Northern Ireland arts funding suffers due to political deadlock

Our daily round-up of news from the art world

Arts organisations in Northern Ireland face funding shortfall | The political deadlock in Northern Ireland has plunged its arts organisations into uncertainty, reports Arts Professional. Talks to form a power-sharing government are ongoing after a snap election on 2 March ended the unionist majority at Stormont. With no budget in place, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland has been forced to withhold 50 per cent of annual grants to each of the 107 organisations it supports, as an ‘interim measure’. Conor Shields, CEO of Belfast’s Community Arts Partnership warned that after years of cuts, the shortfall may leave organisations ‘teetering on the brink’.

Sculptor sues Manhattan church over removal of 9/11 memorial | Artist Steve Tobin is suing New York’s Trinity Church for removing a sculpture he created to commemorate those lost in the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center. According to the New York Times, the sculpture was removed by the church and sent to a site in Connecticut without Tobin’s knowledge. Tobin says that the sculpture, a recreation of a sycamore tree that was destroyed by falling debris from the towers, has sustained damage, in spite of the church’s insistence that it had been removed in good condition.

May Xue stands down as Ullens Center CEO | May Xue, the chief executive of Beijing’s Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, is to step down on 20 April, reports the Art Newspaper. Xue, who joined the museum in 2008 before taking up her current role in 2011, is reportedly set to move to the K11 Art Foundation, though this has yet to be confirmed. She is the latest of several staff members to leave UCCA since its founders, Guy and Myriam Ullens, announced last June that they would be seeking to sell the museum.

Carolee Schneeman wins Venice Biennale lifetime achievement award | The Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement will be presented to Carolee Schneeman at this year’s Venice Biennale, which opens in May. Schneeman, whose career spans six decades, was hailed as ‘one of the most important figures in the development of performance and body art’ by this year’s exhibition curator, Christine Macel.