How has COVID-19 emergency funding for individual artists been distributed in Northern Ireland? (Updated)

By James Bamford & Karen McCallion

This visualisation provides a snapshot of £11.1 million in emergency funding provided to over 2824 individual artists in Northern Ireland. This funding is part of a range of measures supported by COVID-19 emergency funding from the Department for Communities, the National Lottery and Screen NI to address key challenges arising from the effects of the pandemic.

The mapping visualisation features two emergency funds, distributed over three phases, for individual artists. These were each administered by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

1. Artists Emergency Programme: This fund opened in April 2020 and offered freelance artists, creative practitioners and performers the opportunity to apply for grants of up to £5000 each.

2. Individual Emergency Resilience Programme: Phase one of this fund opened in July 2020 and phase two opened in December 2020. This fund offered freelancers, musicians, actors, artists and craft workers the opportunity to apply for grants of up to £5000 each. And £7,500 each for those with a disability.

The funding data visualisation provides a breakdown by fund type, by art form, and at ward, constituency and local government district levels.

Another mapping visualisation demonstrating the distribution of COVID-19 funding for arts organisations in NI can be viewed here.

*RaISe will endeavour to update these visualisations in line with future publication of government figures.  Differences in total funding amounts may be due to applicants not accepting an offer of funding, following a successful award application. I.e. Awarded vs Accepted funding totals. Some individual artists were successful in applying for support in more than one emergency funding programme. Also, the locations listed are the addresses included in each artist’s funding application. This does not reflect where any resulting art form may have been made available to audiences.