What Irish culture is worth - the figures

ARTSCAPE:RECENTLY, THERE HAS been some sniping about the lack of hard information on the impact of culture economically (as opposed to its innate worth). Some off-the-wall figures have been thrown about, claiming that it has a massive economic importance and employs huge numbers of people, writes DEIRDRE FALVEY

So there was palpable pleasure at the Arts Council this week when it presented some cold, hard facts to stand over, in the Assessment of Economic Impact of the Arts in Ireland, a report compiled by economist Alan Gray of Indecon, Ireland's largest economic consultancy. You sense that the council is happy to think that the Department of Finance mandarins will go over the figures with a fine toothcomb, because the independent report is sure of its ground and the accuracy of the material presented, and shows significant economic impact.

Drawn from information from Arts Council clients and extracted from Central Statistics Office figures, the report, compiled over the past four months, throws cold water on previous claims which, according to Gray, lacked credibility among economists and policy-makers and thus undermined any case they sought to make. Gray used the word “flaky” (though not “mickey mouse”, but you get the drift) and declines to name which reports he means.

The key figures relate to the Gross Value Added (GVA) – a measure of the total economic contribution by an individual sector – and to the numbers employed. The report looks at the figures for Arts Council-funded bodies, then at the wider arts sector (including individuals and companies not funded by the council), then at the “creative industries” in general, a much broader term including areas such as the software industry (where the GVA is nearly €5.5 billion, and 96,000 people work directly and indirectly).

The report concludes that the wider arts sector is worth €782 million in GVA, employs 26,519 people in total and generates €382 million in tax revenue. Arts Council funding recipients alone (a subsection of the wider arts sector) generate €53.7 million in tax (the council’s funding this year was €76 million, so net State funding is only around €22 million, pointed out chairwoman Pat Moylan) and employ 3,034 people.

The report, in the run-up to the Budget, is important, says Arts Council director Mary Cloake, as “jobs are the agenda now”. Glancing at the figures, it certainly looks like a better-value job-to-State-investment ratio (€76 million in council funding for 3,000 jobs) than projects such as, say, the National Roads Authority’s investment of €47 million in motorway service stations, yielding 500 jobs, half of them short-term.

The calculation of tax revenue was conservative, Gray says, with a slight under-estimation of the total tax take from the arts sector, as it was important not to include numbers that were not properly validated.

“Some numbers quoted of those employed in the arts are not rigorously based, but this is a rigorous examination and the numbers employed are higher than would be expected by the economic profession,” he says. These figures about the impact of the arts are credible, and impressive, is the subtext.

The 88-page report includes individual case studies, and looks briefly at Ireland’s image and reputation, and the role the “brand image” of Ireland plays in combating our “current reputational challenges”.

Later, the National Campaign for the Arts was understandably pleased, and spokesman Fiach Mac Conghail commented: “We hope that those in government with the power and ambition to implement Ireland’s economic recovery will consider these findings seriously. The arts and cultural sector is able and willing to contribute to the economic and social recovery of our nation.”

Druid Theatre Companysomehow manages to juggle many things at once (productions, tours) and this can lead to good news coming in spades too. The company has had great reviews over the past week after The New Electric Ballroom'sNew York opening. Enda Walsh's play is "pricelessly funny" and "deeply moving", according to Variety, and Rosaleen Linehan, Ruth McCabe, Mikel Murfi and Catherine Walsh are a "first-rate acting quartet" ( Theatermania) with "superlative" performances ( New York Times). The NY Timesadds that "Mr Walsh . . . has a breathtaking lyrical gift capable of encompassing daft humor and spine-chilling truths in language that still remains powerfully real", while the New York Post believes that he "undeniably succeeds in conjuring a distinctive theatrical universe".

Meantime, Druid's other Walsh production, TheWalworth Farce, in Miami this week midway through its 16-stop world tour, is getting standing ovations.

And there are more nominations, this time from the Manchester Evening News theatre awards (Men), for Walworth and Martin McDonagh's award-laden T he Cripple of Inishmaan(including Aaron Monaghan in Crippleand Michael Glenn Murphy in Walworth). The winners will be announced on December 8th.

To top it all, director Garry Hynes this week won a Joe A Callaway Outstanding Director award in New York for her production of The Cripple of Inishmaan. This is the only award given by professional directors to their peers. Hynes's production of Tom Murphy's wonderful The Gigli Concert, seen at this year's Galway Arts Festival, starts an Irish tour next week.

In a bid to celebratelong-standing connections between Irish and Romanian theatre, the Ireland Romania Cultural Foundation has introduced the Irish Embassy Award, similar to the Irish Stewart Parker Trust award, for an emerging Romanian playwright. John Fairleigh of the foundation comments that "Romanian theatre is rich in directors and lavish productions of the classics, but strangely indifferent to the offerings of living Romanian writers – so this is one area where we thought an Irish contribution might be useful. We are just building on an interaction we have encouraged for many years between the young writers on both sides. So far, we have had Romanian productions of Sebastian Barry (our first Parker Trust winner), Eugene O'Brien, Malachy McKenna and Gary Duggan, and several of the young Romanians in Irish fringe festival presentations."

The annual award, sponsored by the Ireland Romania Cultural Foundation and the Stewart Parker Trust, is to an emerging writer for the theatre in Romania. The prize is €1,000, a translation into English by an Irish playwright and a rehearsed reading at the Abbey during the Dublin Theatre Festival. The first Irish Embassy Award was presented in Bucharest this week by Irish ambassador John Morahan to Mimi Branescu. A Romanian film actor, Branescu has had plays produced at Bucharest’s Act Theatre, and several translations into English.

Six Irish poets– Harry Clifton, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Paula Meehan, Peter Sirr, Enda Wyley and Joseph Woods – are in New York this weekend for Poetryfest, a new festival of contemporary Irish poetry in New York's Irish Arts Center. Curators Belinda McKeon (also of Dún Laoghaire's Poetry Now festival) and Aengus Woods hope the new event will become a regular feature of the literary calendar. Aiming to bring to New York audiences some good mid-career Irish poets, today's festival kicks off with a literary brunch. "New Yorkers know their Irish poetry," says McKeon, "but theres a lot more to contemporary Irish poetry than already meets the New York eye."