The Sayle Gallery in Douglas has been given a funding lifeline.
It had been feared that the contemporary art gallery could face closure after the Arts Council announced it was to withdraw funding.
Arts Council chairman Geoff Corkish MLC said last month that from next April it would no longer pay the £28,000 a year for the rent of the Villa Marina Colonnade premises. He maintained that the continued deficit in the gallery’s budget should no longer be supported from public funding.
Chairman of the board of Sayle Gallery, Damian Ciappelli, said the ‘swingeing’ cut had come ‘out of the blue’.
But today the Arts Council announced it had granted funding for an additional six months’ rent payments plus 50 per cent funding for an Artist in Residence for 2016 - adding up to a total of £19,000.
The previously agreed funding for rent expires at the end of March 2016.
This followed what was described as an ‘amicable’ meeting between the Education Minister Tim Crookall MLC and Sayle Gallery representatives.
Mr Crookall said: ‘I am happy we have been able to agree a way forward in the short term. The Arts Council never withdrew funding in totality and it is important that we are assured the Sayle Gallery will use this extra period of funding to find a suitable strategy for future funding.’
Mr Corkish added: ‘I’d like to thank the Minister for his collaboration on this matter. I am hopeful that this further gesture in a long term period of support will help the gallery find a firmer footing for their future sustainability.’
The gallery will remain eligible to apply for Arts Council funding for other areas of its operations.