Arts Council announces Annual Funding Programme awards for 2024-25

With £8.1m exchequer funding from the Department for Communities allocation, and £5.1m from Arts Council’s National Lottery sources, the total public investment offered is £13.2m.

Chair of the Arts Council, Liam Hannaway, said, 

“Today’s formal announcement of the Annual Funding Programme awards is welcome news and I want to thank the Minister for the Department for Communities, Gordon Lyons, for securing an extra £500,000 for the arts in the June monitoring rounds. This allows us to give a modest uplift from general standstill funding for 17 hard-pressed organisations dealing with inescapable pressures from core costs. We are grateful for the Minister’s recognition of the positive value of the arts in our society and for his help in securing this additional investment. I also want to thank National Lottery players, and the game-changing impact that National Lottery funding brings to so many of our arts organisations, who simply couldn’t do without it.”

The Chair continued,

“Overall, far from being a wholly subsidised arts sector, this group of AFP arts organisations, from large to small in size, continues to demonstrate their resourcefulness; evidencing the power of public funding to help leverage further investment from other sources. I am also pleased to see 6 new organisations admitted to the AFP portfolio this year, refreshing the mix. “

Roisín McDonough, Chief Executive of the Arts Council added, 

“I want to echo the Chair’s comments and thank Minister Lyons for securing recent additional investment in the arts sector, it makes a significant difference to increasing access to the arts for all in NI. This year ACNI is currently carrying out a review of funding, focusing on looking ahead and delivering on our new 10-year Strategic Plan and Outcome 1 – creating a more financially stable arts sector. We will achieve this by pursuing a new approach to long-term investment, introducing multi-annual funding for arts organisations in 2025/26, and by collaborating with the wider public sector, across government, for further investment, championing the arts and the amazing impacts the arts bring to so many areas of public life.”

View the list of all 24/25 AFP awards offered (opens in a new window)

A sample of AFP 24-25 awarded organisations follows:

Verbal Arts Centre, Derry-Londonderry

AFP funding offer: £208,320

The Verbal Arts Centre believe every story matters. They use their unique multi-disciplinary approach to the art of storytelling and work in partnership to enhance wellbeing among individuals & communities. Their multi-disciplinary approach integrates the strengths of digital technology, literature, storytelling psychology and creativity. They also partner with a range of statutory and non-statutory sectors, including social housing communities, health & social care, criminal justice and care for older people. The organisation’s public funding recently allowed them to collaborate with other groups and successfully secure 7.7m euros from the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB) to deliver a project aiming to improve the wellbeing and mental health of young people across NI and the border counties.

Stendhal Festival, Limavady, County Derry~Londonderry, New entrant

AFP funding offer: £60,000

Stendhal Festival is new to the Arts Council NI AFP portfolio for 24-25. It is an annual music and arts event that takes place in Limavady over three days every July. The festival features eight stages spread across three areas, and the programme features a range of music, visual art, comedy, street theatre, craft events and more. Whilst the festival presents international artists in its programme of events, it also offers an important showcasing platform for musical acts from Northern Ireland to perform.

Fighting Words Northern Ireland, Belfast, New Entrant

AFP funding offer: £49,272

Fighting Words NI is a literature organisation directly supporting new writing among young people (6 -18yo). The organisation’s record in NI is developing rapidly in its range of engagement and impact and their Youth Advisory Panel ensures representation of young people in their leadership. Based in Connswater Shopping Centre in East Belfast, they provide an excellent location for continued outreach. Participation is also geographically widespread; current membership reaches from Belfast to Ballyclare, and Derry-Londonderry to Dungannon.

Dylan Quinn Dance Theatre, County Fermanagh

AFP funding offer: £47,415

Dylan Quinn Dance Theatre supports the development of dance and is the only professional and participatory dance organisation in Northern Ireland that is based in a rural location in Fermanagh. The company has three primary areas of work including professional dance performance locally and internationally, a programme of participatory and community development, and a schools education programme that runs in conjunction with curriculum needs.

The Armagh Rhymers, County Armagh

AFP funding offer: £58,790

The Armagh Rhymers deliver quality arts to a variety of sectors in society, many from the most deprived backgrounds. A lot of their work takes place in schools providing quality storytelling & bespoke interactive plays using music, song, dance, puppets and masks. They also take part in a wide range of events and festivals such as the Belfast Mela, Halloween in Derry City, and the Big Arts Festival in Ballycastle. The Armagh Rhymers have also toured internationally in USA, China and Europe and recently featured in the popular BBC series, The Repair Shop.

Camerata Ireland, Co.Down

AFP funding offer: £94,454

Camerata Ireland was founded in 1999 by pianist Barry Douglas. The ethos of Camerata Ireland is to bring together the finest musicians who live and work in Ireland, both North and South, and Irish musicians who work and live abroad. Since its formation, Camerata Ireland has travelled the world to wide critical acclaim. Camerata Ireland established the annual Clandeboye Festival in the Clandeboye Estate, Co. Down in 2001.

The festival showcases Internationally renowned soloists to Northern Irish audiences, as well as providing a platform for young musicians from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. At the heart of the festival is the Camerata Ireland Academy, Camerata Ireland’s young artist development programme which welcomes up to 12 young musicians to the festival each year to take part in masterclasses and rehearsals with the leading musicians.

Brassneck Theatre Company, Belfast, New entrant

AFP Funding offer: £40,000

Brassneck Theatre has established an important role in the theatre scene, producing socially engaged work of high artistic quality with compelling popular and commercial appeal, often attracting non-traditional theatre audiences. The company tours successfully regionally, including to rural areas, and internationally. It has operated on an entrepreneurial model of mosaic funding, using public investment to leverage a range of additional funding from sponsors and funders.

Maiden Voyage Dance, Belfast

AFP funding offer: £94,944

Maiden Voyage, based in Belfast, is an artist-led commissioning dance company offering discoveries in dance with, by, and for, artists, audiences, and participants. Established in Belfast by Artistic Director Nicola Curry in 2001, Maiden Voyage commission and produce distinctive dance performances across three strands; Maiden Belfast, full length and mixed bills for stages; Dance Exposed, short new work for public spaces, and Off Spring, new work for young audiences and their adults.

In March 2024, Maiden Voyage Dance was announced as one of the dance companies set to join a new all-island dance company for Ireland and NI. The new team will be led by Liz Roche Company, who will form the company with foundational strategic partners Maiden Voyage Dance and the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick. This new company will provide a platform for dance, collaboration and development, seeking to strengthen Ireland's existing dance ecosystem, while developing the artform and develop pathways for dance artists to create work of scale and ambition.

Kids in Control (KIC), Belfast

AFP funding offer: £57,654

KIC is a professional theatre company that values children and young people of all abilities and backgrounds without discrimination or recourse to selection. The organisation celebrates and nourishes the shared imaginings of any group of young people. KIC is the foremost professional physical theatre company working with young people in Northern Ireland and is inclusive, cutting through traditional divisions of physical and learning ability, religion and social background. Skill sharing and empathy between participants are the cornerstones of KIC artistic practice, which ensures diversity, tolerance and creative generosity among participants.

Seacourt Print Workshop, Bangor, Co.Down

AFP funding offer: £64,020

Seacourt Print Workshop is an open access printmaking studio in Bangor with fantastic resources, courses and workshops. Users of the studio includes master printmakers, multidisciplinary artists, amateurs and those who print to improve their wellbeing. Seacourt Print Workshop offers membership, courses and resources for all, as well as their self-arranged residency programme. They also have a comprehensive health and wellbeing programme as well as an educational resource for schools.

Drake Music Project Northern Ireland, Newry, County Down

AFP funding offer: £51,224

Drake Music Project Northern Ireland is based in Newry but works across the region with a studio in Belfast also. The organisation provides access to independent music making for children and adults with complex disabilities. Workshops in composition and performance skills are afforded by the provision of adapted computer interfacing technology allowing people with disabilities the opportunity to express their creativity in an independent and controllable environment.

Glasgowbury, Draperstown, County Derry~Londonderry

AFP funding offer: £36,294

Glasgowbury based in rural Draperstown, Magherafelt, is an arts organisation which aims to support and enhance the profile of new and emerging artists from Northern Ireland while making arts accessible and available to all at a local level through the delivery of a series of creative programmes to people of all ages.

The organisation developed a thriving Creative Hub delivering services tailored to meet the needs of children and their carers, young people, adults and older people and facilitate their participation in the arts, the creative industries and the digital community. One of their recent programmes ‘Heart of the Community’, offered free workshops to young people in their local community in DJing, electronic music production, samba drumming, photography, podcasting, pottery, sewing and more.