Action not rhetoric for the arts

THE ARTS:Ireland's political, social and cultural realities have transformed since the 1970s and 1980s, and the arts have moved from the margins to the centre, backed by the Government and Arts Council, writes Mary Cloakein a continuing debate about the role of the council.

ARTS FUNDING IS AN investment, a really smart investment, by the Government, of the taxpayers' money. The arts are central to Irish society - they define who we are - and that investment in ourselves is repaid many times over. And because the arts really matter, last Tuesday's article in the pages of this newspaper, on the role of the Arts Council, forms part of a very important discussion.

The Arts Council has two central goals: to make sure the public has the opportunity to enjoy and appreciate the arts; and to make sure our artists are supported and achieve the highest standards in their work. These goals have not changed over time, but what has changed - and changed radically in the last 10 years - is the context in which the Arts Council operates.

The political, social and cultural realities that shape the council's work are very different to those which pertained in the 1970s and 1980s. Back then, the arts were perceived largely as minority pursuits, marginal to public policy.

Today, that has been reversed, due partly to social and economic changes, but also because the Arts Council has been so effective as a government agency, adapting its approach to contemporary needs.

One major step came in 1993, with the establishment of a government department for the arts, with a cabinet minister. This helped to bring the arts in from the margins of public policy.

Proper arts planning was introduced. When a new line of capital spending was created, there were real results: a network of arts buildings right across the country. Funding for the arts through the Arts Council rose from €14 million in 1993 to €44.1 million in 2003. In the five years to 2008, the figure almost doubled, to €85 million.

Our artists and arts organisations took that money, combined it with their own hard work and ambition, and delivered an excellent return on the investment.

From a community of small, one- and two-person outfits, the arts have grown into an industry and many arts organisations have become serious business entities. This growth has manifested itself in various ways.

A network of international festivals, including Galway and Kilkenny, now operate on a global basis. Many arts venues - even those considered small to medium scale in size have an annual turnover of more than €1 million. The Arts Council has supported the growth of a cadre of major performing-arts organisations, including the Gate Theatre, Druid Theatre Company, Irish Chamber Orchestra and Wexford Festival Opera.

These organisations operate on a very large scale and often achieve enormous success at home and abroad. When they triumph on the international stage, there is a palpable sense of national achievement.

The presence of such organisations in our cities is also considered a key indicator of a mature and attractive knowledge-based economy. It plays a crucial role in attracting inward investment by global corporations.

It is in this vastly changed arts environment that the current arts strategy, Partnership for the Arts 2006-2010, was created. It recognises an arts community which is strong, mature and can, in many spheres, lead and manage its own development. An arts council's strength is that it can adapt to changing times and focus its energies where they are most effective. Creating tailored, appropriate support programmes for these new generation arts organisations is one such important task.

Supporting the individual artist is another, and this, too, is an area where achievements are tangible, if long term.

IRELAND HAS HADenormous success on the literary front. Next year, Seamus Heaney will be 70, Brian Friel and John Montague will be 80, and the Arts Council and the whole country will celebrate their achievements.

At the same time, the Arts Council will have its eye on the future, supporting artists who show potential, so that in the years and decades ahead there will be those who, in their turn, will bring home to Ireland a Booker, a Tony, a Nobel prize.

This year, 35 writers received bursaries as an investment in this intellectual capital. The bursary has enabled established writers such as Claire Kilroy, Pádraig Standún, Colum McCann and Claire Keegan, as well as more emerging writers such as Julia Kelly, Kevin Barry, Dara Ó Scolaí and Sean O'Reilly, the time, space and financial freedom to devote themselves to their craft for a set period of time.

The Arts Council's ambition is to create a society where artistic opportunity is widespread, throughout the country, available to young people and children, to older people and across all socio-economic groups.

If the arts are to reach into every household in Ireland, then we need intelligent structures, not in the arts community alone but within wider public policy. That is why the Arts Council is committed to joined-up programmes such as the collaboration between the Arts Council and local authorities. This year, for the first time, all 32 county and city councils have specialist arts officers providing inspirational, diverse and top quality arts programmes.

A 10-year partnership with Údarás na Gaeltachta has nurtured a vibrant arts scene of organisations across the Gaeltacht, from Gweedore to An Daingean. Our work with the Department of Justice brings artists and writers into the prison system.

A partnership with Bord Scannán na hÉireann has delivered a new art-house cinema in Dublin, with another in the pipeline for Galway. In the months ahead, the two agencies will fund digital screening facilities in several venues across the country. This will mean a more diverse range of films for those outside of the main population centres.

To achieve long-term, meaningful public participation in the arts, it is patently more effective to work with the Government, pooling public-policy resources, advocating for the arts on the basis of shared experience and real evidence, rather than railing against it.

People today experience the arts in ways unimaginable even five years ago, a subject due for a discussion at an Arts Council seminar in Dublin Castle on November 25th. Good drama is not confined to the theatre, but is available on television and radio, commissioned from new and established writers who have cut their teeth in the theatre. Podcasting and audio books have created a whole new audience for literature just as new internet technologies have enabled a pattern of music listenership which, potentially, challenges the dominance of major music publishing and recording monopolies, bringing a diverse and culturally rich mix of music within reach of almost everyone.

The Arts Council has developed new policies for partnership with broadcasters, media providers and commercial promoters, and will advocate so that people have the best Ireland can offer available to them in this new environment. At last weekend's Electric Picnic event, the Arts Council's first ever Words Music tent proved very popular with festival-goers.

Half way through the delivery of Partnership for the Arts, much has been achieved. Part of the Arts Council's commitment to show the value of the arts is evident from the Touring Experiment. Last year, the Arts Council funded 50 tours to visit 206 venues, provided 423 performances (in music, theatre, dance and traditional arts), presented 114 literary events and 130 weeks of visual-arts exhibitions and events. Over 300 artists were involved in touring and 103,239 people attended.

YES, CHALLENGES REMAIN. How are we to reflect a new, culturally diverse society while at the same time treasuring our own traditions? How can we ensure our children can grow up with music-making (to mention just one of the arts) as a part of their lives? How is the vast potential offered by the newly-built venues and other arts facilities to be realised to the full when public finances are constrained?

How can the major performing arts organisations be sustained at a level which enables them to maintain their international reputation/profile competitiveness? How can broadcast and internet-based media be used to best advantage in bringing the arts to a wider audience?

And the most important challenge of all: how can we provide high-quality arts experiences in and out of school for all of our children and young people, as makers and doers as well as lookers and listeners?

Many of these are areas of arts policy best addressed by joined-up programmes and partnership initiatives with other arms of public policy. These form a major part of the Arts Council's work and are central to the long-term objective of mainstreaming access to the arts. The Arts Council, in offering high-quality, good-value product, prefers action rather than rhetoric.

While €85 million represents significant public investment - and should be acknowledged as such - it is also true that additional investment in the arts of an extra 25 per cent would deliver disproportionate benefits. The additional productivity from our major performing arts organisations would enable them to double their output, for example, by touring the country so that 60,000 people would see a world-class play or concert, instead of 30,000.

Venues could offer a full, year-round programme of performances for marginal extra cost. More of the many excellent festivals that have flourished around the country in the last decade or more could realise their artistic ambitions to present world-class arts to local audiences.

But challenges are there to be met and overcome. The arts have gone from strength to strength in Ireland, and the creativity of our artists and the commitment of the people of this country to nurturing their work and to enjoying the fruits of their labour can be seen in every county, every day.

The future for the arts is a bright one.

• Mary Cloake is the director of the Arts Council