Debate contribution: Valuing the Arts

Debate contribution by Ms Sian Mulholland on 17 June 2025.

MLA

Ms Sian Mulholland

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

17 June 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Opposition Business

Heading

Valuing the Arts

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5013979

Read the official Assembly record

Text

It goes without saying that, as someone who worked in the arts and as chair of the all-party group on arts, I see the arts and creative industries as vital. They are vital to our economy, our well-being and our sense of place. They are part of the fabric of who we are, and they enrich our lives, build communities and shape how the world sees us and Northern Ireland. Even with its undeniable importance, the arts sector remains stagnant as a result of a broken funding model, disjointed departmental working and repeated real-time cuts, despite the Minister's recent attempt to modestly add to the coffers. To make matters worse, the arts and creative industries are entirely absent from the Programme for Government, as mentioned. We cannot ignore that glaring omission. The Executive cannot claim to be serious about growth while they leave out a sector that continues to provide up to £1·6 billion in gross value added (GVA) and supports nearly 40,000 jobs. As mentioned by Maurice Bradley, the arts are not just a nice-to-have; they are a must-have. I join colleagues in welcoming the motion. The numbers speak for themselves. As I said, the creative industries contributed £1·6 billion to our economy, which was 3·2% of the overall GVA in Northern Ireland. There were 3,695 creative business sites in Northern Ireland last year, which represents nearly 4% of all businesses in Northern Ireland. That sector is growing. The biggest growth was in music and performing and visual arts, which have gone up 11% year-on-year.

Despite that impressive contribution, the creative industries are still treated as an add-on, a bonus and a flourish. My greatest concern is that the value of the arts gets lost because of where they sit in government. They are slotted into Communities, when, in reality, they should be central to our economic strategy. We have a sectoral action plan for screen but nothing equivalent for the wider arts, despite their crucial role. We are making decisions in the dark. There is a glaring absence of Northern Ireland-specific data. We do not know what people in the sector are earning by subsector. We do not measure productivity by job type. We do not track the turnover of trade or inward investment in our creative economy. Across the UK, creative services exports are worth nearly £19 billion, and 10% of all inward UK investment goes into the sector. Where is our local picture? We do not have one. The impact survey, which the Arts Council supported, shows that the cost-of-living pressures are really hitting arts engagement hard, and we really want to see that addressed. The proposed closure of Riverside Theatre in Ulster University brings the crisis into sharp focus. That is what happens when there is little to no joined-up thinking across Departments and institutions. The arts are not just a line in a budget; they are core economic and social infrastructure. They have to be a pillar of joined-up cross-departmental growth. It is time to act.

502 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:48 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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