Madam, - I know that, as a member of the Arts Council for the past five years, I am a bad, wicked, deliberately vindictive person in having spent an average of at least 12 hours weekly working to the best of my ability to serve artists and the arts. But I'm damned if I'm going to be held responsible for (a) the eviction of Poetry Ireland from its offices in Dublin Castle, as implied by Maurice Harmon (March 19th), or (b) conspiring to ensure serious design flaws in the new arts venues around the country, as implied by the nine founding members of Associated Theatre Artists (March 20th).
Give us a break, guys.
More seriously, the arts are not part of the social services; and speaking personally, I think it is the duty of artists, supported by the Arts Council, to fight the deplorable and increasingly prevalent consensus that treats them as a method of keeping people off the streets and out of the pubs.
Art is enriching, enlightening, magical, disturbing (and yes, entertaining). But unless people know that a book, a play, a recital, or a picture is there, you're not going to get them off the streets or out of the pubs. And that, I'm afraid, does require relentless, persistent marketing, however grubby that may sound. - Yours etc.,
EMER O'KELLY,
Dublin 8.