Theatre-makers, choreographers, visual artists, writers, comedians, musicians - a bunch of artists talk about the joys and difficulties of making art in Ireland, writes Peter Crawley

Take a group of artists working at the top of their game in a wide range of disciplines, bring them together and ask them the same questions, and their answers reveal a desire for creative flexibility and a good-humoured determination to make art against the odds.

Recently the Project Arts Centre gathered together the associate artists who are working with the company in 2008. The disciplines represented were certainly diverse - from theatre-makers to choreographers, visual artists to comedians, writers to musicians - but all had similar concerns about working in a country that is high on rhetoric about the value of the arts, but generally shorter on resources to nurture artists.

Using Project as a hub for producing work that may otherwise never see the light of day, the assembly represented a neat focus group for the concerns and motivations of independent art-makers.

Here are some of the artists' responses:

David O'Doherty

Comedian, writer and performer whose new childrens' play, Bedtime, is scheduled for performance at Project in June

Is it important that work stays relevant to an audience?

"If you're talking about writing for kids, it's an absolute certainty. The great thing about working for kids is that, at every point, they tell you what they're thinking of it. The greatest heckle I ever got was at a book reading when a kid put his hand up and said: 'Does this get good soon?' It's up to you to make sure it does."

What compels you to make the work you do?

"One of the defining moments of my life was when my father took my sixth birthday party to the kids' Christmas show in the Peacock at the time. And we all thought it was great. And dad announced afterwards: 'That was rubbish, and next year I'm going to write a show and we're all going to see it for your birthday.' And he wrote a show that ran for a couple of years, called The Lugnaquilla Gorilla. It was one of those early points where you realise you can think of things and if you organise them well enough they can be brought to life."

Jesse Jones

Visual artist whose new show, a film based on Léon Theremin and Vladimir Lenin, opens at Project Gallery in March

Is it important that work stays relevant to an audience?

"I don't think it's the first thought that enters my head. But in terms of how I approach an artwork, you're always viewing things through a prism of how you see the world at a particular moment. It happens naturally on both sides, as a viewer or a producer. People are talking about it more now because there's an immediacy in the crisis of cultural politics and what level of participation we have."

Rebecca Walter

Artistic director of Catapult dance company. Her film of Walk Don't Run, a site-specific dance piece commissioned by Project, will be screened this year

Do you feel supported and encouraged to make art in this country?

"I feel like there's a lot of support for dance, particularly from Project and DanceHouse, which has really changed the landscape for dance, not just with facilities but also for bursaries and development opportunities. And project funding went up at the Arts Council by 75 per cent last year, so it's no longer necessary to become a company, which is great. I think there's a lot more freedom to take on different sorts of projects."

What compels you to make the work you do?

"I'm just fascinated by the medium. For anyone, you start off as a fan of the medium you work in and you see amazing things, but then you find a direction that hasn't been explored or a way of addressing something that's missing, something that you think about life that you can share with other people."

Sean Carpio

Jazz musician, whose next performance will take place in September in Project

Is it important that work stays relevant to an audience?

"There was an element of that to the concert I did last in Project, because I wanted people to come in during the week of rehearsals and ask as many questions as possible, which they did. The music was completely improvised, but my point to the musicians was that most improvised music doesn't engage with the audience. After a while you just lose interest in music that's for musicians only - and then you find you have no audience."

Róise Goan

Writer and producer, currently writing an Irish-language play for Project, while also working on Project Brand New, for which new artists will develop work outside a traditional production model, and producing Randolph SD's new show for Project in November.

Do you feel supported and encouraged to make art in this country?

"With regard to Randolph SD, we were supported in our early stages by Project and now we're beginning to get money [from the Arts Council], which is great. But I think it would be better if people were supported earlier in their career. I think the way the State capitalises on the reputation of the arts in Ireland is at times a little frustrating, given the meagre funding for the arts in general."

Is it important to make work relevant to an audience?

"I agree that it should be relevant, but at the same time there is a definite need for people to understand that sometimes art can be for art's sake. You shouldn't have to qualify the work that you make because it fits into a particular political or social agenda."

Rachel West

Artistic director of RAW theatre company. Having staged Splendour with Project last year, RAW is deciding how to proceed, its funding award having fallen short of its plans Do you feel supported and encouraged to make art in this country?

"I think financial support can be capricious and we need to find new ways of working. I think what Project is attempting to do, if it had more funding, would be a much cheaper way to benefit a wider range of artists, because you have a central production hub for them all. With the company structure we have in Ireland, I think there's a huge amount of waste in funding."

Annabelle Comyn

Director, whose company, HATCH, is staging Zinnie Harris's play, Further than the Furthest Thing, in August

Is it important to make work relevant to an audience?

"I just choose a play because I like it. At times the plays have been political, but there's always a personal aspect, which draws me to it above a political agenda. Normally the work is personal with a political dimension."

What compels you to make the work you do?

"I sometimes wonder! You're often up against practical constraints while trying to do work at the same time. I suppose a continuous interest in certain plays I want to do, in certain themes I want to explore. Just on a very personal level, I'd kind of feel a bit lost if I weren't doing it. Despite the stress and the strain, there's a great high in doing it. So, from a very selfish point of view, I enjoy it."

Maebh Cheasty

Her company, Audio Detourists, is installing a permanent guided tour in Project in March, then staging Disco-nnect in June

Do you feel supported and encouraged to make art in this country?

"The Project is a pretty big support. The way I work, I don't have a big theatre group, it's just me and a changing group of three or four close friends. If you build those kind of structures around you, it can be a bit rigid, whereas if you just work at a really simple, small-scale level, you can be more flexible. Support is important, but it's not like we're a national opera company."

Broken Talkers

Gary Keegan and Feidlim Cannon recently presented their audio walking tour, Track, and will next present a new piece for the We Are Here 3.0 festival organised by Project and Dublin Docklands Development Authority

Do you feel supported and encouraged to make art in this country?

GK:"We've been at this a while, to varying degrees of success, and I think there was a time when we didn't work as well as we're beginning to. I think we're improving and that certain key people are starting to recognise there is a place for us. They're nurturing us and allowing us to occupy that space, in terms of financial and moral support."

What compels you to make the work you do?

FC:"I've always wanted to be in this job, making work. I suppose we do react against the type of work we don't want to make."

GK:"I just like telling stories. I like that as a baseline, as a fundamental part of theatre, and I like that those stories are told in a way that reflects the way things are, so it doesn't come in a straight line, but an accumulation of fragments."

Jean Butler

Dancer and choreographer who is developing the follow-up to last year's solo show, Does She Take Sugar?

Do you feel supported and encouraged to make art in this country?

"I think any independent artist has a struggle because they're reliant on an Arts Council for funding and reliant on arts organisations like the Project to lend them a hand. I personally feel completely supported."

Is it important to make work that is relevant to an audience?

"I think what I'm doing now is entirely relevant to the changing Ireland that we live in and our notions of what is traditional and what isn't, what is postmodern and what isn't, what is dance and what isn't. It's about taking off labels. Tradition only stays alive if it's not institutionalised."