An open letter: Art, Democracy and NSF
Discrimination
Tara Byrne,
Director
National Sculpture
Factory
Albert Rd
Cork
March 2nd
2008
Dear
Tara
Letters, like
billboards are used to draw attention to a product or subject. In a
month when the NSF launches a billboard on its site, with obvious
91cutting edge' references to cocaine, I would like to ask why the
NSF is deliberately discriminating against Cork artists? This
discrimination has been revealed in recent correspondence (e-mail
February 22nd Feb) from the Programme Manager relating to three
commissions announced for Cork Docklands. As the Arts Council, a grant
aid provider to the NSF, have just announced the development of their
anti-racial discrimination strategy it seems ironic that the NSF treats
artists differently simply because they are from
Cork.
In the NSF's own
words this is how you discriminate; "The three commissions
have different budgets and were conceived of on three different
levels.Originally we were considering two commissions, Irish and
international, but aware of the lack of opportunities to local artists,
we decided to stretch the budget to three. Of these two Irish
commissions, the aim of the Cork based commission was to simply allow an
artistrealise a good idea, with probably cheap or ephemeral
materials85" The
NSF, funded and assisted by Cork City Council, want local artists to
fight for the cheap leftovers and are not worthy of conservation. It
contradicts your own commission brief which reads: "NSF's
commissions programme is intended to create opportunities for artists to
make ambitious work in the public realm and to increase the breadth of
work available in Cork."
The word ambitious
is extremely cheap in light of the above.
Cork artists are
also revealed as an afterthought and based on your own pay scale
deserving of very little. "The national and
internationalproject budgets are higher, as they were pitched
specifically at mid career (the 'national' artist) to mature career (the
'international' artist), so the fee structure would be linked to
experience and therefore would be different85" Maybe you could inform us exactly when did
the NSF begin deciding discriminatory international pay scales for
artists, based on years of service (and to whom)? It is simply
ridiculous especially when juxtaposed against what was said about the
Cork commission. "Although we have not explicitly stated this,
we had guessed that the budget would dictate the relative experience of
the artist's applying, and as above, the materials." Well you have said it now and excluded
every self-respecting, serious, professional, mature and mid career
artist in Cork.
More questions are
raised by: "We have also used 3 different commissioning models -
we are directly inviting the international artist; we have asked three
Irish artists to propose ideas, form [sic] which we will choose one; the
Cork artist is the only one that is open -we decided thisin
response tolistening to artists, including you,say that there were
not enough opportunities in Cork. It is possible that the national
artist could also be from Cork but we are specifically choosing the
international artist as an outsider that can bring a fresh perspective
and introduce new practise to Cork and
ireland."
What is this
fresh international perspective and practice the NSF have identified so
strongly they failed to notice the local and are prepared to
discriminate to get it? Did the selection panel (who were?) undertake a
world tour to pick one from the multitude existing internationally or
did they pick one they already knew? Why is the Cork 91open'
commission different from the others? Why are the international and
national commissions closed? What is your definition of national? What
will happen to the two national artists rejected? Will they be
compensated for you wasting their time? Can a rejected national Cork
artist be transferred into the Open as
compensation?
The NSF is an
organization that grew out of a local need and has since aspired to the
national. Based on your performance, this is stretching your very
limited resources to the absolute maximum, so could you also inform us
where in your mission statement does it state that your role now extends
to funding the international at the expense of the local and national?
Especially as the e-mail stated, "We are still fundraising
forall of these budgets outside of our programme
budget..."
All three of your
commissions exclude Cork artists at some level and are therefore
discriminatory. This is unacceptable and possibly against EU law. It
also concentrates the power and authority of selection within the NSF's
Director's office when in reality you are not a curator or an
aesthetic adjudicator of the visual arts in Cork. You are a service
provider funded through the Arts Council and the City of Cork. As a Life
Member of the NSF and a mid-career Cork artist working internationally,
I would politely ask that these commissions be abandoned so that an
alternative can be developed that is inclusive of
ALL artists. Only
then will Cork artists be able to respond and engage with the future of
our city on equal terms. If you do not know how one might do this I
would happily contribute my experience on the cheap (ie:
free).
Regards John
Kelly
Cc: Joe Galvin City
Manager, Cork City Council
Cc: Olive Braiden,
Chair - Arts Council
Cc: Conor Doyle
Chairpeson NSF Board
Cc: Cork artists and
other stakeholders
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