The Arts Plan The Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon The Arts Council/An Chomhairle Eala’on is an autonomous body established in 1951 to stimulate public interest in and promote the knowledge, appreciation and practice of the arts. We are the Irish State's principal instrument of arts funding and an advisory body to Government on arts matters, operating under the Arts Acts 1951 and 1973. As an advocate for the arts, we commission and publish research and information and undertake a range of development projects, often jointly with other public sector or non- governmental agencies. The Arts Council is a voluntary body of 16 members and a chairman, appointed by the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands for a term of five years. The eleventh Arts Council was appointed in 1998. It has an executive staff of 32. The Arts Council supports all aspects of the arts, in Irish and in English - architecture, dance, drama, film, literature, music, opera, and visual arts. We support individual professional artists through direct awards and bursaries and through Aosd‡na, the affiliation of creative artists. We also support multi- disciplinary arts through activities and facilities such as arts centres, festivals and community arts. We provide annual grants or project funding to hundreds of organisations involved in the arts throughout Ireland. In partnership with local authorities and with òdar‡s na Gaeltachta, we part- fund 31 county, city and gaeltacht arts officer posts and their year-round programmes. We co-operate closely on a wide range of programmes and projects with our counterpart, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. The Arts Plan 1999-2001 A plan for Government, a strategic framework for the arts Contents Page 2 Chairman's Preface Rationale 6 Background to the Plan 11 Planning for the arts: a continuous process 15 Strategies for the arts Implementation 26 Management 28 Budget Perspectives 32 Artforms 46 Combined arts Appendices 54 Succeeding better: a review of the first Arts Plan 1995-1998: summary of conclusions 57 Arts organisations and activities supported by the Arts Council during the term of the first Arts Plan The members of the Arts Council 1998-2003 Companion volumes (i) The Arts Plan: executive summary (ii) The Arts Plan: consultative review (including list of submissions received and list of consultative meetings) (iii) Local Authority Expenditure on the arts - A four year perspective Chairman's Preface Ireland is poised, as never before, to create, to seize and to they have added a particular lustre, unexpected depth and benefit from the emerging opportunities now on offer. outstanding artistic reputation to our country's more Confident, more developed economically, more socially obvious and much vaunted economic success of the Celtic critical and aware, Ireland is ready for new policy Tiger. departures in all areas of life. Irish art has shown itself to possess an extraordinarily rich A combination of political, economic and social seam of outstanding talent. Yet, despite significant developments have bred a new sense of capability and an increases in State funding, compared to our neighbours in enhanced level of expectation in a society conscious of a the EU, or in the developed nations of the world, it is still long and distinguished heritage. This is an entirely very low. The vast majority of professional artists (including opportune time to re-evaluate, re-organise and radically re- some with established reputations) find it difficult to survive invigorate the place of the arts at the heart of Irish society solely from their creative or artistic earnings. Some, by a and the larger world. Indeed that task is long overdue. range of shifts and compromises, manage to survive. Others, from sheer economic necessity, are excluded The value which we place on the realisation of the creative altogether. The full potential of Irish imaginative and potential of all of our citizens is what will ensure that our creative talent is not harnessed, and we are all the poorer. sense of ourselves, and our distinctive voice in the world, is sustained into the future. The richness and Similar restrictions limit the efforts of many citizens distinctiveness of our culture rests on our recognition of the pursuing their imaginative and creative lives as amateurs. intrinsic and irreplaceable role of the arts in our lives, and They deserve recognition as practitioners in pursuit of ever- we see ourselves, in the Arts Council, as central to the developing and ever-higher standards. They, too, deserve communication of this message. recognition and support in achieving their full creative potential. The arts are central to our definition of ourselves as a society. This is a message to the world, as well as to The reality is that there is an unresolved contradiction at the ourselves. The record of prestigious international heart of contemporary Ireland's creative and artistic life. recognition of Irish artists across the artforms is ample There is a tension between a national pride in what has testimony to the rich vibrancy of artistic endeavours been achieved and a continuing unwillingness to provide generally and to the extraordinary talents and commitment the necessary resources to nurture, develop and expand of many individual artists and groups - both professional the whole community's creative and innovative potential in and amateur. We have basked vicariously in our artists' all its variety and quality. This reluctance is itself a product reflected glory. In exploring their own creative impulses and of generations of neglect, manifest most obviously in the inspirations they have given the world many new and low priority accorded to artistic cultivation, development enriching perspectives on the human experience; in the and appreciation in much of the educational system. It is process they have helped to create a richer, deeper, far less a function of opposition to adequate public funding more rounded view of Ireland. In theatre and music, than a reflection of the widespread inadequate awareness literature and the visual arts, film and increasingly in dance, of the issue. It is time to make a new start; time to raise the level of public audiences for, and appreciation of, the arts; but it aims to go support for the arts to a new, effective plateau; time to beyond a merely passive or purely market-driven concept of provide the resources required to recognise and develop the "arts consumers". The Arts Council is determined to work to central, intrinsic, invaluable role of the arts in society. The reduce the barriers to active experience of and direct Arts Council believes that this second Arts Plan is a carefully participation in the arts. Imagination and creativity are not crafted, costed and co-ordinated programme designed to the preserve of the few; the Plan is designed to encourage develop to the fullest the Irish community's creative impulses the greatest number to explore, develop and express their and talents. artistic potential. The Plan rejects any lingering illusion that the arts in a At the same time, the Arts Council is committed to fostering mature society are an optional extra, a discretionary and celebrating, in a particular and focused way, the pursuit extravagance on behalf of the few, to be catered for only of excellence in art, and to providing the human, after other social and economic priorities are organisational and physical infrastructures required to accommodated. It demands a recognition of the centrality achieve that aim. This demands special concern for those of the arts to the health, well-being and maturity of a nation. with talent for artistic work of the highest order - at all stages It proposes a developmental approach whose purpose is to of their careers - to give them the freedom and support to create a new environment in which the arts, in the broadest fulfil their capacities in an international as well as a national sense, can flourish and be appreciated at home and gain environment. In releasing their full potential, we believe, greater international recognition and prestige abroad. Ireland will maximise its own return from an overdue and immensely valuable long term investment in the arts. Built on the pioneering efforts of the first Plan, it offers a coherent developmental strategy designed to nourish and develop the world-class potential of the arts sector in Brian Farrell Ireland. It is grounded in a specific vision of the central, Chairman integral role of the creative imagination in society, that can May 1999 be summarised in the twin goals of access and quality. This, in turn, is married to a significant proposed shift in the functioning of the Arts Council itself. It is a radical proposal for a new era, harnessing the techniques of strategic management initiatives in the service of the arts. It is designed to provide a more stable base for long term development and, above all, a persuasive case for additional public funding. The proposed strategy is informed by a definition of the arts which is inclusive. This certainly involves increasing Rationale Background to the Plan The moment for radical change Ð Increased resources Ð Resourcing the arts: some international comparisons Ð The arts planning environment Ð External inputs to the Plan This document sets out the Arts Council's second strategic worthy demand: in 1999, demand outstripped available plan for the arts. It has been prepared for submission to the funds by a factor of more than 2:1. Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands and in turn to Government, following a wide-ranging process of In recent years the amount of arts activity has increased consultation, reflection and review. more quickly even than the growth in funds. While this is a most welcome development, it has had the effect of The plan takes full account of the Government's Strategic spreading public support ever more thinly.