Funding art in post-conflict society: a ‘peace dividend’?

Abstract

ABSTRACT In recent years, a range of research and scholarship has suggested a role for art in building peace and achieving reconciliation in societies emerging from violent conflict. As a great deal of funding is available to facilitate reconciliation and peacebuilding from a range of organisations, this paper considers what is, and what can be, known about the level to which such funds are actually apportioned to arts practice – here termed ‘Art for Reconciliation’ (AfR). It considers attempts to locate available data relating to the case of Northern Ireland, and presents indicative findings which suggest that, to the extent that information can be located, the recognition of artistic interventions by funders in this field remains limited, as does our wider knowledge about such interventions and their potential impact. It ends by considering the wider contextual factors that may serve to explain these patterns, and to limit progress in this area.