| Eve O'Kelly reviews the recently-launched Arts Plan and draft Arts Bill.
This article was originally published in New Music News, May 2002.
Copyright ©2002 Contemporary Music Centre, Ireland. |
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The Arts in Transition
TWO important developments in the arts in Ireland were announced recently, both with important consequences for the development of music. The long-awaited endorsement of the Arts Council's Arts Plan 2002-2006 has been received from Government, and a new Arts Bill has been published in draft form.
The Arts Plan will run for five years, as opposed to three for previous plans, and will be funded in full by government, receiving a total of  314m over the five years. This will see the Council's funding increase from 47,862,500 this year to 79,865,000 in 2006.
Emphasising its role as 'the Irish State's expert body on the arts', the objectives of the plan are broken down into a number of broad aims which, viewed overall, put the emphasis on enhanced career opportunities for artists, increased audience development and participation in the arts, a higher profile for Irish arts internationally, and the provision of management training to enable arts organisations to function more effectively.
In referring to what it perceives as a lack of management and organisational skills among arts organisations and emphasising the need for sustainability, the plan also emphasises the need for the Council itself to implement a new staffing structure to cope with the growing demands of its work. At the launch, the Minister announced a thirty per cent increase in staffing for the Dublin headquarters and this is intended to 'complete the transformation of the Arts Council into an agency for developing the arts in Ireland'.
Music in the Arts Plan
The stated overall aim for music in the Arts Plan is to 'Raise the quality and quantity of music-making'. This is broken down into five subsidiary aims:
- Support the career development of performing artists and composers;
- Improve the quality of music education within the formal education system;
- Support international promotion of Irish performing artists and composers;
- Enhance the artistic quality of amateur music-making;
- Strengthen music organisations to provide a better infrastructure for music.
Music in Ireland, the document says, 'has been driven by the vision of highly motivated individuals and by high levels of voluntary commitment, including unpaid professional inputs -- but this limits its sustainability in the future.' Hard to disagree with any of this, but a lot of painstaking, step-by-step work will be needed to effect a lasting change in the situation.
Among the specific proposals for music, bursaries for composers and performers will be continued and support is expressed for residencies for both ensembles and composers. There is a welcome emphasis on the importance of music education, with a statement of intent to 'work in collaboration with others' to improve provisions at both school and third level. It is difficult to see, however, what steps -- other than exerting moral pressure -- a body such as the Council can take in this regard.
The long-neglected international dimension of Irish music-making is given a significant boost with promises to assist performing and touring opportunities and exchange projects for Irish performing and creative musicians, and 'to assist music organisations to develop international profile and sustainable performing opportunities for Irish artists'.
Reading other sections of the document, particularly that relating to literature, it seems that the specific needs of this sector have been pinned down more precisely than for music. Much of what is prescribed for writers and publishers for the next five years translates exactly into what is needed for composers and performers. It will be up to the music sector, therefore, to draw the parallels and make convincing arguments for funding on similar grounds for music.
Local authorities
Another important aspect given much prominence in the Plan is the need, as the Council sees it, to move away from exclusive dependence on it as a sole source of funding. Local Authorities, it appears, are high on the list of potential funding partners for certain areas of arts activity hitherto left to the Arts Council to support. While this is to be welcomed, it would suggest that Local Authorities themselves need to think about opening up additional sources of funding since, without a system of local taxation such as other countries operate, it is hard to envisage many Authorities diverting money away from the pressing needs of roads and housing and into the arts.
Arts Bill
The funding in full of the Arts Plan is greatly to be welcomed, particularly in the present financial climate. The increase in staffing for the Council's executive is also welcome, although recruiting the right personnel will be crucial. However the changes proposed in the new Arts Act will perhaps have the most profound implications of all.
The Bill, which repeals existing legislation from 1951 and 1973, halves the size of the Arts Council from seventeen to nine members, all still appointed by the Minister, and introduces rolling membership. It restates the independence of the Council in making funding decisions (an immediate concern of the arts sector when the revision of legislation was announced) but says that these 'shall...have regard to Government policy relating to the arts', a clear reminder from the Department for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands of who pays the piper.
Reinforcing the call in the Arts Plan for Local Authorities to play a greater part in supporting the arts, it requires them to prepare and implement arts development plans for their areas. As far as coming up with the funding goes, however, the Bill leaves a loophole saying merely that Local Authorities 'may' (rather than 'must') provide 'financial or other assistance' to support such planning.
The most potentially worrying development is the setting up of three standing subcommittees on Irish Traditional Arts, Arts Activity by Local Authorities, and New Art and Innovation. These 'will advise the Arts Council on issues falling within their remit'. Each five-person committee will be chaired by a member of the Council (nominated by the Minister) and will have four ordinary members, two each appointed by the Minister and the Council. While these members can come from outside the Council, with a majority on each committee chosen directly by the Minister it is clear that here again the Department is marking its territory.
The issue which is likely to engender the most debate concerns the operation of the Traditional Arts subcommittee. The draft discussion document issued in preparation for the bill proposed the setting up of a Traditional Arts Council, a proposal rejected by many in the sector who saw it as a form of cultural apartheid. However it appears that the idea lives on, although watered down, in the statement that the committee on the traditional arts, alone out of the three subcommittees, 'shall make recommendations to the Council in relation to the advance of moneys to any person relating to traditional Irish arts'. Is this a sensible compromise, or the exertion of undue influence by the back door?
There will, no doubt, be much healthy debate on these and other issues before the final version of the Arts Bill 2002 reaches the statute books.
The Arts Plan 2002-2006 and the Arts Bill 2002 can be downloaded from the web site of the Arts Council www.artscouncil.ie
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