ENCATC calls for Applications
The European Cultural Foundation, the Riksbankens Jublileumsfond and the European Network of Cultural Administration and Training Centres (ENCATC) call for applications for the 5th Cultural Policy Research Award 2008. The winner of the CPR Award 2008, worth Euro 10,000, will be publicly announced on the 16th of October at the International ENCATC Annual Conference taking place in Lyon, France.
Apologies for the gap in postings– and with so much going on! An Oscar for Once, a turkey headed to Serbia, and a new series on the arts in Ireland in The Irish Times… it’s all heady stuff 😉
Last thing first: the recent series about the arts in The Irish Times has dealt over the past few weeks with the value of the arts and inclusion issues, drawing quotes from various figures working in Irish arts organisations. Yet the series has, to me, felt pretty unoriginal and written in ‘student essay’ mode… this discourse about the social value and instrumentality of the arts is one that has long been in the public domain, and is discussed with more sophistication and nuance elsewhere (see Demos, the Journal of Cultural Policy, or the research going on at the Centre for Cultural Policy at the University of Warwick, for starters). While the series perhaps offers a useful summary for the general reader, I was hoping for more critical insight than has been offered…
Meanwhile the flap over Eurovision and Dustin the Turkey continues… I quite enjoyed Fintan O’Toole’s take over the weekend:
A culture that was genuinely smart wouldn’t be so uptight about the terminally uncool. It might recognise that when there’s Arvo Pärt in Drogheda two weekends ago and a book club festival in Ennis today, serious art is hardly under siege. But the persistent need to sneer at Daniel O’Donnell or make a feck of the Eurovision exposes the anxiety within the clever, clued-in, media-saturated world.
(speaking of which, buzz about Arvo Pärt was amazing, and I’m sorry to have missed it.) The turkey metaphor is, indeed, too rich a field to go unplundered… and I’m disappointed as well, as an avid fan (no irony required) of the Eurovision. Take away the Baudrillard, thank you very much, but you’ll have to pry the ABBA albums out of my cold, dead hands…
The Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism yesterday unveiled the ‘Arts and Culture Plan 2008’ which includes details of funding available from the Department for 2008. The pledge of an additional €40 million towards increasing arts access and participation is included in Thursday’s announcement, along with a full listing of other allocations and initiatives.
Access is clearly the dominant issue: the extension of opening hours for National Institutions has been made a precondition of their increased funding; a new ‘National Cultural Day’ has been mooted; and the document states that as the Arts Council reviews its progress under the current ‘Partnership for the Arts’ plan ‘The Minister will issue a policy instruction to the Arts Council to request that … a strong emphasis is placed on the development of audiences, access to the arts, contemporary dance, choral music, access to musical instruments and actor training.’
The second major theme is probably investment into infrastructure and capital projects, including: support for the National Concert Hall extension, Abbey Theatre relocation, Collins Barracks extension, National Library extension, refurbishment of the Druid in Galway, extension to Gate Theatre, establishment of Irish Chamber Orchestra headquarters, new opera house for the Wexford Festival Opera, five new centres for Comhaltas Ceoltóiri Éireann, the refurbishment of the RHA, revival of the Smock Alley Theatre in Temple Bar, and of course the ACCESS programme.
Wherefore art thou Irish construction slow-down? Apparently not in the arts sector.
Lots of buzz around the British government’s upcoming Green Paper to be launched next week, which reportedly includes plans to turn the UK into the ‘world’s creative hub’– proposing a £200 million national film centre, a “world creative economy forum”/conference, a new apprenticeship scheme for the creative industries, and five hours a week cultural education available to all children, amongst a long list of initiatives (for a full summary see The Times). This is the most ambitious set of cultural policy proposals in recent years, largely focused around the creative industries– however response has ranged from the wildly enthusiastic to the deeply cynical.
Speaking at the launch of IMMA’s new programme last Thursday (as reported in the Irish Times), Minister for the Arts Séamus Brennan called on Irish museums to extend their opening hours, in order to enhance access and respond to visitor demand:
“We need to get away from the traditional and often rigid nine-to-five opening times and build in a degree of flexibility that reflects our changed lifestyles and use of leisure time.”
Certainly nothing new here to anyone who’s ever tried to navigate the bizarre opening policies of many of the national institutions, and early closing hours of many cultural resources throughout the country– something Culture Night in Dublin has tried to rectify, with an amazing public response and success. The new Science Gallery may be on to something here, with opening hours until 8.30 during its upcoming festival.
If you open, they will come, seems to be the message…
arts management ireland 