Husting Videos ℅ Civic Trust House

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Civic Trust House have posted the videos from the husting on youtube. This is an excellent resource especially if you have not yet decided how you intend to vote. It is important to remember that your input does not end on Friday the 26th. The National Campaign for the Arts plan on continuing to take action when the new government is in, to ensure that the future of the arts.

My Minutes of Monday's Campaign for the Arts Husting

 

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I attended the husting Monday, which I think was a success. Each candidate was allocated three minutes (most went over their time), one candidate from each party was permitted to speak, though others could contribute when the floor was opened up. Fianna Fail did not attend.

Kathleen Lynch, Labour Party (Cork North Central) was the first to speak. She took a few moments to warm up, seeming to stick on the topic of “the last time I was elected” without it seeming relevant. Although she did expand on that thought by quoting from her former elimination speech; “We strive not just for bread alone but demand to smell the roses”. A thought that could have been better delivered.

She spoke of the Film Industry as being a large employer and reminded us that the last time Labour were in government they almost achieved their goal of every child having access to a musical instrument. Lynch stresses the point that support must not be given to large venues but also to individual artists and that it ought not be centralised in more populated areas. She made a very good point during the open floor  that highlighting the need for arts education.

Later John Gilroy, Labour Party (Cork North Central) claimed that, if in power, Labour would put €16.15 million into the arts. He also mentioned a plan for creating affordable studios for artists willing to contribute to public outreach.

Deirdre Clune, Fine Gael (Cork South Central) told us that she has been committed to the arts for some time, a long standing member of the arts committee and was City Mayor when Cork was the European City of Culture. She mentioned “encouraging and developing audiences” but I felt she could have expanded on how she was hoping to achieve that as she spoke mostly about how Irish arts perform abroad and how “it attracts people to the island”. She did outline the need to expand arts focus across different apartments (economics, communications and education). However, I feel more needed to be said, in detail, of supporting individual artists at a grass roots level.

An additional candidate from Fine Gael had not realised that it was one candidate per party policy and made a bit of a fuss about it. He yelped at the chairperson claiming it was “undemocratic” not letting him speak and that it was “not clear in the letter”. It made him appear childish and it was counter productive to the discussion, I did not catch his name.

John Adams, Independent (Cork North Central)  had prepared a speech, which he read out. This is not my preferred style of public speaking though that is not necessarily an indication of quality. He was bold with his words, saying that Triskel Art Centre and council arts offices were unapproachable to artists and that people on the most powerful arts boards have little desire in engaging with arts practitioners.

Adams raised concerns about position of arts officers being held by non-creatives and that generally there are too many administrators in the industry. He claimed art should be brought to a level so that everyone could feel included and concluded that he is “batting for the artists and wanted to bring that wealth to the public”. During the Q & A session he mistakenly called the organisation “The We Love the Arts Campaign” which is only a slogan of The National Campaign for the Arts that was stuck up on the walls. Oddly, this made him appear like he was not really familiar with the campaign and had just read the slogan from the poster.

Mick Barry, Socialist Party, United Left Alliance (Cork North Central) was frank that he was not going to be in the government (due to being a small party) but hoped to be a “voice for the people” locally. He believes that funding is key and that the government’s biggest mistake was the bail out of Anglo Irish Bank.

He mentioned that the play Galileo Galilei was a favourite of his and shared with us a scene in which a character, a poet, was having difficulty composing because of “the rent man skulking around the corner.” His general message was that this is “our society, our community”.

Ted Tynan, Worker’s Union (Cork North Central) also philosophised about bread and roses (very fitting imagery considering that it was Valentine’s day). An advocate for local disadvantaged communities, Tynan spoke of the wealth of talent in our communities. He spoke of his love for books, from which, he received his education. He is fully supporting of the arts. His primary concerns are job creation, unemployment and emigration.

Chris O’Leary, Sinn Féin (Cork South Central) had an assertive style of speaking. He has been involved in the arts throughout his lifetime. He spoke of the “cronies” of political parties on the arts council. He mentioned the FAS C.E. scheme and, although he was not criticising it, he wants to see real jobs being created.

Dan Boyle, Green Party (Cork South Central) pointed out that during the boom the increase in funding was not properly directed. He claimed that in elected his party would nominate artists to serve on the arts council and he believe that he art policies need to be informed by artists. He believes that we need to invest in the arts and concluded a positive note, reminding us that artists strive in times of recession.

Fergus O’Rourke, Independent (Cork North Central) talked about his children who are both emigrant arts professionals. He said he had limited resources and would not make empty promises. He is interested in employment generation and believes that the arts stimulate creativity. He presents himself as being and honest person and claims that “his heart is in the right place.


Diarmuid Cadhla, Independent (Cork South Central) spoke briefly during the open floor. He proposed that he need for funding for the arts should be decided by the people. Which is a myopic opinion as many people have not had the privilege of access to the arts. This prompted Katherine Lynch's comment on the need for increased arts education. Cadhla also spoke in Irish (sadly I could not quite follow this). No doubt he has a love for the language, but I wonder if it was directed and the Fine Gael representatives, given their recent proposals to end compulsory Irish at leaving cert level.

Some members of the audience made very relevant points. Patrick Cotter of the Munster Literature Centre pointed out that the stingy private industry had to be almost blackmailed to donate to local arts organisations. Pat Kiernan of Corcadorca emphasised that both the Arts Council and Culture Ireland are needed. He said that there was no boom for artists and pointed out that Fine Gael's response was focused on the international. Another speaker added that individual arts practitioners can not compete internationally.

The FAS CE schemes were mentioned again, with one person calling for the abolition of FAS and he said that such schemes eliminated jobs in his (our) industry. I agree with this, although I am not against internships and work placement programmes, I do believe that they can be abused. They ought to be a way of gaining extra experience and not the industry standard.

I have only outlined each candidates points and I have tried not to expand too much on my opinions. Otherwise, I fear this would be an endless post.


My apologies if I have misquoted anyone. Please contact me if I have. 

Civic Trust House also posted a report that expands on a few points I have not.

National Campaign for the Arts Valentine's Day Husting

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The NCFA are having invited candidates in the upcoming election to public meetings that will be held on Valentine's day. I intend to go. It is one thing to read a candidate's very prepared arts policy but it is entirely more useful to actually hear them speak on the matter. Also, it is important to be seen by the country's potential leaders as a large mobilized arts community. Who are active, organized and politically engaged.

Visual Artists Ireland recently contacted the major parties to outline the arts policy. Fianna Fáil failed to respond. Which indicated that they have given up or that they really don't care bout the arts. Labour, The Greens and Fine Gael all essentially said the same thing. There are a large number of Independents and smaller party candidates this year that were not contacted. I would liked to hear their intentions,  last time I checked Ted Tynan (Worker's Party) and Mick Barry (Socialist Part) were yet to be confirmed for Cork. Hopefully they will attend as both are in my constituency.

It is important to be seen by the country's potential leaders as a large mobilized arts community. Who are active, organized and politically engaged. Unfortunately, artists are (comparatively) very poorly paid. Fortunately, they are a highly educated, problem solving group with great initiative and that is why we have effective organisations such as National Campaign for Arts and Cork Arts Workers.

The timetable for Monday 14 February is;

Cork: 10.45am – 12.00 Crawford Art Gallery
Dublin: 10.45am - 12.15  Project Arts Centre, Temple Bar
Galway: 11.00am Radisson Blu Hotel
Limerick: 10.45am Belltable Arts Centre.

If there is no event for your constituency you can contact your  local candidates to register your interests. A few months ago there were postcards form the NCFA at arts venues for posting to your local representatives they are probably still hanging around. You can also mention it if you meet them on their door to doors (provided you don't live in an apartment without a buzzer like me).

Estonia joins the Eurozone

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Continuing on reoccurring themes of economics, politics and icebergs. I would like to share the news
that Estonia, our USSR→EU friend, has adopted the euro. Huzzah! Anti-euro types have criticized this move, saying in a statement that "Estonia was getting the last ticket for the Titanic".

Recently, my boyfriend's parents told us about a vacationing American couple that they had met in a bar. By vacationing I mean they were planning to land in the UK but were diverted due to the weather. They were surprised that everyone here was so happy because they had heard how terrible the financial situation was. Irish people do love to have something to moan about and it was Christmas, the season of good cheer. When I told my boyfriend about our new shipmates he joked, "if Estonia bought the last ticket for the Titanic, Ireland must be the band that kept spirits up and continued to play as the ship sank!"

Scene from one of the older Titanic films. Image found here. Other image found here.

Bank of Ireland Announces Unethical New Fees

Despite my intentions to ignore the recession frenzy, more and more I am writing about this economic nastiness. The arts, of course are affected by this nastiness and really, I cannot imagine an area that isn't.

Drawing my attention (and seething anger) today is Bank of Ireland's announcement that it has decided to wrangle a few more coppers from its customers by imposing new fees on current account holders. As a loyal Bank of Ireland customer for about 20 years now having graduated into this sh*tstorm, I am excited to learn that these new fees will affect mostly the less well off customers. The fees will only affect those who cannot maintain a constant balance of €3000, those who deposit less than €1000 per month or those make fewer than nine payments by phone or online banking. Financial fashionistas will be glad to see that fees are very on-trend in that they are likely to affect mostly those who are on low income or unemployed. Perhaps BOI were inspired by the recent Budget cuts to social welfare cuts and reduction of the minimum wage.  All this from a bailed out bank. They have seemingly developed a taste for public money and unethical practice.

Understandably the bank is required to try and secure extra revenue, but this unethical move is telling of the socio-myopic mindset of those who make the decisions.

In the New Year I shall be looking for a new bank.

Till then, FU-BOI!

The Arts and the Economy

National Campaign for the Arts promotional video

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With the Budget looming it is difficult to think of the arts without thinking of politics. But the two are never far apart. The country's bailout has seen Ireland get negative publicity around the globe causing the arts, which is a huge figure in cultural identity, to be ever more relevant.

There is a tendency to "live in the past". People focus on what their houses were once worth and where they once wen on holiday. When we think of cultural identity we think of the 1916 Easter rising. There is difficulty in visualizing a new nation. In my hometown Athlone there are proposals/talks/plans of avisual arts gallery. The proposed site was the old library and the plans included what I thought of as a tasteful expansion to the original construction. Opposition claimed that it was a waste of money and suggested that the building be used to house memorabilia of Count John McCormack,  "Athlone's most famous son". Count John McCormack was a respected tenor who died in 1945, his memorabilia is already on display elsewhere.  My frustration lies in the desire to focus on the past and an inability to visualize a new future. There is talent, skill and ambition being exported out of the the town as it lacks a visuals arts community and a suitable venue would go a long way in rectifying this. It would create jobs and attract tourism and potentially larger employers. However, many would rather focus on something that happened 100 years ago. It is similar to saying "instead of funding next year's Olympic team, lets build a monument to the last team".

Contemporary art is a scary term that is laden down with preconceptions. But contemporary merely references things of today. So it is obvious that contemporary arts have a huge role to play in forging a future and making today a little more enjoyable. The included video is a little cheesy at times but the message is spot on.

The Accountable, Bank of Ireland Art Auction

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On the 24th of this month 155 works from the Bank of Ireland art collection were put up for auction  by Adam's,  with a further 2000 pieces to be sold over the next few years This caused a bit of a stir with crowds protesting outside the venue. Indeed, anything involving a bank will attract controversy and this was no different with people protesting about the bank's government bailout and about the bank bailing out from the arts.

I remember feeling excited when I first learned of the bank's support of the arts, in both its art collection and with student awards. A bank having a positive influence seems like an alien idea now. BOI claims that the proceeds of the sale will go back into supporting the arts community. However, many have pointed out that many of the works sold have left the country with foreign buyers and that the sudden unloading of art into the market will lessen the value of the art works. It is hard to say if this is a bad thing or not. I think it is foolish to say that such a work would have been valued much higher 5 years ago. It reminds me of those who, for the last three years have been whingeing that their second property used to be worth half a million euro now it would not even sell for 100,000 euro. I feel like shouting "No it wasn't, it was never worth that much that was all make believe money. That nonsense is all over now, stop going on about it".  I would rather see more people buy smaller art that a select few buying glory pieces.  Of course we will have to wait and see what BOI will do with the it would be foolish to simply trust that they will honour their word. It seems that the auction went well with many pieces selling for much more than estimated.

John Coen, We the Accountable.

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Recently, I was talking to a business professor who's passion for art is the strongest I have seen in some time. He pointed out a piece being auctioned that had an incredible title. "We the Accountable" by John Coen sold for €5800.  I do not know what the artist's reasons for the title were, but I doubt he could have guessed that it would be so relevant today.



Images were obtained via google, please click on them for their sources. No copyright infringement intended.

Hi-ho, Hi-ho, it's off to work we go (Miners Strike)

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Since I have an interest in mining with it's political and social connections and since mining is in the news again (New Zealanders trapped this time) here are some images from the UK mining strike. The strike took place 1984-1985, around about the time I was born, in a not so dissimilar economic climate to today.

Oh and an example of some great advertising from Saatchi when he was known for this and not for art...

 

All images were obtained from a google search, please click on the image to find source, No copyright infringement intended.

Time Last Year I was Meeting Mary McAleese

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This time last year I was participating in the Multyfarnham Arts Festival which was located in a Franciscan Abbey there. As part of it I was invited to Áras an Uachtaráin to meet with President McAleese, along with the others artists and the friars who organised and hosted the event for the community (I am pictured camera right behind McAleese).

I wasn't entirely sure why I was there, but I was happy to accept the invitation, if only out of curiosity. I believe that in the previous week President McAleese meet with the country's Arts Officers so perhaps it was an art support month. The day included tours, talks about Irish history, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette's furniture and tea served in a rather slick blue and gold presidential tea service. Mary herself was truely lovely, incredibly personable and natural. Even the Army Captain who escorted use was very friendly. In fact everyone involved in the festival, the friars, the community, the artists were interesting and approachable.

I am itching to do another residency.


Image courtesy of a friend, copyright 2009-2010.

Women's Suffrage (hand sewn banners)

image found here

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