In its 2018 decisions for key arts organisations, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland has announced funding of £2,102,570 for the Ulster Orchestra. This is a 23% increase on the orchestra’s funding of £1,709,121 in 2017.

The increase is a result of additional funding of £600,000 from the Department for Communities. The Arts Council Chair, John Edmund, commented:

[The funding] includes an additional allocation from the Department for Communities who responded to business cases made in 2017 to directly support two key arts organisations, the MAC and the Ulster Orchestra, both of which successfully demonstrated they are structurally underfunded.

The total amount allocated to music, opera and traditional arts organisations is £4.3m, including £544,251 for NI Opera, £166,360 for Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich, £136,277 for Moving on Music, £96,425 for Camerata Ireland, £31,924 for Belfast Trad, and £24,000 for the Irish Traditional Music Archive.

Many of the music funding amounts are repeats on last year due to reductions in ACNI funding, but the number of arts organisations funded by the Council has also been reduced. The Contemporary Music Centre in Dublin, which has previously received funding from ACNI (£22,764 in 2017), was not funded the year.

Edmund added:

…within the context of reducing public funding across government, the Board had to make the difficult decision to reduce the number of annually funded organisations while protecting the balance of arts forms for the year ahead.

For full details on the music, opera and traditional arts funding, see below.

Music
Ulster Orchestra Society     £2,102,570
Walled City Music Trust     £110,895
Moving on Music      £136,277
Camerata Ireland     £96,425
OpenArts     £94,846
Dumbworld     £79,005
Oh Yeah Music Centre    £53,075
Drake Music Project Northern Ireland     £52,743
Open House Traditional Arts Festival     £50,800
The Nerve Centre    £36,564
Ulster Youth Choir    £69,412
Belfast Music Society     £41,883
Glasgowbury     £37,044
Ulster Youth Orchestra     £44,528
Panarts     £32,405

Opera
NI Opera     £544,251

Traditional Arts
Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich     £166,360
An Gaeláras Ltd     £150,183
The Armagh Rhymers     £56,340
Andersonstown Traditional and Contemporary Music School     £41,654
An Droichead     £39,805
Belfast Trad     £31,924
Northern Ireland Piping & Drumming School     £43,445
The Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association     £33,835
Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann     £32,875
Ulster-Scots Community Network     £34,227
Irish Traditional Music Archive     £24,000
All Set Cross Cultural Project Ltd     £26,363
Dún Uladh Ltd     £25,626

For further details, visit www.artscouncil-ni.org