SEVERE CUTBACKS in funding to Arts Council clients will be discussed on Wednesday when the Theatre Forum hosts a meeting at the National Concert Hall.
More than 30 companies have lost funding altogether, while others have had cuts of up to 60 per cent.
Some larger theatre companies have been less severely affected with cuts of 10 per cent or 15 per cent. The Abbey lost €1.1 million.
Funding for the Corn Exchange Theatre Company was cut by 48 per cent. At least 11 theatre companies have had funding discontinued, including high-profile organisations such as Barabbas, Bedrock and Meridian.
Many were surprised by the severity of the cuts after the 5.6 per cent cut to the Arts Council budget. The council’s own administrative budget is cut by 30 per cent and will include job losses.
Ouroboros Theatre Company, which has had high-profile performances at OPW castles and forts and received €104,000 last year, has had its funding cut altogether. The company had planned two new plays, said artistic director, actor Denis Conway. “The board has to decide if we can function at all now.We never got enough to do all the art and raised the equivalent privately, but you need the Arts Council imprimatur before others will come on board. This takes the rug from under you. I find it disrespectful, and I’d say a lot of people will agree with me.”
Temple Bar Galleries and Studios, in a high-profile position in the heart of Dublin, had its funding cut from €372,000 to €240,000, with a recommendation to use the funds to support its 30 artists’ studios.
“This means there is no money for exhibitions this year,” says the organisation’s chief executive Marian Lovett, who plans to hold a fundraising auction. “We won’t take it lying down. We regard ourselves as a flagship organisation and we think this is detrimental to visual art and to the city.”
The Project Arts Centre’s funding was cut from €850,000 to €714,000.
“The focus on money and who got what is not the issue at all. Ultimately they are quite conservative decisions, severe but not radical. I eagerly await any reform this cut has enabled,” the centre’s director Willie White, said.
Mr White is angry about the time it takes to find out about funding decisions, but he is more concerned about the knock-on impact on independent artists who work under Project’s umbrella.
The Association of Irish Composers, the composers’ union, had its €19,000 funding cut entirely. The association’s executive director, John McLachlan, said: “Performers will suffer terribly from cuts to concert agencies and venues. Composers will find it next to impossible to get a piece played and their chance of being remunerated for composing – already weak – is hugely diminished. The Arts Council should be ashamed of its total overreaction to its own budgetary situation.”
Concorde Contemporary Music Ensemble had its entire funding of €38,000 cut. Jane O’Leary from the group said it was cancelling concerts at the Hugh Lane and the National Gallery and would not commission new work.