Aosdána grant will almost double to €20,000 by 2011

FUNDING RECEIVED by artists attached to Aosdána will almost double over the next three years.

The annual Cnuas grant, which is given by the Arts Council to Aosdána members for a term of five years, will rise from €12,180 to €20,000 by 2011.

The council said the grant is designed to support artists at key points in their careers. Mary Cloake, director of the Arts Council, said she was very pleased to announce the increase in the Cnuas.

“It underscores the Arts Council’s commitment to encouraging and supporting individual artists and represents an investment in the arts for the future,” she said.

The Arts Council established Aosdána in 1981 to encourage and assist members in devoting their energies fully to their art.

Membership, which is by peer nomination and election, is limited to 250 living artists who have produced a distinguished body of work. Members must have been born in Ireland or have been resident here for five years, and must have produced pieces that are original and creative.

The Cnuas is only offered to those artists who have an income of less than one and a half times the value of the grant.

The organisation has 225 members in the visual arts, music, literature, architecture and choreography. Among its members are renowned artists and writers including Louis Le Brocquy, Seamus Heaney and Brian Friel.

The announcement was welcomed by Fine Gael arts spokeswoman Olivia Mitchell who said it was important to “encourage excellence” in the arts.

“Although the Aosdána are well-established artists we must be mindful that their income can be erratic. If they are to devote themselves to their work they need a good back-up as their can be long periods between the completion of works,” she said.

Aosdána, a brainchild of former taoiseach Charles Haughey, held its annual assembly last week. The event was dominated by a dispute arising from the controversial recent documentary about poet Cathal Ó Searcaigh.