Letters

Supporting the arts

Basic income for artists

Wed Sept 21 2022 - 00:14

Sir, – Maureen Kennelly writes as if the arts occupy a crucial place in Irish culture, comparable to sport, religion or food (“Art plays vital role and basic income for artists dignifies the profession”, Opinion & Analysis, September 20th). In fact, jamborees such as Culture Night aside, on a day-to-day basis the arts are a pretty niche pursuit. If you don’t believe me, pop into an almost-deserted art gallery, public or commercial. Or drop into a theatre, even a full one (the Abbey, with 429 seats, the Gaiety with 1,145, and the Bord Gáis with 2,111), and then down to Croke Park (82,300 seats, though not of course at every match). Or visit a music venue when something other than Beethoven or Garth Brooks is being played.

She writes also that the basic income for artists scheme “dignifies the artistic profession.” She can’t have talked to any artists who aren’t careful of their relationship with the Arts Council. The scheme is a demeaning lottery in which ticking the right boxes and striking it lucky is much more important than accomplishment or intention. It divides artists from other workers and creates division among artists.

If the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and the Media was serious about having an effect on the arts and the lives of artists and their audiences, she would get together with the Minister for Education and develop, quietly and in detail, a radical overhaul and renewal of arts education in schools, rather than the piecemeal initiatives which are used from time to time to get headlines. – Yours, etc,

DAVID McKENNA,

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Dublin 8.

Sir, – Maureen Kennelly rightly identifies the significance of local arts centres to the rehabilitation of the live performance in a post-pandemic era.

It is a pity then that she only gives a fleeting mention to cinema or the exhibition sector in keeping people entertained and engaged close to where they live and work through the medium of film. It is no accident that the recent success of original Irish-language films – one is now an Oscar contender – is the result of targeted financial support through the Cine4 initiative between TG4, IFB and BAI.

Recently we had the first National Cinema Day and where a reported 200,000 people turned up at cinemas all around the country where all ticket prices were reduced to €4 at participating venues.

Fine Gael, through a partnership with the Omniplex group, had a special screening of Neil Jordan’s 1996 movie Michael Collins a few weeks ago. By my count about 60 people turned up on a Tuesday evening in Tralee paying €6 each to see this iconic film and which had a taped introduction by Leo Varadkar. What was interesting though as a cinephile was that most of the attendees were the non-”popcorn brigade”.

They stayed in their seats while the credits were rolling, chatting among themselves about what they had just seen. Collective effervescence personified.

Maureen Kennelly will know that we lost two independent cinemas in Kerry this last year. Whole swathes of people from Tarbert to Abbeyfeale to Slea Head now have no access to this arts medium without making long and costly car journeys. It is a similar story for people in Caherciveen as it is for many rural towns around the country. Yet new commercial cinemas are scheduled to open in Mullingar and Ballinasloe.

The real irony though is that the basic income for artists scheme, through which 2,000 lucky people will get €325 per week unconditionally for the next three years, is probably the same amount that would have kept two independent cinemas operational for the benefit of their local communities well into the future. – Is mise,

TOM McELLIGOTT,

Listowel,

Co Kerry.