisations, not help to close them down. We need to provide stability for key organisations like

03:05Echo Echo and I think let us collectively ensure that artists, local artists and our locally based art

03:11organisations are adequately and equally supported to thrive.