An Chomhaırle Ealaíon An Tríochadú Turascáil Bhliantúil, maille le Cuntais don bhliain dar chríoch 31ú Nollaig 1981. Tíolacadh don Rialtas agus leagadh faoi bhráid gach Tí den Oireachtas de bhun Altanna 6 (3) agus 7 (1) den Acht Ealaíon 1951. Thirtieth Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 31st December 1981. Presented to the Government and laid before each House of the Oireachtas pursuant to Sections 6 (3) and 7 (1) of the Arts Act, 1951. Cover: Photograph by Thomas Grace from the Arts Council touring exhibition of Irish photography "Out of the Shadows". Members James White, Chairman Brendan Adams (until October) Kathleen Barrington Brian Boydell Máire de Paor Andrew Devane Bridget Doolan Dr. J. B. Kearney Hugh Maguire (until December) Louis Marcus (until December) Seán Ó Tuama (until January) Donald Potter Nóra Relihan Michael Scott Richard Stokes Dr. T. J. Walsh James Warwick Staff Director Colm Ó Briain Drama and Dance Officer Arthur Lappin Opera and Music Officer Marion Creely Traditional Music Officer Paddy Glackin Education and Community Arts Officer Adrian Munnelly Literature and Combined Arts Officer Laurence Cassidy Visual Arts Officer/Grants Medb Ruane Visual Arts Officer/Exhibitions Patrick Murphy Finance and Regional Development Officer David McConnell Administration, Research and Film Officer David Kavanagh Administrative Assistant Nuala O'Byrne Secretarial Assistants Veronica Barker Patricia Callaly Antoinette Dawson Sheilah Harris Kevin Healy Bernadette O'Leary Receptionist Kathryn Cahille 70 Merrion Square, Dublin 2. Tel: (01) 764685. An Chomhaırle Ealaíon An Chomhairle Ealaíon/The Arts Council is an independent organization set up under the Arts Acts 1951 and 1973 to promote the arts. It operates through a wide-ranging programme of financial assistance and special services, offered to both individuals and organizations. The Council also acts as an adviser on artistic matters to the Government and Government Departments and is one of four bodies which have a statutory duty to make representations to planning authorities in connection with applications for planning permission in areas of special amenity throughout the country. The Council consists of a board of not more than seventeen members appointed by the Taoiseach. The present board was appointed in December 1978 and its term of office will expire in 1983. The board meets about ten times a year to set Council policies and make decisions within the terms of the Arts Acts. These policies and decisions are implemented by a staff headed by a Director, appointed by the Council. The Council reports to the Oireachtas through the Taoiseach and its accounts are audited by the Auditor General. Annual grants from the Oireachtas are the Council's main source of income. These grants are supplemented by income from local authorities and private organizations and the Council also administers a number of trust funds, set up privately for specific purposes. The arts are defined in the Arts Acts and include: The Visual Arts (painting, sculpture, architecture, print-making, design); The Performing Arts (theatre, dance, music, opera); Literature; Film; Crafts. Contents Page Chairman's Introduction 5 Report 7 Visual Arts 11 Literature 19 Drama 23 Music 27 Traditional Music 31 Opera 33 Dance 35 Film 37 Arts Centres and Festivals 38 Education 39 Community Arts 43 Regional Arts 44 Capital 45 Accounts 47 Chairman's Introduction The main direction of the Council, in its early years, was to encourage artistic activity and to make awareness of the arts a greater part of the national consciousness. It could be said that these ends have been achieved. Our primary need now is for funding to support the musician, the visual artist, the writer and the actor. It has also become necessary to find a way to bridge financially the years between the discovery of this talent and its full professional development. This the Council has endeavoured to do by the introduction of bursaries, scholarships, travel grants and grants to groups who provide opportunities for the emerging artist. At the same time the pressure in maintaining the established institutions has never been so great. With the increase of costs at every level and the comparative decline in the nation's financial resources, our continuing increases in the grants to these institutions are insufficient to ensure that standards will not be effected and the art forms in question not threatened with decline. We have continued to pursue our joint ventures with our colleagues in the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and we commenced, during the year, an examination of the implications for the arts of wide- spread unemployment. We have agreed that the Arts Councils, north and south, should prepare for an era in which a very large number of people will be permanently without work and that it will be necessary to provide alternative opportunities in the region of the arts. It is with deep regret that we record the death during the year of Brendan Adams, one of our members, whose work for the Ulster Folk Museum was of considerable significance. He made a major contribution in the area of literature, language and philology. We also regret that pressure of work in other areas led three members to resign from the Council. Hugh Maguire, Louis Marcus and Sean Ó Tuama are distinguished in the fields of music, film and literature respectively. Whilst their own disciplines will benefit from the greater amount of time they will have available, their loss to the Arts Council is incalculable. We would like to place on record our gratitude to them for their excellent work with us over the years. The report which follows indicates the wide area covered by the Council's activities and it is hoped that this work will be seen as a preparation for an expanded future for the arts in Ireland. James White, Chairman. Ingrid Craigie, Deirdre Donnelly and Fedelma Cullen in a scene from "Scenes from an Album" by William Trevor which premiered at the Abbey in August 1981. Report Aosdána, the affiliation of artists engaged in literature, music and the visual arts, was established by the Council in 1981. Aosdána will consist of not more than 150 artists selected on the basis that they have established a reputation for achievement and distinction in their disciplines. The scheme is intended to honour those artists whose work has made an outstanding contribution to the arts in Ireland and will encourage and assist its members to devote their energies fully to their art by offering those who need it, a basic level of financial security. The Council believes that this initiative complemented by the existing awards, bursaries and scholarship schemes and Ciste Cholmcille has the potential to make a major contribution to the arts in Ireland in the coming decades. The desirability of a scheme such as this has been evident to the Council for a number of years. The prospect of a system of honours to artists was first discussed by the Council in 1978. These discussions took place in the context of the Council's increased conviction that its first priority is to improve the status, self-confidence and professionalism of the individual creative artist. The strength of this conviction is clear from the steady increase in the number and value of bursaries, scholarships and awards which the Council was able to make available to artists. In 1979 the Council proposed to the Government certain changes in the terms of Ciste Cholmcille (a fund established by Additional Functions Order 1966 whose objective is provide assistance to artists who find themselves in difficulties) to improve the effectiveness of the fund. These changes were approved in 1980. In 1979 the Council also commissioned a major research project from Irish Marketing Surveys Ltd. on the Living and Working Conditions of Artists. The survey revealed the precise extent of financial restraints on Irish artists. As a result the Council decided (in the words of the Chairman's Introduction for the Report of 1980) "to initiate a comprehensive proposal which will offer opportunities for the development of the creative artist in Ireland". In bringing the Aosdána proposal to fruition the Council was extremely fortunate to have the advice of the writer Anthony Cronin who acts as Advisor on Cultural and Artistic matters to the Taoiseach and also to have the support of the then Taoiseach, Charles J. Haughey T.D. The Council is extremely grateful for this support. In December the Council announced the names of the first 89 members of Aosdána. These members are now entitled to apply to the Council for Cnuas grants. To qualify for these grants members will be expected to concentrate full-time on their art. Cnuais are valued at £4,000 per annum revised annually and are payable for five years. The list of names of the first members of Aosdana are included in this Report on page 9. Another initiative which will be of benefit to individual artists in Ireland is the Tyrone Guthrie Centre at Annaghmakerrig. In October, in the presence of the Taoiseach Garret Fitzgerald T.D., the Centre formally opened its doors to artists. The former home of the late Sir Tyrone Guthrie was bequeathed by him to the nation in order that there might be opportunities for creative artists — writers, composers, painters and sculptors — to stay there and give concentrated attention to their work. The Centre is administered by a company established in partnership with the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. About eighty artists spent periods in residence in the house before the end of the year. A proposal which would undoubtedly have a major effect on the arts had it come to fruition by years end, was that of the Coalition Government to introduce a Department of Culture and the Arts.