Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council approves almost £20k arts and culture funding

At Tuesday’s Leisure and Development Committee meeting, members were asked to approve £19,840 in funding for 20 recipients of the 2024-2025 Culture, Arts and Heritage Grant Programme.

Adopted by the council in 2016, the programme forms part of its Cultural Strategy strategic priority to “ensure increased access to, and participation in, culture, arts and heritage for marginalised and excluded groups”, a council officer said.

They added: ” The primary objective of the cultural strategy is to ensure that both local ratepayers and visitors to the area have continuous access to high quality, accessible, inclusive and affordable cultural services, including arts, museums and heritage.

“The introduction of the scheme was in direct response to the findings from the consultation process, which highlighted the need to support local groups to promote and develop cultural, arts and heritage projects and activities in the area.

“It has been designed to support, promote and develop cultural, arts and heritage events, projects and activities, and to support local community and voluntary groups and develop projects which broaden cultural access.”

Successful applicants include the Stendhal Festival’s Kindly Wild Willow Project, Kingdom of Dalriada Ulster-Scots Society’s Literature and Music Programme, and Kilrea and District Ulster Scots Society’s needle felting classes.

DUP Councillor Philip Anderson said it was “great to see money being used for arts and heritage”.

He concluded: “It would be nice to see how it’s being used, so if we could get dates of when they intend to run these programmes and exactly how they benefit the community.”