SWINGEING cuts to the arts sector have been blamed for bringing the shutters down on the north's only dedicated print gallery, which last year hosted works by the elusive 'Banksy'.
Belfast Print Workshop Gallery (BPWG) in Waring Street, which has roots stretching back to the 1970s, will close this Saturday after losing over 40 per cent of its funding.
The publicly-funded, not-for-profit organisation had been due to celebrate its 10th anniversary in a few months' time.
"The news has been a big shock for all the team," gallery manager Jonathan Magee said.
"We were already planning our 10-year celebrations with an archive exhibition and we have also had to make other arrangements for proposed exhibitions which were to be held throughout the coming year."
The gallery, which receives lottery funding from the Arts Council and annual support from Belfast City Council, has become the largest contemporary arts space in Northern Ireland, carving out a reputation as a creative platform for over 60 professional printmakers.
Outreach projects have also become part of its remit with a recent 'Lagan Landscapes' initiative giving elderly dementia sufferers the opportunity to create mono and screen prints.
"We initially got news of the 44 per cent funding cuts in March and by June we knew we were in a situation where the gallery was closing for good," Mr Magee said.
"It is very much the end of an era, as BPWG is the only dedicated print gallery in the north."
While the print workshops will be staying open for now - and even with membership at an "all-time high" - he said funding is not guaranteed once the current year is over.
"It is a hard time for the arts and cultural sector across Northern Ireland and the cuts have caused many organisations to go out of business, so we are not the only people to suffer the devastating consequences.
"With international greats such as Banksy having exhibited here, the BPW has become a prominent gallery for art lovers to visit."
Due to the Stormont budget crisis, the Arts Council NI received £1.38m less this year, bringing its funding down to £10.9m.
Launching a '13p for the arts campaign' earlier this year, the body's chief executive Roisin McDonough warned the impact would be felt severely "across the sector and the wider community".
Despite 23,000 people writing to the Executive about cultural issues in response to the draft budget for 2015-16, the campaign failed to influence the final budget outcome for the arts.
