Damaging one of our best assets

August in Edinburgh and yet again the streets are thronged with visitors, performers and people engaging in the most extraordinary high jinks. Despite the perception that one gigantic festival takes place at this time of year, there are actually many more all running concurrently. Combined, these festivals constitute one of the world’s great attractors of people and to any performer a potential audience that ordinarily they could only dream about.

 

There were over half a million people across five festivals generating over three million show attendances in 2010, according to a report commissioned by Festivals Edinburgh and published in 2011. So is it any wonder that Culture Ireland runs an annual showcase featuring a selection of the nation’s artistic wealth, displaying their wares and hoping to drum up future business with promoters and producers from all over the world.

This year, according to a spokesperson from Culture Ireland, “We will support three shows in the Edinburgh International Festival, the largest number to date, four shows at Dance Base, over 26 writers and musicians at the Edinburgh International Festival as well as a circus and music show in the Festival Fringe. The overall 2012 programme is, in fact, slightly larger this year than in previous years.”

Taken as a statement in itself, this is of course very positive news but in the wider context of arts funding in Ireland, it may mask what could be problems coming down the line.

The funding Culture Ireland receives from the Government has been declining year on year for the last three years. In 2010, the figure was €4,083,000. This dropped to €3,997,000 in 2011 and in 2012 the budget allocation was €3,560,000. These certainly look like significant sums of money but given how tightly stretched budgets have been historically, to be taking cuts on the scale listed above will almost certainly have concrete knock-on effects for Ireland’s artists and performers.
As far back as 2010, there was disquiet and agitation in the artistic community regarding the cuts that were coming down the line.

Many responded by saying the arts in Ireland was akin to a greedy piglet at the overgenerous teet of a tired old sow who threatened her own health by continuing to feed it. In fact, there was a certain glee in the response of some people that a forced and public weaning might be on the cards, given the view of the arts as somehow elitist or not representative of value for money.
Everybody is entitled to their opinion but it would seem to me a little short sighted to take pleasure in something that would cut out the potential of Irish artists to make work in whatever field they chose to.

I am even more staunch in this belief having lived abroad, where Ireland’s reputation as a nation synonymous with the arts far outweighs the stereotypical nonsense we saw printed and said in the aftermath of Katie Taylor’s nation-invigorating Olympic victory.

From novelists to rock stars, Ireland has historically punched above its weight in many fields of artistic endevour. Our achievements have been historically strong and remain so to this day but if funding is cut now, our future achievements may be less glorious.

I recently interviewed the musician Jack L on this very topic and his analogy was to liken a nation cutting its arts funding to “a snake eating its own tail”.

To take the Olympic comparison a little further, we have seen the effect of guaranteed and generous funding on the British medal tally at the London games. By contrast, there have been rumblings that John Joe Nevin might himself have secured a gold if he was similarly funded and supported. This is pure speculation of course but with sport, so it is with the arts, reliable, generous funding breeds success and nurtures talent.

As the country experiences seemingly endless austerity, people will rightly argue that basic services such as healthcare, education and other basic pillars of the society must take precedence in the funding hierarchy and this is true. Another view is to look at arts funding as a form of investment. The Irish artistic representation in Edinburgh this and every year are ambassadors not only for the island of Ireland but for its unique cultural heritage and creative energy.

The reputation of Irish work across the festivals is immense and the level of people’s faith in Irish work can sometimes take you back. I recently spoke with a prominent Scottish playwright about what she might hope to see during the festivals. “All the Irish,” she said, “I can always be assured I’ll get something really worth seeing.”

She is not alone in her admiration but this year there is a sort of sadness among theatre people in Edinburgh. There is a perception that Ireland’s financial woes are heavily impinging on the ability of Irish companies and artists to travel. Many are privately mourning the severe wounding of the Irish arts and are pessimistic about the ability of the sector to survive and thrive.

This perception alone is a major threat to the future of Irish arts. If it persists then slowly but surely, the Irish arts will slip down people’s list of must-have, must-see work. While people may reminisce and bemoan the once great stature of Irish artistic zeal, the damage to the brand will eventually become irreparable. Once this has happened, no amount of money thrown at the problem will remedy it.

I take some small crumb of hope from the words of Culture Ireland’s showcase coordinator in Edinburgh this year. According to Madeline Boughton, Ireland’s artistic community is rising to this challenge in “more and more imaginative ways”. Interestingly, she added that in many cases this involves “seeking funding from abroad”.

I hope that many of them get it and given the quality of the work, I’m sure they will but it seems a shame to have one of our greatest potential assets and exports funded and essentially owned by somebody else.