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THE DEPARTMENT OF Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht has announced a number of new schemes today in response to the impact of the coronavirus crisis on artists.
However, the news has been criticised by a number of artists, including the group the National Campaign for the Arts (NCFA).
The campaign said “it is extremely disappointing that today’s announcement shows such little respect for artists and arts workers and those who support them”.
The announcement, which was made today by Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Josepha Madigan, has a number of parts to it.
In response to some of the criticism received on Twitter, Minister Madigan said in a series of tweets that the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht provided €25m of funding to arts and cultural organisations in the two weeks after the closure of venues due to Covid-19.
She said that the Arts Council paid €18m of this to artists and arts organisations over that two-week period, and that the initiatives announced today supports their work during the Covid-19 emergency, and is separate to supports available through Covid social welfare schemes and business supports.
€1 million fund
One initiative announced today was a €1 million fund from the Arts Council to enable artists to make new and original art during the Covid-19 crisis.
The scheme, called the Arts Council Covid-19 Crisis Response Award, is designed to support the creation of new artistic work and its dissemination online for the public benefit.
The Arts Council said it is creating a new digital platform so that people across the country can experience the work in their own homes.
“Artists and arts organisations have been playing their part in helping people get through this crisis. The Arts Council is fully aware of the huge impact the crisis is having on the livelihoods of everyone working in the arts. This new scheme is one immediate support to assist artists to make new work for the public to enjoy during this difficult time,” said Kevin Rafter, Chair of the Arts Council.
The €1 million fund will be made up of €500,000 from the Arts Council’s existing budgets, with €500,000 funding from the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.
Minister Madigan said: “Budgets are tight, but we need our artists making great work for the public now more than ever, and the Government is proud to be able to provide extra funding for it.”
The award is open to anyone who can demonstrate a track record of professional practice as an artist, with no restriction on the type or form of art that can be created.
The Arts Council said proposals would be assessed and scored based on the artistic quality of the proposal, the potential of the idea to engage with the public, and the track record of the artist.
Successful applicants will be awarded €3,000 and there are 334 awards available under this scheme. Applicants must be resident in the Republic of Ireland, and agree to adhere to all public-health advice and guidance laid down by the HSE and by the government and with regard to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Artists already receiving funding from the Arts Council across a range of schemes are not eligible to apply – full criteria and guidelines will be available at www.artscouncil.ie
In addition, Culture Ireland announced a new initiative, Ireland Performs. This is operated with Facebook Ireland, which will award €1,000 each to 100 artists/groups selected to perform on Facebook Live. This will also be broadcast on RTÉ.
In addition, Creative Ireland will offer free creative resources online, and RTÉ School Hub and RTÉ Culture will showcase material from Ireland’s national cultural institutions, arts organisations and the Arts Council.
Fighting Words will provide online resources to support creative writing, TG4 will also provide cultural content and will partner with Comahaltas for a reimagined fleadh ceoil. The Abbey Theatre’s Dear Ireland project will see 50 writers producing monologues, which will performed in April.
Disappointment
However, the NCFA said it is “extremely disappointed” by the Department of Culture, Heritage & the Gaeltacht’s response to the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the Irish arts community.
The NCFA said it believes that the announcement “goes nowhere near addressing the fears and concerns of the arts community in Ireland.”
Our sector needs to be ready to come back fighting after this crisis is over; the lack of vision shown by the Minister and her Department will do nothing to create those conditions.
In a statement, it said: “In a time when the Irish Government has acted swiftly and decisively to allay fears and secure the welfare of Irish citizens in this unprecedented crisis, we are dismayed by the lack of vision shown in relation to the arts.”
The NCFA said that the Arts Council fund of €1 million for artists to create online work “represents a small investment in individual artists, but does not apply to many kinds of artistic practice”.
It said that other initiatives like ‘Shining a Light’ (where people are asked to shine a light for those affected by Covid-19) “have little to do with professional arts practice and do not address the real damage that has been done to the sector through the ongoing crisis”.
Yet again, Ireland’s place at the bottom of the pile in terms of investment in culture and arts in Europe is demonstrated. Other countries have rolled out significant supports for artists in these challenging times (e.g. Germany €50 Billion, Arts Council England £160 Million, Arts Council Wales £7 Million).
The NCFA said that the recent crisis “has shown the Irish public’s support for and commitment to arts and culture in all its forms”.
It also said it is imperative that the arts sector is recognised as vital to the fabric of our society, and “that the creativity, innovation and multifaceted skills of artists, makers and arts workers will be a key component in the rebuilding of our country and economy”.
The NCFA concluded that: “There will be no arts and culture sector left without a significant vision for how the sector will be supported through these difficult times.”
The campaign group has now called on the government to make more funding available to the Department of Culture to allow it to add significantly more funding to the Arts Council measure, open up the restrictiveness of the scheme and make some changes to these initiatives “to really reflect how the Irish public value artists and arts organisations and to better support artists directly at this time”.
When contacted by TheJournal.ie, the Arts Council said it had no comment to make at this time. The Department of Culture has also been contacted for comment.
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Irish Language Act promised since 2006 by the British Government. The DUP won’t budge on it, and the UK government need to act unilaterally. DUP – British when it suits them, “Ulstermen” when it doesn’t.
How can Wales and Scotland get language legislation, but the north can’t? If the DUP want to represent “British values”, then they should take heed from Britain where language legislation for indigenous languages like Welsh and Gaidhlig exists.
@Seán Ó Briain: most people I know, South and North don’t really care much for this kind of thing. Just political chess playing and grand standing
@Nigel o’Neill: ok, thanks. Maybe you should meet new people.
@John kane: and you live where John?
@Nigel o’Neill:Beats me anyone that is standing up for a language that has its semi conscious face in the water. Political grandstanding, no substance.
@Nigel o’Neill: That’s cool, but this isn’t about “people” you “know”. It’s about a promise by the British government to create an Irish language act as part of a power-sharing agreement and failing to deliver on it.
It’s about equality for Irish language speakers and not treating them as second class citizens when compared to Scottish Gaelic or Welsh speakers.
It’s about protecting the indigenous language of this island, irrespective of whether you personally care about it. There is a vibrant Irish language community in the north, 35 gaelscoileanna in the north, and multiple Irish language community centres.
What’s the point of Britain making agreements if they won’t uphold the promises made in order for them to be agreed?
@Seán Ó Briain: promises? Don’t matter a damm to Boris.
And we are supposed to give up our flag, national anthem etc for these lot in the event of a united Ireland?
@Munster1: If you think for one minute the the tricolour & anthem is all you will be giving up the you are in for a rude awakening my friend.
@Munster1: they’re not all of NI and in answer to the question, yes, yes we will.
@Justin Gillespie: Yes Munster 1 , you are going to have to give up Partition too, the root of all our problems for past 100 years! and that might even upset some like Justin who never suffered a day by partition because he is alright jack and couldnt give a hoot how Partition hurt others.
Justin suffers with the same narrow ailment that many unionists have – called ‘I hold what I have’. not an inch!
@Justin Gillespie: I really don’t know where you’re going with that. The overwhelming majority won’t be acceding to anything like you’re implying. After all, Northern Ireland joining Ireland will require a majority in Ireland in favour. That won’t happen if there’s any commonwealth nonsense or any kind of dual flag. It will be a United, sovereign Ireland – nothing else will pass. Sovereign nation (86% of island) > former statelet of U.K. , non – sovereign (14% of island). Never going to be a marriage of equals.
Just what do you think we’ll also have to give up?
@Justin Gillespie: lol the triclolour represents the Orange / Protestant tradition on the island. Perhaps you just hadn’t noticed that and prefer to speculate absolute codswallop
@Angela McCarthy: the root of most of our problems for the past 100 years and more so in recent years lies within Leinster House, if you hadn’t noticed
@LiamMac2018: someone speaking from an educated and sensible standpoint, thank crunchie
Someone has got to stand up to this not an inch mentality from the DUP.
The DUP despise everything Irish, language included.SF need to stand their ground on the irish language act, native languages are protected UK.
SF should realise that what the language needs is people speaking it public ie in the supermarket and on public transport. They should take the language out of the control of the academics of “ Conra” obsessed with grammar etc
@Richard Russell: Like you do every day Richard? I think you should realise this is much bigger that an SF matter, or a nationalist matter. There are now Gaelscoil’s in loyalist East Belfast. Only a language act will protect that developing situation.
Time for an election. If it is brought on by the premature ending of the Executive it will be a plague on sf and DUP. On sf for not nominating over an act that would be put in place when pandemic is over and on the DUP for allowing them have a contrived excuse to pull the plug. Would be great to see the more moderates do well in the next elections in Northern Ireland such as Alliance and SDLP.
Sinn fein rattling the cage.between now and the next ten months they are going for elections in the north.the unionist vote is in smithereens.first minister will be Michelle o Neill and it will be easily passed then.so sinn fein are just playing a waiting game here.intresting times ahead over next few years in the north
And we are supposed to give up our flag, national anthem etc for these lot in the event of a united Ireland? What a load of nonsense
@Munster1: I honestly don’t believe that the DUPs politicians are truly representative of the vast majority of people who come from loyalist/unionist tradition communities. The vast majority of those people are progressive.
@#FreePalestine: well they are the most popular unionist party
Gowon home
Ah, but this allows a “finely balanced” dig at both, since the DUP didn’t support the GFA that gave rise to devolution in the first place, and Sinn Féin haven taken their seats at Westminster that’d allow them to help pass this language legislation over there.
@Mick Tobin: No it wouldn’t. Do you not know how the English parliament works?
@Mick Tobin: “Sinn Féin haven taken their seats at Westminster that’d allow them to help pass this language legislation over there.”
That’s false. Language is a devolved matter, there wouldn’t be a vote on it in Westminster. And since the DUP will never implement it in a devolved manner, it’s up to the UK government to act and implement one.
One problem with a United Ireland is the additional cost of supplying DUP members, voters and their terrorist chums with either cushioned pavements or gloves to prevent knuckle damage as they walk about our beautiful country.
Most of the people in the north are English so why would they won’t a foreign language imposed on them? We don’t even speak Irish in the south, if the shinners won’t to speak Irish so they should every day, every meeting they attend let them! There’s trouble brewing up North for July 12 .
@Heisen berg1: wrong on many counts. None of them are English. Some are Irish, some identify as British.
@Heisen berg1: People in the north of Ireland are Irish,think you will find most English live in England not Ireland.
@Heisen berg1: The English language was imposed on the Irish. There was a time when it was illegal to speak Irish. Nobody is trying to make people learn or speak it who don’t wish too, but for those who do want to learn and speak then there should be opportunity
Ulster has been saying No since day one, to hell with them, offer them NADA Leo
@Charles Coughlan: only part of Ulster say no.
have your say