AQW 44738/11-15

Ms Claire Sugden
Independent
East Londonderry

Tabled Date: 20/04/2015
Answered On Date: 27/08/2015
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure to list the departmental financial support available to community social enterprises in the Arts sector.

Answer:

Previously under the Arts Council's Creative Industries Innovation Fund, a number of community and social enterprises were supported across the creative sector.

Examples include Ballymena Business Centre's programme of support for up to 30 new entrepreneurs from the craft sector which included business training and mentoring as well as the opportunity for participants to showcase and sell their products in the new town centre Retail Incubation Hub.

The North West Socio Economic Development Programme contained an £880k Cultural Hub Development Programme which provided the equipment and software to create 16 cultural hubs within communities in the North West, giving local people access to technology for education, community activity and social enterprise.

Due to budget constraints, there is no baseline budget for either the Creative Industries or the North West in the 2015-2016 financial year.

I have, however, established a Ministerial Action Group (MAG) on the Creative Industries with the purpose of:

Providing a strategic forum for stakeholders across creative industries to engage with each other and Government;

Ensuring a cross-departmental commitment to working on skills, education and the creative economy i.e. strong economy needs a strong creative economy; and

Providing a platform to enhance collaboration and identify opportunities to support the growth of the sector, enabling creative ideas, creative people and creative businesses to emerge and flourish.