What is Blueprint?
Blueprint is Arts & Business NI’s financial resilience programme, which has the ambition to help strengthen the arts sector in Northern Ireland for the future. A five-year programme which started in January 2022, Blueprint supports a network of arts and cultural organisations to encourage income growth and long-term financial stability. In addition to tailored training and mentoring, the programme includes investment grants to help organisations free up capacity, test new income generation ideas and invest in and incentivise financial growth.
The programme is informed by five years of research and development led by the team at Arts & Business NI (A&BNI), in partnership with a cohort of public and private funders. The rationale for the programme began to form in 2016, when A&BNI commissioned a piece of research entitled ‘Socially Investing in the Arts’.
Through Blueprint, Arts & Business NI are providing a catalyst for transformational change, during an incredibly challenging time for arts organisations. Blueprint aims to deliver significant and lasting benefits to the arts sector in Northern Ireland.
To find out more about the programme, including where it all started and our ambitions for the future, view our linked brochure.
Who's Taking Part?
We currently have 29 cultural organisations taking part in the programme.
There are 17 organisations in cohort 1
Andersonstown Traditional & Contemporary Music School, Belfast Exposed, Belfast Photo Festival, The Duncairn Arts Centre, Fighting Words NI, Golden Thread Gallery, HOUSEHOLD, In Your Space Circus, Kids In Control, Maiden Voyage Dance, Replay Theatre Company, Seacourt Print Workshop, Terra Nova Productions, Theatre and Dance NI, University of Atypical, Vault Artist Studios, Young At Art
And 12 Organisations in cohort 2
Beat Carnival, Bruiser Theatre, Dylan Quinn Dance, Greater Shantallow Community Arts, Imagine! Festival, Kabosh Theatre, Millennium Court, New Lodge Arts, Open Arts NI, Ps2, Thrive and Tumble Circus.
You can read more about our ambitions for the programme here .
Latest Blueprint News
12 Organisations Join Blueprint 2
Twelve organisations are set to begin a transformative journey, as they join the second cohort of the cutting-edge A&B NI Blueprint programme. Read the full story here
Seacourt Print Workshop in the frame for a bright future thanks to Blueprint
Bangor based Seacourt Print Workshop is one of 17 local arts organisations to be successfully completing the new Arts & Business NI Blueprint programme. Read the full story here.
Pioneering Financial Programme Develops Fresh Blueprint for Future of the Arts
Blueprint, developed by Arts & Business NI (A&BNI), is the first programme of its kind in the UK and Ireland, specifically designed at helping arts and cultural organisations become more resilient and commercially confident to diversify and grow. Read the full story here.
"Blueprint has helped our company understand what we need to do to move
forward. The mentoring opened up conversations that we long needed to have. We identified problems and found solutions."
"Blueprint has given me the confidence to interrogate our previous strategy and
rework it based on my experience within the organisation and the learnings from our team, and from Blueprint"
Our Funders
Arts & Business NI would like to express our sincere thanks to the funders who have partnered with on this programme. These include:
Arts & Business NI would also like to acknowledge and thank two other funders who also supported the research and development work that underpinned Blueprint.
They are: 
Our Funders & Partners
Arts & Business NI is generously supported by The Arts Council of Northern Ireland.
