15 January 2000

MCGIMPSEY HIGHLIGHTS THE IMPORTANCE OF THE ARTS IN SOCIETY

"Creativity and the arts have a crucial role to play in shaping the Northern Ireland of tomorrow." That was the message Culture, Arts and Leisure Minister, Michael McGimpsey MLA, took to County Tyrone tonight.

The Minister was speaking in Dungannon before attending a special gala performance in the Leisure Centre of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat which featured a cross-community choir drawn from over 25 local primary schools. The production is being staged by the Bardic Theatre Group in association with youth and sports organisations throughout the district.

Addressing an invited audience of 500 people from the local business community, Mr McGimpsey emphasised the particular importance of involving young people in the arts. He said: "The arts are an important catalyst for personal development, for improving employment prospects, for restoring civic pride and for bringing communities together.

"They can help to generate a vision of the future in which all can share and through which we can celebrate our cultural diversity in an atmosphere of mutual understanding and respect."

Praising the Bardic Theatre Group’s record in securing business sponsorship, the Minister added: "I am pleased that an increasing number of local businesses - with encouragement from Arts & Business - are taking this form of creativity seriously. I want to thank Belfast Office Properties for their sponsorship of this event and I am pleased to note that their funding is being matched under the Pairing Scheme which is administered by Arts & Business on behalf of my Department."

Mr McGimpsey was welcomed by the Mayor of Dungannon and South Tyrone, Councillor Robert Mulligan.

 

NOTES FOR EDITORS

Before the performance, the Minister was a guest at a reception hosted by the Mayor and sponsored by Guinness Northern Ireland in the adjacent East Tyrone College of Further and Higher Education.

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat opened on 14 January and runs until 22 January with nine evening and seven matinee performances. Further details may be obtained from Colette Casey at Bardic Theatre Group, tel: 01868 722728.

Arts & Business (formerly the Association for Business Sponsorship of the Arts) exists to promote and encourage partnerships between business and the arts to their mutual benefit and to the benefit of the community at large. Further information about Arts & Business and the Pairing Scheme may be obtained from Alice O’Rawe at Arts & Business, tel: 01232 664736.