Sir, - The really sad aspect of RTE's latest announcement that it is cutting arts programmes is its predictability. RTE chops programmes very nearly annually in this area and I have lost track of the different name each programme has held in its short life. This has been happening since I was a student in the early 1970s.
It is disappointing too that the pictorial recording medium of the age has so inadequately documented the rise of the visual arts in Ireland. There will be little archive density in the future on what happened in this discipline in the second half of the 20th century. RTE's track record gives me little confidence that the visual arts in the 21st century will be documented with any greater attention. - Yours, etc.,
Samuel Walsh, Member of Aosdana, Springfield, Clonlara, Co Clare.