Most major arts organisations to benefit from funding bonanza
The increases mark an unprecedented level of arts funding in this country and were made possible by an additional €10.8 million made available to the Arts Council by Minister for Arts, Sports and Tourism John O’Donoghue.
In 2005, the Arts Council had €44m to spend on revenue funding.
That jumped to €51m this year, further closing the funding gap in the arts in Ireland, which have traditionally been under-funded when compared to our European neighbours.
Arts Council director Mary Cloake yesterday said: “The council’s approach this year is to offer a number of substantial increases to organisations to enable a sea change in their operations; to enable them to take up significant opportunities or to acknowledge where they were severely under-funded for their activities.”
Arts Council chairwoman Olive Braiden said that even with the increase from the Department of Arts, the council was only able to meet about half of the demand of the sector.
She said annual Arts Council funding will need to reach €100m to meet demand.
But not everyone is happy in what looks at first glance like a give-away bonanza.
While organisations like the Abbey Theatre and the Irish Film Institute got considerable hikes, others had their funding cut, like the Hawk’s Well theatre in Sligo and Mayo’s Yew Tree theatre company.
It was also a bad day for Limerick’s arts outfits, with both Island Theatre Company and the Belltable Arts Centre getting a funding cut.
Others will see their funding stand still this year, including Cork Opera House and the St Patrick’s Festival - and that despite inflation.
In all, 325 organisations received revenue funding for 2006, which compares to 303 last year. And this year, there were 22 new applicants funded.
A full list of the Arts Council’s revenue funding decisions is available online at www.artscouncil.ie.
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