Arts groups are “wheeled out” to project a positive image of Northern Ireland when needed despite being the “worst resourced arts community in Europe”.

Ray Giffen, creative director at the Duncairn Arts Centre, described the funding of the sector in Northern Ireland as “disgraceful”.

He was speaking on the 10th anniversary of the transformation of the former Duncairn Presbyterian Church which reopened as an arts centre in 2014 with the parent organisation the 174 Trust.

The formerly derelict church now hosts arts events which have been visited by political leaders, as well as artist residencies, writers groups, a boxing club, AA and Narcotics Anonymous and disability clubs.

Mr Giffen said it had been a “daunting challenge” to take on, with some referring to north Belfast at that time as a “cultural graveyard”.

“This is something that I saw as a challenge being from here originally,” he said.

“Some of the highlights and some of the game changers have been certainly when we brought Other Voices up to Belfast for the first time – one of the biggest music festivals, with an incredible international reputation.

“So, we managed to bring them up to the ‘cultural graveyard’ as north Belfast was known for a long time, and it was a roaring success. So much so that they came back two years later, and we still have a fantastic relationship.

“Then we programmed St Patrick’s Day for Belfast City Council. We have taken part in the ground-breaking arts and business programme, Blueprint, which let us establish our own production team here, which is really, really successful and continuing to grow.

They marked their 10-year anniversary thanks to the Shared Island Fund with a creative exchange with Levis Corner House – an arts and music venue and pub in Ballydehob in Co Cork – which is set to continue this year.

However, Mr Giffen said that arts groups “don’t get respect” from government departments and have to look around for funds to apply to, as well as private investors in order to keep the lights on amid increasing costs.

Figures released by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland last year indicate that the Northern Ireland spend is £5.07 on arts funding per head of population in 2023/24 compared to £10.51 spent in Wales and £21.58 in the Republic of Ireland.

We don't get the respect in terms of government departments - they want to showcase and wheel us out and do free events

Mr Giffen said: “At every opportunity, when someone wants to show the best of the city, the best of the people or whatever, they wheel out the artist… that helped put a positive spin on things.

“And it’s just a pity that they couldn’t be reimbursed to the true extent of the value they represent to communities, the people, the mental health, to the day-to-day life.

“We don’t get the respect in terms of government departments – they want to showcase and wheel us out and do free events. Pay people what they’re worth. Look at the results. Look at other countries and where they have got by investing properly in the arts – on the world stage, it has helped them actually market themselves.”

He described the funding levels as a “disgrace”.

“I look at Scotland, I look at the south, and I look at Wales, England… we are the poorest resourced arts community in Europe, I would say, and it’s a disgrace, because there’s so many talented, brilliant, positive people that deserve much better,” he said.

“My view is that it’s broken here, and it doesn’t seem there’s any urgency in trying to mend it in terms of funding and investment. So, if it’s broke, and we’ve tried everything to fix it, and people are demoralised and they’re burnt out, they’re disillusioned with the art, we lose them, so we have to start thinking in another way now.

“We’ve presented the statistics, we’ve given business cases, we’ve done all this before. It’s fallen on deaf ears for whatever reason.

“Can you imagine, with an increase of 20% in the funding what we could do.

“We’ve had stand-still funding which, in real life, is a decrease because we all know the cost of living has gone up. It’s no different for us – heating this centre, or paying the electrical bills here, the costs are going up, not coming down.

“So, the costs have increased, the funding has decreased or is at a standstill, and what you’re going to do is you’re going to wipe arts provision out, if we don’t do something drastic.”