Cultural Wasteland

Northern Ireland's art scene is "looking at a cultural wasteland" without government funding, says the chief executive of a live music venue in Belfast.

Charlotte Dryden of the Oh Yeah Centre tells BBC Radio Foyle that financial support is desperately needed because the industry is "dying on its knees".

"We will be last out of this. We have now been told again that we can't open and yet there is no support to help with that.

"We are also still waiting on the £33m that the Department for Culture allocated to Northern Ireland. It's all very disappointing."

from the BBC.

As sad a situation as this all is/has been and will be, it’s a shame to see an art scene so dependent on funding. Funding from a broken and biased system which, lets face it, will always be letting people down in their attempts to ‘help’ others.

Artists must try to operate, create and flourish outside of this system.

Surely?