This mostly rain-sodden summer has shown why we need to invest in a wide range of weather-independent experiences, including the arts, writes Olive Braiden
If people are asked, after the summer of 2007, what they have to remember the season by in Ireland, it certainly will not be the good weather. However, there is every chance that it will have been one of the many excellent arts and cultural festivals which have taken place and continue to take place across the country.
For many places, arts festivals have been the saviours of the tourist season. People in Galway say that the arts festival has been the making of the city after a difficult year. Festivals have also been the highlight for such towns as Boyle, Kinsale, Clonmel, Letterkenny and many others across the country.
Undoubtedly this will be the story too at the end of the festivals still to come in Kilkenny, west Cork, Ballyshannon, Sligo, Birr and Clifden, to name just a random half-dozen.
The Arts Council has recognised the important role festivals have played for some time and it offers significant support to festivals large and small across all the arts. In some instances the festivals could not take place without the funding they receive from the council. In all cases funding from the Arts Council ensures the range and quality of programming that are the hallmarks of arts festivals nationwide.
This month alone the council is supporting 42 festivals across the country, from the Festival of World Cultures in Dún Laoghaire to Summer Music on the Shannon, to the Ballyshannon Folk Festival, to the West Cork Music Festival. The council will also be supporting 36 festivals taking place during the month of September.
The Arts Council acknowledges the vital role festivals play in local tourism, in local economies and in the lives of tourists and local people. In many ways the festivals show the distinctiveness of each part of Ireland and help to shape what people think about a town or area after their summer holidays have ended. Elements of a festival - a concert perhaps, or a street parade, or a dance performance - can be the memory that lives on with people long after a holiday is over.
The wet weather has been good for box-offices at these festivals, proving that clouds do have a silver lining for some. But the weather has emphasised the necessity for much more of this type of investment. The Arts Council strongly supports the comments by the chairwoman of Fáilte Ireland, Gillian Bowler, in a recent report on the tourism product development strategy, that it is necessary for Ireland to invest for success in tourism since our competitors in Northern Europe have redoubled their efforts in tourism and recreation.
At the Arts Council's first meeting recently with the new Minister for the Arts and Tourism, Séamus Brennan, he too emphasised the important linkage between tourism and the arts. As a minister for tourism in previous governments, he knows what makes tourism tick. The Arts Council shares with him and with Ireland's tourism interests a common objective and we strongly support significant further investment in cultural tourism for this country. This is the fastest growth area in tourism and cities such as New York and many Spanish and Italian towns and cities thrive on it. It is under-developed here and needs more focal points to attract greater numbers.
The weather debate presents the opportunity for consideration to be given to major arts and cultural renewal projects. This autumn the Arts Council will be asking the Government to provide an extra €20 million in funding for the arts next year to enable a focus on the development of a number of key areas, including more performance opportunities in the new regional arts centres dotted around the country and to extend the touring programme by allowing arts organisations to bring shows to venues in Dublin and around the country. A touring programme has recently been revived by the council to allow exhibitions and performances in music, dance and theatre to be taken on the road. Until this recent touring programme was put in place, touring of the arts had been severely hampered by high costs.
Ireland is known the world over for its artists and it is reasonable that tourists expect to see a manifestation of that reputation when on holiday here. The additional €20 million would be an excellent investment in tourism, in the arts sector, which needs the funding, and in Ireland Inc, as the arts are the stimulant for the Republic to find new ways to succeed. Exposure to the arts through the many festivals across the country and through the regular arts events encourages continuous creativity and innovation in everyone who experiences them.
This ability to innovate and create is the key to Ireland's business future.
The festivals are also important for children and for those among the general public who are not consistent arts attendees. Not enough children in Ireland get the chance at school or after school to participate in the arts. Festivals bring the arts up close to children and families and to the wider public because they occur so often in the public realm and so often act as exciting gateways to the world of live performance and the wider world of the arts.
The investment we are urging the Government to give the Arts Council for 2008 is an additional €20 million in funding. When added to the €80 million received this year, this will make it possible next year for many, many more children, families and members of the public to experience the arts.
• Olive Braidenis the chairwoman of the Arts Council.
The council has commissioned a series of pamphlets on the value of the arts and their positive impact on people's lives. These are available at http://www.artscouncil.ie/en/FAQ/value_of_the_arts