Northern Ireland performances fall more than 25% in year – Arts Council figures

The number of performances in Northern Ireland fell by more than a quarter (27%) between April 2023 and March 2024, causing earned income and box-office receipts to decline during the same period.

The findings are part of the latest Annual Funding Survey by the region’s Arts Council. 

Taken as a whole, arts activity fell by 22% across the wider sector, with small-scale organisations reporting a reduction of 34% in their activities.

Box-office income fell by 6.3% as audience numbers dropped by 10% to 1.6 million. Income from all sources was down 2.65% year-on-year. 

The findings provide more evidence of the parlous state of arts funding in Northern Ireland, where per capita spending is just £5.07, compared with £10.51 in Wales and £21.58 in the Republic of Ireland. 

The Arts Council’s budget for 2024-25 showed a marginal increase of £500,000 to £10.2 million. 

The latest report comes on the back of Arts Council analysis of working and living conditions for Northern Irish artists, published in June, that found mean arts earnings of £11,200, amounting to an 11% cut in income since 2010.  

There was some positive news, however, with a 31% increase in income for theatre organisations, although that was offset by an overall jump in costs of 18%, with programming costs rising by almost a quarter (23%).

“The figures are challenging”, said Arts Council of Northern Ireland acting director of strategic development and partnerships, Javier Stanziola.

“Those for drama show better news, but the cost-of-living crisis is affecting the arts sector and the situation for artists in Northern Ireland is precarious.”

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