The arts are a vital part of the human experience, and surely our success as a civilised society will be judged largely by the creative activities of our citizens in art, architecture, music and literature. Improving the condition of the performing and visual arts calls, in my judgment, for a massive cooperative effort in which businesses must assume a much larger role than they have in the past.
Whose responsibility is it to improve the condition of the creative, performing and visual arts in Ballymena?
Answer: all of us.
Local businesses? Where are you? Where’s your input?
Creative, performing and visual arts aren’t only the domain of committees, quangos, teachers and knitted scarves residing in big glass buildings.
The linked/quoted article above is titled “Art won’t save a community – but it will educate, delight and enrich it.”
And my goodness if ever there was a time when we needed educated, delighted and enriched here in Northern Ireland and in Ballymena… it’s now.
– Ballymena Town Hall painting by Ally Simpson