Ulster Orchestra faces more cuts
mainThe Arts Council of Northern Ireland has been trimmed by half a million pounds on its £10.95 million budget.
That reduction will impact directly on its largest single dependent, the Ulster Orchestra, which relies on £1.8m a year from ACNI.
Bad times ahead for the orchestra, and no EU aid possible.
Why no EU aid possible? The UK is a member of the EU until further notice.
Would be interesting to know a precise figure for revenue funding to UK orchestras from the EU to date.
There’s also EU funding to the region more generally, which will disappear. The province’s budget might need to be allocated for that work, leaving less for the orchestra.
In any case, any further cut will be a vicious blow to an organisation that does vital, valuable work in a neglected region of the UK – and which has only just stabilised itself (with enormous and courageous effort) after an earlier period of financial turmoil. Talk about a kick in the face.
Given the scale of the media fuss about a couple of contractual changes at a certain London opera company earlier this year, I imagine the nation’s music critics must be absolutely hitting the roof over this potentially far more damaging crisis. Can someone please link me to the celebrity-endorsed petition, the combative Twitter account, the indignant Guardian editorial..?