Sligo artists unite to oppose cuts

WRITER DERMOT Healy warned yesterday that any cutback in arts funding would be “a catastrophe”.

He was one of  a group of  more than 40 Sligo-based artists and writers who came together  to oppose cuts proposed in the McCarthy report which “could see this important cultural region diminished beyond repair”.

Others who joined the campaign against the  proposed cuts were Sligo-based artists Sean McSweeney and Grace Weir  and writer Leland Bardwell.

The group  warned that at least one major local venue will be closed if the proposed cutbacks are implemented with devastating results for a network of local events and groups.

“Any cutback in arts funding would be a catastrophe,” said Healy.

“Groups depend on arts funding to deliver workshops, magazines, readings and visual collaborations.”

He said employees of arts  organisations were vital to the  fundamental structure of art in society and “the lives of those artists who depend upon them to keep the show on the road”.

Pledging  their support for the National Campaign for the Arts, the group said recent research had shown 11,000 people were employed in creative industry in the northwest with one of every 20 jobs in Sligo attributed to this sector.