Final Essay

There has been an increasing impact in the role of arts in the lives of people after the 20th century, among a wide range of activities, such as arts therapies, music, drama, performance, dance, and visual arts. Art and culture is seen to illuminate the inner of life and enrich emotions, or physical and mental health. Arts in general could save our historical identification of our ancestors; it could be the mirror image reflecting the future of the following generations. Participation in arts create knowledge and it could reduce some criminal activities. To understand how important arts are to life, firstly, it is necessary to investigate the impact and benefit of art to make industries in each national sectors, namely economy, health and

For example, according to the Official Statistics of Department for Culture Media & Sport (2015) illustrates the economic benefit from the arts industry during the year 2013, the figure of these benefits reached to approximately £76.9bn (GVA) Gross Value Add, this figure represented 5.0 per cent of UK economy. Among many subsets of arts and cultural activities, this leads on to the next point which is the figure of arts industry in UK provide to 2.62 million full time jobs and employee, this average represented 2.3 per cent of total employment in UK (ibid.), Interestingly, these figure are mounting and represents the higher figure has ever been recorded in UK in comparison with previous years. Clearly, the economic benefit of arts in the UK, makes a significant contribution to the national income

Secondly, it raises the question what will happen if the public funding of arts is withdrawn or the economic budget has been cut. For example, the budget of arts in Northern Ireland has been cut 11.2% (£1.38 million to £10.9 million from the total budget during the years 2015/16). The Arts Council of Northern Ireland was forced to make this decision in order to protect the priority of the council services for the following year. According the Art Council Chief Executive, Roisin McDonough (The Arts Council of Northern Ireland, 2015); the Art Council has to reduce and remove the founding of many organisations from the Annual Funding Program, and the Art Council will follow the economic savings policy, for all the reasons mentioned above. Black (2015) states that the Grand Opera House faced a budget cut of £100,000. The funding of Tinderbox Theatre Company in Belfast has been cut 44%, and the website Culture NI will be forced to close down due to the funding