The Assembly believes the arts don’t matter – we have to tell them that it does!
(An immediate response to the draft Programme for Government 2024-2027, titled “Our Plan: Doing What Matters Most”)
The NI Assembly believes the arts don’t matter …
The draft Programme for Government 2024-2027, titled “Our Plan: Doing What Matters Most“, published on the 9th September, shows the struggle that is underway to save the arts in N Ireland. This draft PfG primarily focuses on economic recovery, public health, education, and infrastructure, with absolutely no explicit mention of direct investment or initiatives to support the Culture, Arts, and Heritage sector. This egregious omission has set off alarm bells across a sector that has enjoyed only neglect, underinvestment and a reduction in living/working standards caused by 13+ years of austerity on the part of the Assembly and government departments. Bear in mind that these sectors, culture arts and heritage, have just completed two major pieces of work in ministerial taskforces, producing firstly a cogent plan for the recovery through the Covid crisis and then latterly, the a Culture arts and heritage Strategy completed in 2022, with scores of organisations and their leaders taking part.
Whilst the stark absence of any references to culture and heritage shouldn’t necessarily mean these sectors will be neglected entirely, but given bitter experience and the catchy title of the draft pfg “Doing What Matters Most”, it is evident what government now thinks – that creativity and culture are definitely not priorities and essentially do not matter in this society. This lack of visibility in the stated core governmental priorities begs questions about the ongoing support of these sectors in the next government funding cycles and ultimately, the sustainability of arts and culture in this corner of the globe…
