Editorial: Northern Ireland's arts sector is nothing like a starving child

There can’t be many occasions when the idea of a government minister walking into the middle of a protest calling for his head seems like a good idea.

​Yet that’s what Stormont’s culture minister decided to do on Tuesday, as protestors gathered outside calling for him to go – and for more public money.

While Gordon Lyons clearly thought he couldn’t lose in a face-to-face chat with members of Northern Ireland’s arts community, it is doubtful he could have imagined what would unfold on the steps of Parliament Buildings.

A representative of the trade union Equity, there to deliver a request for the DUP man’s resignation, took the theatrics a little bit too far – likening the sector to a starving child.

"We're getting half of what we actually need to survive” she proclaimed to the minister, as the cameras rolled.

“It's like starving a child that if they don't get exactly what they need, they're going to die even if they're only getting half. It's not enough”, she added, for good measure.

A brief and sensible exchange did follow about what the lobby felt the minister hasn’t done to progress a strategy and funding for the sector. In quite comical scenes, as soon as the chat had finished – the screaming began.

‘Save the arts’ chanted the protestors as Mr Lyons headed back up to Stormont. All of it does beg the question, if the arts need more government funding – are they delivering what the public want?

There is political consensus that there will always be generous funding to prop up certain niche or community-based arts endeavours. So if the sector is struggling, perhaps there’s more they can do to engage the wider public and persuade them to part with their cash? Comparing themselves to starving children won’t help.