I need a lie down– far too much happening over the last week! Here’s the skinny:
- In a (relatively) surprising announcement, Fionnuala Croke (head curator at the National Gallery) was named new director of the Chester Beatty Library, replacing the outgoing legend Michael Ryan. Croke had been tipped as a potential replacement for Raymond Keaveney as Director of the NGI following his retirement this year, so her appointment to the CBL has led to much speculation about future leadership at the Gallery.
- The word on Fundit.ie, Business to Arts’ new crowdsourcing site (check out the video above!), was leaked to a wider audience this week, with a formal launch coming in February. If you aren’t familiar with crowdsourcing, have a look-see at established sites like www.kickstarter.com— this project has major potential for Ireland’s creatives.
- Music Generation, the new music education programme managed by Music Network and set to be rolled out nationwide, has received major sponsorship from U2 and the Ireland Fund which will allow it to be realised over the next three years (speaking of Music Network, they’re looking for an intern— deadline is Friday!)
- Yesterday’s Irish Times ran an article by Gemma Tipton detailing pressure artists face to make ends meet: sobering first hand accounts strike a sharp contrast with critiques of the income tax exemption in recent months.
- The Jameson International Film Festival has announced a screenwriting competition and issued a call for volunteers.
- Why have I not seen this blog before? Diane Ragsdale (pursuing a PhD in cultural economics in Amsterdam), has written a great series of pieces on cultural management & policy (attracting many excellent & insightful comments).
- The shortlist for the Irish Times Theatre Awards has been announced– according to the article, the Gate has refused its productions to be allowed for consideration (apparently last year was the same). I’ve yet to discern the logic behind this? In other theatre news, The Company is looking for a last-minute, eager assistant for its production ‘As You Now Are So Once We Were at The Abbey.
- ACE cuts are to be announced in 2 weeks’ time… meanwhile the Guardian has made the excellent move of centralising information about UK arts funding on its Culture Cuts blog.
- The VIP Art Fair is set to go live in 2 days — a groovy new model of an online-only art fair that’s attracted the participation of major international galleries, features high-tech means of viewing the work available and offers the ability to chat live with dealers in a suite of innovative features. Will have to check out and ogle the functionality, ummmm.
- I’ve shied away recently from posting event announcement (as I receive so many!), but I always have a soft spot for projects run by programme alumni: tomorrow is the launch of ‘Haiti Lives – One Year On‘, a photography exhibition run by TCD’s International Development Initiative, on view at Trinity until Wednesday Februrary 9th.
Phew.
arts management ireland 
Hi please can you give me your email address? there is nothing on your site and i am trying to email you from a gmail account.
many thanks.
miranda driscoll
Hi Davey,
Our recommendation is that anyone thinking of crowdfunding as a way to fund a project should look at every crowdfunding platform available internationally, and choose the site that best suits their needs – as every site has different terms and conditions, different levels of support to get campaigns launched and funded, and each will appeal to specific markets based on site traffic and existing networks.
We’re not sure it’s fair to say that there is ‘more to this crowd that meets the eye’.
‘Fund it’ is a project operated by Business to Arts, and transparency and accountability is at the core of our values. Since we began communications relating to Fund it, primarily via social media, we have been clear that there would be two commissions which would go towards covering costs. Processing payments on http://www.fundit.ie incurs costs with Realex Payments and AIB Merchant Services (approx 3%), and we also have costs to be covered, towards which we charge a 5% commission which compares favourably with other international crowdfunding sites.
We would expect the majority of project targets on ‘Fund it’ to be below €5,000, so this is a very small fee for what we are offering, and the support we provide. Having researched the market carefully, we felt that Business to Arts, as a not-for-profit organisation with access to other outside supports, such as private foundations (as stated on the site: http://www.fundit.ie/info/about) was the best way to provide this very important and much needed service to the cultural and creative industries in Ireland.
We note from other blog postings that you may be directly involved with the ifund project and we wish you the best of luck with your venture. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to get in touch via the links on our site.
The Fund it Team.