Save Echo Echo from arts funding cuts!
#SaveEchoEcho!
Echo Echo Dance Theatre Company recently had its annual funding for 2025/26 from Arts Council Northern Ireland cut with no warning. This came as a great shock to everyone involved in the company and our wider circles of artists, audiences, colleagues and supporters.
What does this mean?
• CLOSURE OF ECHO ECHO STUDIOS
• THREE FULL-TIME STAFF REDUNDANCIES
• LOSS OF EARNINGS OF FOUR SELF-EMPLOYED CORE ENSEMBLE ARTISTS AND THEIR COLLABORATORS
• LOSS OF SPACE FOR CLASSES, PERFORMANCES, WORKSHOPS, EXHIBITIONS, REHEARSALS
• LOSS OF OVER £500,000 OF PUBLIC INVESTMENT IN THE BUILDING
• NO FURTHER EDITIONS OF ECHO ECHO FESTIVAL OF DANCE AND MOVEMENT, TRADITION AND BEYOND FESTIVAL, CHILDREN’S FESTIVAL
• NO MORE SUPPORT FOR INDEPENDENT ARTISTS THROUGH PROVISION OF SPACE, TECHNICAL SUPPORT, ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT
• NO SUPPORT IN KIND AS MATCHED FUNDING FOR INDIVIDUAL FUNDING APPLICATIONS
• LOSS OF THE HUB FROM WHICH ARTISTS GO OUT INTO THE COMMUNITY AND TO WHICH THOSE THAT ECHO ECHO WORKS WITH IN THE COMMUNITY CAN COME
• LOSS OF A UNIQUE SPACE FOR A WARM, HUMANE, INCLUSIVE AND HIGH QUALITY APPROACH TO DANCE AND CREATIVITY
• THE END OF A PROJECT IN DEVELOPMENT IN DERRY SINCE 1997 THAT HAS TOUCHED THE LIVES OF TENS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE
WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT TO KEEP THE COMPANY GOING FOR LONG ENOUGH TO GET THIS DECISION BY ACNI REVERSED OR TO TRY TO FIND ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS TO KEEP ECHO ECHO GOING.
AT THE MOMENT THE PROJECTION IS THAT ECHO ECHO WILL CLOSE ITS DOORS AT THE END OF JULY 2025. WITH SUFFICIENT SUPPORT WE COULD KEEP GOING FOR LONGER TO DEVELOP OTHER POSSIBLE WAYS TO SAVE THE COMPANY AND VENUE.
EVERY DONATION WILL BUY A BIT OF TIME FOR THIS!
THANKS SO MUCH TO EVERYONE WHO HAS SUPPORTED US ALREADY.
PLEASE HELP US TO SAVE ECHO ECHO!
What happened?
Echo Echo Dance Theatre Company recently received news of a catastrophic 100% cut to its annual funding provided by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland (ACNI) Annual Funding Programme with no warning or consultation.
As things stand, Echo Echo only has enough reserves and confirmed other funding to survive until 31st July 2025.
We need your support!
We urgently need your support so that we can extend this window of time long enough to assess ways of saving the company and venue for the rest of this year and beyond.
This will give us a chance to keep the building open and keep our experienced key staff in post for a few months longer. Confirmed summer projects would be able to proceed, and we would have a longer window of time to await the outcome of the ACNI Review process and make other funding applications.
What will happen without your support?
Echo Echo Studios, a bespoke purpose-refurbished arts centre and fully-equipped small-scale theatre located on the historic City Walls in Derry-Londonderry, and the home for Echo Echo's programme of classes, workshops, artist residencies, rehearsals, productions and performances will be forced to close.
Three highly experienced full-time staff will be made redundant in summer.
Support that Echo Echo gives to independent artists through providing space, research and development support, technical support, production services, administrative support, mentoring, networking and help with funding applications will cease.
Studio programmes that service thousands of artists, participants and audiences annually will close within the next few months.
There will be no further editions of Echo Echo Festival of Dance and Movement or our Tradition and Beyond Festival that have hosted many hundreds of local, national and international artists and thousands of audience members over the last 12 years.
The company and its associated artists will have no home from which to base its work, to go out to tour work throughout Ireland and beyond, and to go out into the community with its wide range of participation projects. Think of a musician having their instrument taken away - a dancer losing their studio space is no different.
There will be no venue to which we can invite local schools and community groups to see things and to perform themselves in a fully equipped theatre, or to host collaborations on local civic events and festivals like Derry Halloween.
The hub which provides a place where independent artists of all disciplines can support each other, collaborate, exchange ideas and experience, and develop ideas for new projects will disappear.
The arts eco-system in Derry, the Northwest region and the whole island or Ireland will be permanently diminished. 28 years of artistic and cultural development will be cut down with this single fatal blow.
There will be a scandalous waste of public capital investment (over £0.5million) and loss of a publicly funded asset to the local community.
What are we doing next?
Like many arts organisations, theatres and galleries in Northern Ireland, Echo Echo applies for funding from the ACNI Annual Funding Programme. It has been successfully funded by this programme for over 20 years with no significant issues arising until now.
ACNI has funded 32 applications by Echo Echo in the last 12 years for annual support, community projects, international projects and equipment grants with no issues arising around artistic quality, financial health or governance.
This year, on 28th April 2025, nearly a month into the financial year, ACNI turned down Echo Echo's current annual funding application. We believe that the detailed grounds provided are highly questionable, and we are currently entering a Review Process and will be vigorously contesting this.
What we need?
While we are contesting this decision, we are asking for you to donate towards the costs of our #SaveEchoEcho campaign and towards the cost of keeping the company and venue alive just a few months longer.
Please make a donation, however large or small. Every single pound counts and would be greatly appreciated by all of us here at Echo Echo and all of our circles of friends, colleagues, artists, audiences and participants.
Please also write a Letter of Support to the Minister to ask for this decision to be reversed!
Thank you so much.
Contact Us
Don't hesitate to get in touch via our website or socials if you have any questions or if you want to know more about the company. We pride ourselves for being open and transparent in every aspect of our work!
Organizer
Echo Echo Dance Theatre Company
Organizer
Northern Ireland
Echo Echo Dance Theatre Company
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