Cork Arts Workers

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Subject Title

Please support the National Campaign for the Arts

Body email text

Dear [TD or Councillor Name],

I believe in a society that values creativity, imagination and expression. I’m sure you do too.  That’s why I’m asking you, as my constituency representative, to support the National Campaign for the Arts and protect one of our most valuable assets.

The arts enhance our reputation, generate growth, drive tourism and enrich us as citizens.

The cost of support for the arts is modest, but its worth is great. Over the last few years, we have reaped a rich harvest from investment in the arts. The work of our writers, theatre companies, musicians, artists and film-makers has been enjoyed and celebrated the world over.  At this time of economic crisis it is more important than ever to continue that investment in the arts, so we can continue to reap its rich rewards.

Please use your influence to protect funding for the arts in Ireland.

I urge you to write to An Taoiseach, Brian Cowan and the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport, Mary Hanafin and ask them to support funding for arts and culture in this year’s budget. Please ask them to:

1. maintain existing levels of funding to all agencies for the arts including the Arts Council, the Irish Film Board and Culture Ireland
2. protect local authority arts funding
3. make significant new funding available to the arts and cultural sector, so we can build on our cultural tourism potential.

Thank you for your support.

Yours sincerely,

[Your Name]

[Your Address - It is important to show the representative that you are their constituent]

[From The Arts Coucnil Web Site]

Under the Arts Audiences New Media Mentoring Scheme, Google Ireland provided mentoring to four arts organisations across the country.  A series of insightful reports from organisations have now been published on the Arts Audiences website.

The Arts Audiences team were delighted when Google Ireland came on board earlier this year to provide mentoring to Balor Arts Centre, the Dock, Éigse Arts Festival and the Gate Theatre.

As well as providing mentoring to the recipients of each organisation, a core aim of this scheme has been to disperse this information to the wider arts sector. This is achieved through the publication of findings from each organisation and the subsequent discussion online.

Arts Audiences has now published on its website the reports from each of the organisations mentored by the team from Google, and these will no doubt be of great interest to many. Read the rest of this entry »

The NCFA has set up its own Youtube channel at youtube.com/user/NCFAireland.

Hear the interview here.

[From The Arts Council Web Site]

The average professional artist living in the Republic of Ireland earns just €14,500 a year from his or her art, despite having a higher level of formal education than the wider labour force, new research shows.

The data, published today by the Arts Council and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, reveals how many artists are now working on the island, and the challenges they face as they pursue their chosen professions.

In the most comprehensive study for a generation, the two arts councils have shed critical new light on what it means to be an artist, writer, painter, musician or performer in modern day Ireland, north and south.

The Living and Working Conditions of Artists in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland shows that artists are an exceptionally highly educated group, with over two-thirds having attained a university degree. They are also hard working, putting in more than 55 hours per week and frequently holding down extra jobs to support their creative endeavours.

In stark contrast to their academic achievements and evident commitment, however, the overwhelming majority of artists still earn just two-thirds of the average income for all others workers. Lack of provision for pensions also spells financial hardship ahead for the current generation of artists.

The findings of the report will influence how the arts councils continue to provide support and the measures they take to improve conditions for artists on the island.

Download the full report from The Arts Council here.

DATE – 23, 24 and 25 June 2010

VENUE – The Ark, A Cultural Centre for Children (Dublin), The Townhall Theatre (Galway), The Crawford Gallery (Cork)

You can read the summaries for Dublin and Galway here.

SUMMARY

Speakers:

In Cork Gerry Godley and Willie White gave the briefing.

CORK BRIEFING

INTRODUCTION

Gerry Godley gave an introduction which included background information on the work of the NCFA to date. He noted that if the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism had been dissolved as per the recommendations of the McCarthy Report, Ireland would have been the only country in the EU 27 without senior arts representation in government.  He further highlighted that of the 240 recommendations made in the McCarthy report, 80 have already been carried out and while this campaign is not about that report he made the point that just because the recommendations for the arts weren´t carried out doesn´t mean that we can be assured that things are going to get better or easier for the community.  He mentioned the five key ‘asks’ the NCFA is making on the National Day of Action (see Fergal McGrath´s introduction in Galway) and also pointed out that as well as arts workers all working together on a local level on Friday 17 September, the following week will see Culture Night and a further NCFA event on Tuesday 21 September, which is a Cultural Briefing for policy makers. Read the rest of this entry »

Hello All,

There is to be a gathering at Emmet Place, in front of the Opera   House at 4pm on Friday the 2 July.

(I am looking for someone to act as a sort of MC. Someone with good  projection and an easy nature who can take on a sort of calm humorous  charming Host sort of vibe. please email me if you’re available and  into it)

Here are the basics: It is to be a gathering together of those whose vocation is to  create, entertain, perform in celebration of what the Opera House has  and should continue to mean to Cork. Our reality is peripheral to the  mainstream reality of everyday life, so we need to make our physical  presence known and felt.

This is about the artist who makes something from nothing. This is  what we do. There will be no stage, no amplification, no lights. It  will be natural, raw, impromptu and pure.

People can come and go as they please, although audience would be  great for any length of time.

We will probably need to disperse by 6 when normal business hours cease. The mood will be peaceable, relaxed, effervescent and supportive.

Please come and please invite others to come.

Received from Lisa Zagone

Dear Colleagues,

As you may know, the Opera House is currently undergoing a major upheaval, due to financial struggles. It is currently in the process of re-determining its identity and its function with the City of Cork. It is quite possible that those in power will decide that the only way to make the Cork Opera House viable may be to halt their tradition of in-house productions and revert instead to being only a receiving venue for ‘big name’ acts from afar. Perhaps they believe that this is what the people of Cork want. This is a crucial time for professional arts practitioners of Cork to make their voices heard. We, too, constitute a portion of the people of Cork. And for us, the function of the Opera House is as a platform for creativity, of, by, and for our local economy and our local culture.

I am asking you to read the following statement. If you agree with the statement, please reply to the email address below. And then forward this on to other colleagues that might appreciate being included in this discussion.

lisa.zagone@gmail.com

To the Board of Directors and Trustees of the Cork Opera House:

We, the people of Cork maintain that the Cork Opera House is not only a unique central landmark to Cork, that it is much more than just a business investment, and that, indeed, it has a much more crucial function than being only a venue for consumption. We seek to affirm the role the Opera House has taken as a producer of the theatre product, utilizing Cork’s own industry of arts practitioners; artists, musicians, writers, performers, builders, craftsmen and kind, who have collectively helped to define the esteem and reputation of the Opera House and of this city as a cultural centre, and who, therefore, own a stake in the future identity of the Opera House. We represent those for whom the Opera House has been a stage and a conduit for the voices of Cork and beyond, to be reflected by and with Cork audiences. To halt in-house productions on the basis only of their commercial profitability would result in a cost far greater than this city can bear, namely the loss of our cultural centrepiece. Therefore, we urge you to consider that the local participation in the creation of the theatre product should not be measured in quantitative terms alone. We urge you to look for a balance between cost benefits and cultural merits.

Thanks.

Thursday 17th June 2010

TODAY WE DON’T USE THE WORD ‘RECESSION’ is a new artwork by SUPERFLEX commissioned by the National Sculpture Factory in collaboration with the Cork Midsummer Festival.

Date: Thurs 17th June 2010

Place: City of Cork, Ireland.

Time: All Day

For the Cork Midsummer Festival 2010, Superflex have made a new artwork TODAY WE DON’T USE THE WORD ‘RECESSION’ that invites citizens of Cork city to participate. Superflex worked with the Lord mayor Cllr. Dara Murphy to bring a proposal to Cork City Council to eliminate the use of the word ‘recession’ throughout the city for one full day. Out of these negotiations Lord Mayor Cllr. Dara Murphy has written a formal Decree on behalf of the people of Cork advocating that for one day, June 17th 2010, that they should refrain from using the word ‘recession’.

The National Campaign for the Arts Is organising a series of free workshops and briefing sessions on the National Day of Action (NDoA)

Each session includes Information, presentations, group discussions, networking with fellow arts workers & advocates

Why you need to attend . . Following the 2010 budget announcement last year the Arts Council received a €9 million reduction in funding from the Government. More than 300 organisations subsequently had their grant cut, some by up to 65%. A further 30 had their funding cut all together. The Taoiseach has indicated that further cuts are coming and Minister Hanafin has publicly acknowledged cuts will be happening in her department. So we have to work together now to protect the arts, our jobs and our country’s future. The National Day of Action on Friday 17 September 2010 is our chance to do exactly that.

Where & When

Wed 23 June, 5pm – 6.30pm – Dublin

The Ark, A Cultural Centre for Children, 11a Eustace Street
Temple Bar, D2

Rsvp to: Marcella Corcoran – corcorankennedy@eircom.net

Thurs 24 June, 5pm – 6.30pm – Galway

Town Hall Theatre, Courthouse Sq, Galway

Rsvp to: Antonella Villani – antonella@aoifeonline.com

Fri 25 June, 5pm – 6.30pm – Cork

(in association with Cork Midsummer Festival 2010 – concession priced tickets to festival shows that evening. Details when you rsvp)

Lecture Theatre, Crawford Gallery, Emmet Place, Cork (tbc)

Rsvp to: Siobhan Colgan – colgansiobhan@gmail.com