Madam, – Willie White (Arts, February 12th) suggests the Arts Council has overlooked new artists in its funding allocations and complains that the council is too procedural and takes too long to make decisions on which projects to fund. He is mistaken.
Last year, we, along with the entire country, dealt with the economic downturn. The Arts Council moved swiftly to ensure people still experienced the best of the arts, despite a series of reductions in our funding. That work continues this year, and we have made specific provision, through grants for performances, readings and exhibitions, to ensure that the public can see the work of new and emerging artists. We also fund fresh talent through our support for the venues and festivals that showcase it best.
Mr White failed to mention, for example, that the Arts Council this year invested €734,000 in the Project Arts Centre, which he heads, and a further €45,000 to enable him to participate in the Jerome Hynes Fellowship/Clore Leadership Programme.
Our decisions take time for a reason. The Arts Council is the country’s expert body on the arts, and on December 9th, was entrusted with €69 million of taxpayers’ money to invest in 2010. The council and its staff assess each of the 2,500 or so applications we receive with the care and attention to detail expected of us.
We do this in a rigorous, transparent and independent manner; anything less would be to short-change the public. Every year, we strive to become more efficient, but without lowering standards. This year, our administration budget is approximately two-thirds of what it was in 2008, and we must face a staff reduction of 25 per cent even as the volume of applications increases.
Other correspondents in your pages in recent days have complained about reductions in arts funding. We are investing everything we can in the arts, and in 2010 we will continue to assert – and prove – that our society, our economy and the Exchequer reap enormous dividends from that public money. We understand the disappointment of those artists and arts organisations we could not fund to the full extent of their ambitions.
As the Irish Film Institute expressed succinctly recently, everyone has to face adjustments in this climate. We hope our artists and arts organisations will adapt quickly to the changed economic climate, and redouble their efforts to do what they do best – create great art for the people of Ireland when we need it most. – Yours, etc,