THE IRISH music centre Glór in Co Clare “nearly went under” last year before huge cuts were made in the centre’s operation, its director said yesterday.
Katie Verling said Glór recorded a loss of €2,500 to the end of December last, which she said was “an extraordinary achievement in the circumstances”.
The Ennis-based centre is to celebrate its 10th anniversary next year. Ms Verling said it was facing a loss of €140,000 in March of last year before cuts amounting to €580,000 were made.
Originally conceived as an Irish music centre aimed at tourists, the venue opened in 2001 after securing €5.7 million in grants from the then minister for arts and Clare TD Síle de Valera. Clare County Council and Ennis Town Council contributed €1.9 million, while the centre also received €635,000 in European funding.
However, the model of aiming towards tourists was not a success and the centre now focuses on local audiences.
Last year, the centre earned revenues of €1.5 million.
“I said to the staff and board at meetings yesterday that we could have gone under last year when an awful lot of companies went under,” Ms Verling said:
Asked what turned things around, she said: “A collective will to cut costs and to work harder and to maintain a quality of service to the community.”
Ms Verling said all staff had taken a 14 per cent pay cut last year made up of a 10 per cent pay cut and 10 days unpaid leave, while five staff were made redundant. “We cut everywhere.”
She said Glór had cut its marketing budget by 70 per cent and also cut down on cleaning bills, with staff now cleaning their own administrative offices.
The centre’s lighting and heating bill had been reduced by 30 per cent and staff had been encouraged to wear jumpers to work during the winter. “We are parsimonious with the heat,” Ms Verling said.
“We agreed as a company, as a staff and indeed as a board that the importance was to maintain what Glór stood for and not to make it look like we were doing any less, even though the money was an awful lot less,” she said.
“We actually managed that in the sense that last year we did 295 events.”
