What's going on with Culture Ireland? (Tuesday 27 May 2008)
compiled by Peter FitzGerald
No-one likes having a grant application rejected. They take time and energy to produce. So when Culture Ireland turned down Circa's most recent application, on the grounds that it was "not eligible for consideration," we were peeved, and not a little surprised: what we had applied for was exactly the sort of thing Culture Ireland had funded us for in the past.
Sour grapes aside, what is Culture Ireland up to? Has it run out of money?
We took a look back at the funding Culture Ireland has handed out since its inception in 2005. First, a chart of funding in absolute terms.
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| Culture Ireland: amount disbursed by funding round and artform; source of underlying figures here |
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| Culture Ireland: amount disbursed by funding round and artform, in percentage terms; source of underlying figures here |
The figures make for disturbing reading. How can it be that artforms in Ireland flop about so much in terms of their worth as a cultural export? Who decides that the visual arts are worth only 12.53% of the total on average? - the overall percentage take since 2005 for the different artforms is given here:
| Artform |
Overall % take |
| Theatre and dance |
41.35 |
| Film |
6.13 |
| Music |
27.36 |
| Visual Art |
12.53 |
| Literature |
10.32 |
| Architecture |
2.31 |
The sums involved are considerable. Had the visual arts, for instance, received the same absolute level of funding as theatre + dance, that would have amounted to 4.7 million euro instead of 1.4 million euro. Those 3.4 million euro in the difference would surely have had a considerable impact on the profile abroad of visual art in Ireland.
Nor can we fall back on the usual explanation, ie, that 'traditionally the visual arts have a lower profile in Ireland' - witness the slow decline in funding of literature, one of Ireland's star achievers. It is possible, of course, that the visual-arts sector in general has not applied for as much money as has the theater+dance sector. And it's hard to like the explanation that theatre and dance are more expensive than the visual arts: profile and influence and expectation and expenditure are locked in a loop of reciprocal cause and effect - it just so happens that the visual arts are less practised in running that circuit.
Culture Ireland needs to be a lot more open about (a) its current decision criteria; (b) the level of demand from different arts sectors; (c) the reasons why funding to different sectors is so extraordinarily variable.; (d) how much money it has to disburse in each funding round.
Culture Ireland - thanks to increased government funding - has been a breath of fresh air in terms of financing the promotion of the visual arts abroad. It's when you look at its pattern of decisions, however, that you realise that the visual arts may not be nearly as well served as it seemed. It would be very nice to know what's going on.
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For a full list of news items, click here.
Latest reader
feedback:
News item 624
The idea of exhibiting a group of objects bought on eBay, though ...
News item 617
It'd be interesting to see how many visitors attended the gallery...
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re. Comment 2 - most people who get turned down for grants have t...
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'sour grapes aside, what are culture ireland up to?' i think we n...
News item 606
hang on a minute... surely the feller who won the prize at art st...
News item 603
As someone who received a grant from Culture Ireland this year, f...
News item 602
try and make work that doesn't topple over in future!...
News item 595
My objection is to the way the words 'young' and 'emerging' are s...
Do
you have an opinion on this article? If so, please click here for our comments form.
| Responses so far |
| Comment 1 |
As someone who received a grant from Culture Ireland this
year, far below the amount required to cover anything like
the cost involved, I checked the CI website to see how
other applicants had got on. Whoever decided that the vast
majority of applicants receive less than 1000 euro in this
day and age is not realstically funding anyone to represent
their country abroad. I empathasis with CIRCA but at least
they knew they got nothing, whereas the majority seemed to
have got less than was required.
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| Comment 2 |
'sour grapes aside, what are culture ireland up to?'
i think we need a new, sleeker definition of 'sour grapes',
to cover this kind of circumstance.
really, isn't this a little grubby?
|
| Comment 3 |
re. Comment 2 - most people who get turned down for grants
have to fume in silence. I don't see anything
'sour-grapish' about this item, it's very interesting to
see a breakdown of how grants were disbursed. At least
recirca is in a position to publicly question the
decision-making.
Is nobody allowed to question decision-makers, for fear of
being accused of sour grapes?
Posted by A Davey on Mon Jul 7 09:32:48 2008
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