MARK MULQUEEN,
Madam, - Deirdre Falvey's Opinion piece of January 15th highlighted the lack of response to recent cuts in Arts Council funding. Here are some possible reasons for the lack of a cohesive voice for the arts in Ireland.
1. The scepticism and independent thought that are often so essential to the creative process make it very difficult for agreement on a common economic viewpoint for the sector.
2. The arts in Ireland has been until quite recently a predominantly clientelist environment. This culture persists to a degree, though credit should go to the present executive for major improvements.
3. The diversity of individuals, organisations and activities that make up the arts undermine the assumption that there is an actual arts sector.
4. The prescribed funding structures long established by the relevant agencies have helped enforced a hierarchy, divisiveness and a ghettoisation between particular arts sub-sectors.
As director of one of the larger employers in this sector, I sorely feel the absence of a representative body along the lines of the hoteliers' federation (which represents companies that openly and aggressively compete with each other). The creation of an umbrella body is necessary to achieve broad fundamental gains while avoiding the creation of another layer of interference and homogenising of expression.
A personal bugbear has been the absence of the arts from the various national partnerships throughout the last decade. As a sector we offer some of the worst terms of employment to passionate and hard-working people, all of who support artists and art at some level. It's a missed opportunity that could have been avoided with the existence of a representative body.
So how could one be formed? Well, we aren't short of venues, so a meeting simply to define the sector may be a good start. Then I'd suggest that, rather than re-inventing the wheel, we invite one or two other sectors to come and explain their structures to us.
One of the recent articles mentioned the division between artists and administrators. This is exaggerated. Such tension exists in many areas - academia, media, factory floors, for instance. The cutbacks are hurting all of the process and shouldn't be allowed to create such divisions.
In our own case the cuts (43 per cent below our multi-annual funding target, 5 per cent on 2002 levels) led to lay-offs in administration rather than in programming (i.e. the film archive, cinemas, festivals or education).
Have we been silent? The Arts Council knows how we feel and what effects their reductions are having. We haven't been silent though we might have been somewhat resigned. It is a time for a thoughtful response and I'd be happy to help facilitate it. - Yours, etc.,
MARK MULQUEEN, Director, Film Institute of Ireland, Eustace Street,
Dublin 2.