Artscape: Given last month's announcement of additional Government funding for the Arts Council, you'd have thought the arts community might have been able to relax a little in the run-up to this week's distribution of grant offers - but not so, writes Belinda McKeon.
As Raymond Keane of Barabbas puts it, "the whole country sat by letterboxes and e-mail on Tuesday" as the 2004 figures emerged. Tensions remained high in the wake of last year's financial blitz, when cuts of up to 60 per cent were suffered. With a new council and a restructured executive in place, nothing could be taken for granted.
However, the 266 offers sent out to arts organisations have, by and large, been greeted with relief. An overall increase of 19 per cent, from the 2002 figure of €34.1 million to €40.7 million, has rendered shocking cuts the exception rather than the norm, while last year's controversial decision to direct funding to resource, service and educational centres at the expense of production companies and venues has apparently been reversed. Of the €37.3 million so far allocated, €7.8 million has been extended to resource and service organisations, €10.6 million to production companies, €5.1 million to festivals and events, and €13.8 million to venues.
There have been some success stories - Theatre Shop, Pan Pan, the Linenhall Arts Centre and Rough Magic are among those to get increases of more than €40,000 (in the latter case, more than €100,000) - in comparison not only to the 2002 figure but even on the figure from 2001, before the cuts hit. But in real terms the 19 per cent increase is mostly in the form of standstill offers and modest increases which return companies to their situation of two years ago.
Across the board, figures either exactly match or improve slightly upon those granted late in 2001. This is the case for companies such as Barabbas and Calypso, publishers such as Gallery and Salmon, and also for the Dublin Fringe Festival. Opera Ireland is back above the €1 million mark after last year's humiliation, while, following a shortfall of €125,000 in 2002, Irish Modern Dance Theatre is up €104,000, and the National Theatre, with €4.5 million, is climbing back towards its 2001 mark of €4.8 million.
While gratitude has been the public reaction of most of these organisations, a number point out that the increases are not inflation-graded and hence represent little real assistance in a country with an escalating cost of living. Some, such as Michael Colgan of the Gate, Garry Hynes of Druid, Alan Stanford of Second Age, and Gerry Barnes of Cork Opera House, are predictably vociferous on the matter.
"No organisation can survive on less than they survived on before 1997," says Colgan. "Yet that's what we're on. It represents a grooming towards habitual acceptance of the near-enough."
A €100,000 increase on last year's grant of €600,000 should be seen in the context that, pre-1999, the Gate's grant was already more than €700,000. From Hynes's point of view, the funding restores the damage done last year, but not much else. Druid's increase of 18 per cent on a figure that already comprised a 14 per cent cut from 2001 will not, she says, be enough to finance next year's ambitious Synge Cycle.
Joseph Woods, director of Poetry Ireland, welcomes a 25 per cent rise on last year's figure but says the extra €24,000 represents "only an increase on a figure in the red".
Even further into the red, with significant cuts, are the Institute of Choreography and Dance, the Galloglass and Hawk's Well theatre companies, and the Belltable Arts Centre, former haunt of the council's new venues programme manager, Liz Culloty, which is now €65,000 the poorer.
Two publishers, Lilliput and Clé Teoranta, are worse off - surprisingly, given that a commitment to literary publishers is part of the council's funding remit for 2004. Did these two fail, then, to fulfil the criteria of reinforcing "the council's priorities . . . in supporting artists, or in building audiences, especially young audiences, for new writing in Irish or English"?
Newer organisations and projects, such as the Belfast-based journal, Irish Pages, were also given a brush-off in favour of existing clients, feeling the chill of a policy described as "consolidation".
One council move that has proved universally popular is the improved communications system which has come about through restructuring. Even the most hardened critics have welcomed a new transparency in the process of making offers known this year (except, perhaps, Alan Stanford - "saying there's no more money in a nicer way doesn't make it any easier").
Welcome, too, is the prospect of changes to the troubled Arts Plan 2002-2006, a development indicated by Arts Council chair Olive Braiden at Wednesday's press briefing, with the announcement of a comprehensive review in the months ahead. This, and the decision to channel most of the funding increase directly into artistic activity, would seem to be part of what Braiden had in mind when she said that the new council was "keen to put its stamp on things and to see if we can improve on how things were done in the past".
The council has gained the wary trust of many in the arts sector, the interest of all. An interesting year can only follow.
Traditional welcome
News of Arts Council funding for traditional arts was greeted in the main with a collective sigh of relief, writes Siobhán Long.
Glór Irish Music Centre in Ennis was in receipt of one of the largest increases in funding, from €6,000 in 2003 to €30,000 in 2004, an increase of 500 per cent.
Director Katie Verling, recently appointed to the council's Special Committee on the Traditional Arts, expressed guarded satisfaction with the news, viewing it as evidence that Glór is now viewed primarily as a venue.
The Irish Traditional Music Archive's position is somewhat unclear. While its revenue funding has increased from €300,000 to €332,000, Nicolas Carolan reports uncertainty about its capital grant allocation, and is awaiting a meeting next year for clarification.
Music Network received a small increase in funding, from €401,000 to €409,000, as did Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy, from €25,000 to €27,000.
The director of Donegal's Tionscnamh Lugh, Gerry Smullen, said that while it was "glad to get" a grant increase from €12,700 to €14,000, its original application (in the region of €36,000), included revenue costs to employ an administrator. Its 2004 allocation will cover programming/promotion costs only.
Samhlaíocht Chiarraí, one of the few arts organisations to receive a substantial increase in funding last year (from €75,000 to €100,000), retains the same level of funding this year.
Galleries get back to 2001
After last year's severe cutbacks, the Arts Council has acted decisively to restore adequate funding levels to the art galleries among its clients, writes Aidan Dunne.
Several directors and curators expressed themselves pleased at the response to their applications for funding for 2004. The most dramatic increase in percentage terms probably went to Kilkenny's Butler Gallery, from last year's €115,00 to €165,000. The Butler runs a notably ambitious programme given its size and location. The increase will go, said director Nathalie Weadick, on staffing costs, including education and administration. She pointed out that the threatened abolition of Community Employment Schemes will hit galleries hard, since most publicly funded galleries depend on them to some extent.
As for the Royal Hibernian Academy, "we asked for €352,000 and got €335,000, which brings us back to the level of 2001 - we're pretty happy with that", said director Pat Murphy. The Douglas Hyde Gallery is in a similar position. Having endured a cut of €40,000 last year, this year's €340,000 brings it back to the 2001 level. Director John Hutchinson said he was pleased and thought that the council had been positive.
Marion Lovett, director of Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, was "quite pleased" at its allocation of €300,000, up from €245,000 last year.
"It brings us back up to the level we'd been promised last year under the multi-annual funding arrangements. We were desperately disappointed when that was reneged on," she said.
The Limerick City Art Gallery has had to contend with local authority cutbacks in its grant from the city council, so the increase in Arts Council funding from €50,000 to €80,000 was not only welcome but essential.
"It turns what looked like being a very difficult year into being a tight but workable year," as director Mike Fitzpatrick put it.
EU 'Day of Welcomes'
When the Minister for the Arts, John O'Donoghue, delivered his good news about increased Arts Council funding, he also announced that his own department had secured significant allocations for a number of cultural projects. One of them, the cultural programme to mark our EU presidency and the accession to the EU of 10 new countries, has €3.9 million earmarked for it.
Little has been revealed about the nature of this cultural celebration, except that the master of ceremonies will be the minister's own adviser, Fiach Mac Conghail, and that it will involve two-way traffic: Irish art going abroad to the accession states, and return visits from artists, exhibitions and productions.
O'Donoghue did, however, announce one of the showcase events this week, a "Day of Welcomes" on Saturday, May 1st, when each new member state will be "welcomed" into the EU by an Irish city or town presenting a cultural event. The 10 Irish towns and cities and their EU counterparts will be: Bray (Cyprus), Cork (Slovakia), Drogheda (Latvia), Galway (Estonia), Kilkenny (Lithuania), Killarney (Czech Republic), Letterkenny (Poland), Limerick (Slovenia), Sligo (Hungary), and Waterford (Malta).
O'Donoghue said he believed the occasion would be "an opportunity to showcase the unique cultural aspects of Ireland and the famed Irish welcome, as well as celebrating the qualities and individuality of each of our new European neighbours". The Irish towns would "contribute to this wonderful and important occasion through music, poetry, street theatre and pageantry".
The capital is not being left out. On the evening of Friday, April 30th, a fireworks extravaganza is planned for Dublin, with Groupe F, a leading European pyrotechnics company, commissioned to create a 20-minute spectacle. And on Saturday, May 1st, a concert of Irish and international performers is being planned for a city location. The St Stephen's Green area is due to host a European Fair on the Saturday and Sunday. The fair, to be set up marquee-style, will showcase food and produce from all over the new EU and exhibit innovations in fashion, textiles, technology and cultural activity.
The full cultural programme for Ireland's EU Presidency will be announced on January 7th.