Brian Kennedy

Damien Coyle

At times it can be hard to remember, but the landscape for the visual arts and the arts in general has been transformed over the last thirty years or so, mostly for the better. Here Colm Ó Briain traces the winding route.

Troubled times may have set an unruly background to arts funding in Northern Ireland over the past decades, but so too have an official attitudes. Brian Ferran sketches the history, problems and possibilities.

Arts organisations need money, and they rarely get what they need. Liz Donnan describes the experience of one of Northern Ireland's better-known arts centres in its search for the elusive lucre.

What should an arts centre be? Ian Hunter suggests that there are many ways to skin a cat.

We all are acquainted with the phenomenon: arts centres where the other arts are primary and the visual arts must find a niche. Patricia McBride, who runs such a space in Donegal, describes how things work there.