Project Sparks in Derry/Londonderry is celebrating the continuation of its landmark dance and music programme, thanks to a recent cash injection from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland’s National Lottery funds. The ambitious programme, developed by Liberty Consortium, was founded with the belief that the best teachers are those who know what it’s like to struggle.

In these extraordinary times, everyone is having to cope with challenges the scale of which we have never faced before. The need for our politicians and our statutory bodies, including the Arts Council, to respond quickly and effectively has never been more keenly felt, by ourselves and by the people and the communities that we represent. Staff at the Arts Council have been working exceptionally hard, not only to remotely maintain essential services but to put in place emergency measures to mitigate against the worst of the impact of the coronavirus on our sector. I am proud of the response of our artists and arts organisations to this threat to our creative and cultural life. Artists are finding brilliant and innovative new ways to deliver inspirational work to what are now, by necessitiy, virtual audiences. Artistic enterprise is perhaps more vital, more key to enriching and lifting the nations' spirits, now more than ever before.