Joanna Walsh: Creativity and expression shouldn't be bound by ageism

The ongoing and insidious impact of ageism in the arts is deeply damaging and would be intolerable in any other walk of life, writes author Joanna Walsh

Joanna Walsh, author. Picture: Moya Nolan

The piece I keep writing is about age barriers on opportunities in the arts. They happen in theatre and visual art, in film and literature and music. These prizes, grants and residencies call for ‘young’ practitioners (I’m going to use the word ‘practitioners’ here, which can sound a bit over-formal, but it covers people working in any arts sector). What do they mean by young? Sometimes the bar set is 30 or 35; sometimes it’s 40. Often in poetry, music and drama, it’s younger. So far, so arbitrary.

With age limits like this, ageism is not ‘someone else’s problem’. It’s yours. Or it will be soon. It’s even a problem for people who do fit the age criteria. The truth is age limits also exclude a huge number of deserving younger candidates.