Back in October of last year, Culture, Arts and Leisure Minister Gregory Campbell, MP MLA along with Roisín McDonough, Chief Executive the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and other funders, launched the Creative Industries Innovation Fund (CIIF). The Northern Ireland Department for Culture and Leisure (DCAL) had successfully secured £5m to establish the CIIF to contribute to the growth of Northern Ireland’s cultural capital by supporting creativity and creative talents in their business activities.
The proposed fund would be open to all creative businesses in Northern Ireland, so at the start of the year when Straandlooper finally heard about he fund, we busied ourselves submitting an application that would see the company commit to creating a slate of new products to further exploit our slate of intellectual properties. In February we submitted our ambitious application which included the creation of a number of innovative and exciting products across three of our current slate of properties – Lifeboat Luke, Small Tragedies and Hector: Fat Arse of the Law.
So today I am delighted to announce that we finally received a letter of acceptance from the Arts Council approving our application for CIIF funding.
I will not dwell on the fact that it took over 6 months for this decision to be made and I will also not dwell on the impact this has had on the company and its cashflow as were in fact hoping to start production on these products a number of months ago but while I am extremely grateful for the support we have received I will be making it abundantly clear to the evaluators of this fund that businesses in the creative industries need decisive and immediate support to help them survive in these tough economic times.
But while I may come across as bitter and twisted as a lemon in a knot, I will reiterate how grateful I am for the support from the Arts Council and I am looking forward to working with them and delivering a slate of products that will help both Straandlooper and the Arts Council achieve their strategic goals.
