Those involved in the arts will welcome the statement this week by Minister for the Arts Seamus Brennan that he is committed to working with them "in expanding, promoting and supporting the cultural life of this country". In a speech to mark the opening of a new exhibition in the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Mr Brennan returned to a subject that seems to be becoming his signature tune - "Access for All".
Wider and more inclusive access is, of course, a very worthy cause, and the Minister is correct to put it on the agenda by pointing out that in our cultural institutions we need "to build more flexibility into the traditional opening hours" to reflect changing lifestyles and to more adequately accommodate the increasingly limited leisure time that many people now have available to them. Extended opening hours, on at least a few evenings of the week, is one option, as is earlier access on Sunday mornings. But increasing the opening hours of our galleries and museums is only one aspect of making cultural experience and enjoyment more obtainable.
Earlier this year, in a report which came to some dismal conclusions about wider community inclusion in the arts, the National Economic and Social Forum put forward the blunt reminder that "everyone has an equal right to participate in the nation's artistic and cultural life".
While not everyone might want to engage with the arts or the creative process, the opportunity to do so should exist if they so wish. In particular, it should be there for them during their school years, when it might spark their curiosity and imagination. In his commendable crusade to bring more people into contact with the arts the Minister might now look closer to home: at what his department and the Department of Education can do to make the arts more central to the classroom.
Both departments are, together, currently devising a framework to more closely link arts and education. While we have yet to see the outcome of inter-departmental deliberations on the matter, if they get it right, the strategy, adequately resourced, may be far more vital to achieving the Minister's wishes on opening up the arts to new and more inclusive audiences than fixing new admission hours for our cultural institutions. While most of those institutions are Dublin-based, areas outside the capital are now served by a network of marvellous new arts centres which should be providing greater regional access to the arts. But that can only be fully accomplished if funding is made available for the Arts Council's touring initiative to bring work to these centres. The Minister would do well to add this to his agenda.