Six NW arts groups to share Â£140k in funds

Taking Shakespeare to the streets: Emma Diver, Frank Nelis and Catherine Campbell from Stage Beyond, a theatre company for young adults with learning disabilities, funded by the National Lottery through the Arts Council, will be performing extracts of Shakespeare around the streets of Derry/Londonderry this August as part of the City of Culture celebrations. Visit www.stagebeyond.com for performance times.
Picture by Brian Morrison. — Taking Shakespeare to the streets: Emma Diver, Frank Nelis and Catherine Campbell from Stage Beyond, a theatre company for young adults with learning disabilities, funded by the National Lottery through the Arts Council, will be performing extracts of Shakespeare around the streets of Derry/Londonderry this August as part of the City of Culture celebrations. Visit www.stagebeyond.com for performance times. Picture by Brian Morrison.

The successful recipients are the Stage Beyond Theatre Company (£29,016); Sestina Music Ltd. (£21,540); the North West Carnival Initiative (£34,780); the Eden Place Arts Centre (£29,100); Bounce Culture (£11,570); and Abridged (£13,500).

Roisin McDonough, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, CEO, said: “The Arts Council is delighted to support fifty-four organisations in delivering a wide-range of arts projects that will benefit communities across Northern Ireland. Lottery funding, worth £1.5 million, spread throughout the region will have a positive impact on the health and well-being of communities, individuals and artists, offering even more opportunities for people to engage with the arts.

“Lottery funding has contributed vastly to the socio-economic and cultural growth of Northern Ireland and allows the Arts Council to support organisations that are bringing high quality, arts programming to all.

“This year’s awardees are no exception and include organisations such as Community Circus Lisburn, delivering youth and community-based programmes of tuition and skills development, through to The Irish Writers Centre who will focus on the development of the next generation of great writers.”

The funding will help Stage Beyond, a theatre company for young adults with learning disabilities, put on a production of Henrik Ibsen’s ‘Peer Gynt’ at the Millennium Forum and Lyric Theatre, Belfast.