‘WHAT WE DO now is nothing short of a miracle,” said Alan Stanford. But if the arts get even less funding now, “it will not be a case of tighten the belt, but we can say goodbye to the arts in Ireland.”
The actor, director and Arts Council member was speaking on Wednesday at a meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Sport, Tourism, Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. The subject was “The funding of the Arts in the economic downturn”, and the committee had invited the new chairwoman of the Arts Council, Pat Moylan, who visited along with director Mary Cloake and two council members, Stanford and Philip King. The latter two were the evocative “glamour” part of the package, and they all performed impressively, making a strong case for the arts. Indeed, a number of Oireachtas members there (it seemed well attended) said they felt the urge to clap after King and Stanford’s contribution.
The response was very positive, with lots of interaction, some picking up on arts in their constituency, but all voicing strong support for the work of the council, and the role and potential of the arts. A number of deputies said the council was preaching to the converted, was pushing an open door, that they favoured stronger support of the arts. It’s unclear what influence the committee has when it comes to actual decisions, but presumably it’s better to have friends in high places than enemies. Discussion ranged from the Medicis to Gabriel Byrne and Anne Enright, to, again and again, the enormous potential of cultural tourism, which is now worth €5.1 billion a year.
Philip King spoke eloquently about how the “unique voice of Ireland itself” is expressed by art, which is “a way of explaining ourselves to ourselves and also makes us a magnet for people from other parts of the world to taste the flavour and accent and music and scenery and painting”.
He talked about how Irish music made an impact with emigration to America, which in turn placed its thumbprint on Irish music, which then came back here. “Art as a good natural resource that is part and parcel of who we are.”
Stanford commented that for some reason the arts have to justify themselves more than other industries, and talked about how, while we have no record about how or why prehistoric men and women went out to hunt, “we know they did it, because at the end of the day they painted it on a wall”. He talked about the Medicis, “who never painted anything, who were, god between us an all harm, bankers”, and how the art and music of the Renaissance still delight us and influence us, thanks to those far-seeing bankers. “They said, we’ll pay for it, because it’s worth it, because it expresses who we are and what we have done and what we have achieved. The record of what we are is the art we create,” he said. “Art in this country is not a luxury, but a right of every citizen to be exposed to and to partake of.”
Pat Moylan quoted Olivia Mitchell’s previous comment that the only good news stories coming out of Ireland are from the arts right now, and spoke about the value for money art represents, instancing how the Arts Council’s very modest investment in festivals such as the Galway Arts Festival has a great return – “some €24 million annually into the local economy and 150,000 patrons”.
Moylan stressed “the real saving to the Exchequer of further cutbacks to the arts would be minimal” as those who lose their jobs in the arts would then claim unemployment benefits, so “cutting the high level of activity we see in the arts all around the country would have no gain”.
Because of the cutbacks, “there will be some job losses and less theatre, less music and less exhibitions, but we have minimised these as far as we can.” If there are more cuts, “significant grant cuts will be unavoidable and commitments” will be reviewed. “The arts enjoy massive public support. A good example of this was when the Gate Theatre took its tour of Godot to 40 venues around the country last autumn. It was a sellout but it couldn’t have happened without Arts Council support. But once that support was there, there was appetite and interest all around the country to see a world class production.
“The arts are the single biggest pursuit in Ireland, bigger than the GAA and even bigger than political involvement! People all over the country get involved in the arts whether as a career, a volunteer or as audiences.”
The Irish Architecture Foundation recently launched www.architecturefoundation.ie as a virtual interface for the public with the built environment. Featuring news, polls and discussion forums, podcasts of talks and events, an Irish events diary and a big education section, as well as details of the IAF’s own projects, the site aims to enable the public to learn, be inspired, react to and interact with contemporary architecture; bloggers include architect Sean Ó Laoire and artist Dara McGrath who aim to encourage the public in topical debates.
Theatre critic Gerry Colgan, who died on Tuesday, was a regular in Irish theatre audiences. As colleagues commented this week, he was like a walking theatre archive. He was professional and conscientious and always a pleasure to work with. He fell into compiling the Irish Times Simplex crosswords accidentally, according to those who recall how he was writing in the office one evening when a crossword crisis occurred; his children recall him often asking them to guess which crosswords were his. He was 81 when he died in hospital on Tuesday, and yet for those who knew him he seemed never to have aged. He was considerate, modest and kind, always seeing the best in people, and productions; one of life’s real gentlemen. Our sympathy to Bernie and his family on his final curtain. Sleep peacefully, Gerry.
