Ms Anna Walsh:

They need to be developed, maintained, invested in and available to every community group that wants to avail of them. There is another factor, which has not come up but which is worth thinking about, namely, audience profiles. Audiences are getting older and they are not necessarily coming back in the same numbers that people might have expected them to post Covid. Future generations of audiences need to participate and engage with local, community and professional arts at early stages in their school, college and early work years. If the audience of the future is to be there, it has to happen earlier and that needs to take place in every community, at every age and at every level, including across all art forms. The experience of performing in, working with, engaging with and attending professional, amateur and voluntary community arts events and festivals is a necessity if those audiences are to be maintained.