The Mayo News

Arts group mobilises to fight cutbacks


The Arts
Edwin McGreal

A LARGE gathering of people involved in various aspects of the arts in Mayo gathered in The Linenhall in Castlebar last week to initiate the Mayo strand of the National Campaign for the Arts.
The National Campaign for the Arts has been set up in light of recommended cuts to the field from Dr Colm McCarthy’s An Bord Snip Nua, and those involved at the coalface of arts in Mayo expressed their strong objections to cutbacks on Tuesday last.
An Bord Snip have proposed the cutting of €6.1 million of the Arts Council’s current budget of €84 million, while further budget cuts are also a possibility. The total proposed cuts to the Arts from McCarthy is €17 million.
Marie Farrell, Director of The Linenhall Arts Centre, chaired the meeting and explained how she and those involved in the national campaign feel that not only is arts deserving of continued funding, but that maintaining existing levels of funding will be vital for overall economic recovery.
“The arts are very important to our reputational capital. US investors may only know Ireland for the arts - investors like Garry Hynes on Broadway. The point was made at the recent conference organised at Farmleigh that arts is the only tangible thing a lot of investors can identify with Ireland. If the arts suffer, then there will be obvious knock-on effects." Ms Farrell said that Colm McCarthy wants to cut €17 million from the arts in total – peanuts in terms of savings for the country, but massive in terms of the impact it would have on the arts and on cultural tourism.
"Tourists don’t come to Ireland because of the weather, they come because of the unique experience, and a huge part of that is the cultural experience, of which arts are a big part. It brings a lot of people to Ireland.
“The Arts, as we can see by the crowd here, bring employment to Ireland. Arts is very important to the national psyche. It is the one thing we can be proud of. The arts are the shining light in a fairly grey current climate.” She pointed out that while people are right to say that money is needed for hospital and education, the arts’ potential for attracting investment and creating employment must be supported.
The meeting went onto hear that the National Campaign is calling for the retention of Culture Ireland, the Irish Film Board, existing funding to the Arts Council, existing funding for the artists’ income-tax exemption scheme and retention of the arts portfolio at cabinet.
However, there was vigourous debate over how the tax exemption scheme was being exploited.
Ian McAndrew from Áras Inis Gluaire cited the example of broadcaster Gerry Ryan claiming rebate from the tax exemption scheme for a recent biography and how this created a bad impression of the scheme.
Others, such as well-known playwright John Breen, who is based in Lacken, felt that the tax exemption as part of Ireland’s reputational capital is huge and that those working in the arts ‘needed to play their strongest hand’. Eventually a vote decided that the wording should be changed from ‘retain the artists’ tax exemption scheme’ to ‘reform and retain the scheme’.
It was decided to form a number of delegations to approach TDs and senators, and all those involved in the arts were asked to contact their local councillors. A Facebook group has been set up called the County Mayo Arts Workers.
The mood in the room was clearly one of resistance to sweeping cutbacks.
“We elect our politicians to represent us, and if we don’t relay our concerns to them then we’ve no one to blame but ourselves if we lose funding,” said Marie Farrell.
“Cultural tourism is reportedly worth €1.2 billion per annum to the country, and Mayo would bring in a sizeable amount of that figure,” added John Breen.
Castlebar author Michael Mullen also observed that he believes that politicians must finally stand up and be counted by showing their support for the arts.
“The National Lottery was set up for the benefit of the arts, but it has been hijacked by politicians for their own interests. These are the very people who love to come to exhibitions and spoof about their love for the arts. Now we need them.”

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