Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 6 November 2019
236. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the degree to which she supports the arts through the Arts Council or directly through local community groups; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45789/19]
Amharc ar fhreagraTotal funding for the arts and culture sector in 2020 will increase by over 2% from €189m to almost €193m.
Primary support for the Arts is delivered through the Arts Council. Funding for the Arts Council has increased in recent years and will reach €80 million in 2020. This is an increase of €5m or 6.7% over 2019. The Arts Council, which is independent in its funding decisions under the Arts Act 2003, operates within a published 10 year strategic framework entitled Making Great Art Work. This strategy prioritises support for artists throughout their careers, by the involvement of many agencies in cultural provision, by the impact of the arts on the creative economy, and by the depth and breadth of people's engagement with the arts.
The cumulative impact of these funding increases is further testament to the commitment to double Government spending in the sector. In this context, I am already delivering additional supports to the arts and culture sector, building on the €1.2 billion earmarked for culture, heritage and the Irish language under Project Ireland 2040, thus leading to increased activity and employment across all sectors under the remit of my Department.
The Creative Ireland Programme is a five-year all-of-government, culture-based initiative, led by my Department, that emphasises the importance of human creativity for individual, community and societal wellbeing. The vision of the Creative Ireland Programme is to position creativity at the heart of public policy, to enable, encourage and enhance collaboration and innovation, and to create opportunities for all citizens to engage with all forms of creative activity.
In encouraging new ways and means to explore, express and engage with our natural creativity, the Creative Ireland Programme aims to give autonomy to partners (such as local authorities, community groups and schools) to decide on the creative activities that speak to their strengths, preferences and local traditions.
Under Pillars 1 and 2 of the Programme, a range of creative activities and pursuits are supported - whether that be in what can be considered traditional artforms (such as drama, music of the visual arts), through embracing new and innovate forms of creativity (such as coding) or through new ways to engage with and explore our traditional and heritage craft activities.
The main source of funding for local community events and activities under the Creative Ireland Programme is Pillar 2 - 'Enabling Creativity in Every Community'. In 2019, total funding of €3m has been allocated to all local authorities to enable them to support an extensive programme of activities, events and initiatives in each county. Each local authority has established a Creative Ireland Co-ordinator and a local Culture Team to manage and allocate this funding in accordance with local needs and in line with their own, individual 5-year Culture and Creativity Strategy. The projects funded cover a broad range of topics including archaeology, architecture, biodiversity, crafts, heritage, drama, dance, literature, music, storytelling and the visual arts.
In addition to this core funding, the Creative Ireland Programme has also allocated €15,000 to each local authority outside of Dublin and €75,000 each to the four local authorities in Dublin to develop a special programme of events for Cruinniú na nÓg – the national day of creativity for children and young people. Cruinniú na nÓg took place on 15th June 2019 and included a range of arts based activities for all ages. Already this year, nearly 1,400 projects have been supported by the Creative Ireland Programme.
In July of this year, I announced the completion of a review of the Percent for Art scheme. The outcome of this review led to changes to the scheme’s bands and limits which will make significantly increased funding available to the creative community. The new limits and bands will apply from 1st January 2020 and details may be seen on my Department’s website.
I will shortly be re-establishing an inter-agency group to improve information gathering and collation and sharing of best practice on Percent for Art schemes. This group will also link in with the Arts Council and seek to enhance the Council’s existing advisory role in relation to the Scheme.
I have recently announced a new €4.7m capital investment scheme for arts and culture centres across the country. Applications are now being invited for the Cultural Capital Scheme which will focus on enhancing the existing stock of arts and culture centres that operate as not-for-profit organisations. This new scheme places an emphasis on the reduction of carbon footprints to dovetail with the Government’s action on climate change. Projects providing additional capacity for artists and artistic production particularly in arts centres will also be favoured. The Scheme builds on the success of the Arts and Culture Capital Scheme 2016-2018 which saw grants allocated to 134 organisations in 26 counties to refurbish and enhance their facilities. This funding is provided from a €40m capital investment allocation for local arts and culture infrastructure contained in Project Ireland 2040 “Investing in our Culture, Language & Heritage 2018-2027'.
This scheme has been informed by the recently published strategic Review of Arts Centres and Venues by the Arts Council & the County and City Management Association (CCMA) as well as the Arts Council's published Arts Centre Policy and Strategy 2019 which sets out its funding criteria for arts centres from 2020 onwards.
Applications are being invited under three separate Streams as follows.
Stream A will offer grants up to €50,000 for small enhancement/expansion/ refurbishment projects which may involve construction works to arts and culture facilities and/or upgrading of equipment.
Stream B will offer grants from €50,000 up to €300,000 for larger enhancement /expansion/ refurbishment projects involving construction works to arts and culture facilities.
Stream C will be a separate scheme aimed at the upgrading of visual artists’ workspaces. Applications for this Stream will be invited separately by Visual Artists Ireland.
All information on the Cultural Capital Scheme 2019 – 2022 is available on my Department’s website.
