“WE’RE LOOKING at all ideas, and then we will prioritise,” Irish Writers’ Centre board member Jack Harte told some two dozen writers, readers and representatives from arts organisations who attended a public meeting on Saturday to discuss the future of the centre.
The meeting, hosted by Harte and chairman of the board Carlo Gebler, was convened to “ascertain what role, if any, the Irish Writers’ Centre should play in the cultural life of the country”.
Ideas proferred included calls for more readings at the centre, further collaboration with other groups within the arts sector, the use of the centre for read-throughs and for keeping a stock of current literary publications for writers’ use, and as a drop-in centre for writers to meet and exchange ideas.
“Can we please have a kettle and a sink,” was one request from writer Lia Mills.
Writer Conor Kostick, who also teaches a course at the centre, said he felt it should become the central port of call for literature in the country, a virtual information hub rather than an administrative centre.
Liam Carson, director of the Imram Irish Language Literature Festival, said the centre needed to have a vision in order to survive, while Poetry Ireland’s Jane O’Hanlon added the necessity for a business plan to make that vision a reality.
Though debate was lively, the low turnout was “disappointing”, admitted Harte, while Baxter, a short-story writer and essayist who also teaches at the centre, pointed to the lack of young people in attendance at the public meeting, something he said needed to be examined.
“No one wants to be a part of something where you’ve got second rate poets reading every Friday night,” he said.
Yet several of those in attendance at the meeting pointed to the goodwill towards the centre that exists within the arts community.
Saturday’s public meeting was organised in the wake of the Arts Council decision to withdraw funding of €200,000, having expressed concern about the quality of the service it offered writers, and about the high proportion of the centre’s income which was being spent on staff salaries.
Since the withdrawal of funding, the centre has lost all its full-time staff, including director Cathal McCabe, who left in February.
Gebler said the centre was continuing to operate with funding from the courses run in its Parnell Square home, a bank loan, and money from various fundraising events, and was currently being run by its board.
Its website is calling for volunteers to help man the various events, including a series of Stinging Fly readings next month.
“What comes over loudly and cleary is that people want to be more “social”, a place where people interact.
“They want more things going on here,” acknowledged Gebler when the meeting was adjourned.