DAVID McCONNELL,
Madam, - It is sad to read (Deirdre Falvey, Opinion, January 15th) that there are senior people in the arts world who are unwilling to allow their names to be quoted. Since leaving the staff of the Arts Council 18 months ago, I have been disappointed to meet several such arts workers who have freely admitted their reluctance to speak out for fear of upsetting the council and damaging their organisations.
The Arts Council, in my experience, has never penalised intelligent, constructive debate and criticism of its policies. The council does not claim infallibility and, as Emer O'Kelly says (Letters, January 13th), it probably recognises with hindsight that some of its decisions may have been imperfect. If the council has seemed impatient at times, it has been so in reaction to a moaning, begging-bowl approach that refuses to consider the big picture.
One of the purposes of last year's Critical Voices programme promoted by the council was surely to stimulate and encourage debate, not only of Arts Council policies, but also of Government arts and cultural policy generally.
What has happened to the philosophy that the arts, essentially, are concerned with subversion? Are arts workers no longer happy to be rebels, to stand up and be counted?
The Arts Council has suffered a reduction in its funding which puts it back four years and unravels much of the progress achieved in the 1990s under successive governments. What is needed now is solidarity among arts workers at all levels, a carefully planned campaign, and a developing dialectic about public policy on the arts, so as to impress on the Government and - more importantly - its advisers how much can be added to our quality of life by a modest financial investment. - Yours, etc.,
DAVID McCONNELL, Villiers Road, Dublin 6.
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Madam, - Deirdre Falvey (January 15th) wonders at the almost silent reaction of the arts sector to the devastating cuts. I imagine that most organisations are preoccupied with regrouping and reorganising their programmes for this year, rather than mounting an offensive.
What dismays me is the lack of reaction from the public who have, up to now, enjoyed grand opera in our capital, contemporary Irish theatre in Waterford (and beyond), Irish and international modern dance throughout the country, etc.
While the cuts will seriously affect the arts community, I think the real losers are the Irish people, and I imagine that their dissenting voices would carry much more weight than an "actorcade" in Merrion Square. - Yours, etc.,
PAUL KEOGAN, Sandymount, Dublin 4.