Artists need to ‘buy’ much needed time
We need state support of the arts to nurture ideas, for artists to ‘buy’ much needed time, clear space for ideas to grow.Having been a beneficiary of much support from the Arts Council over the years and thankful for it I recently found myself at a bit of an impasse.
I developed an idea, with its foundation firmly grounded in contemporary art practice , and yet, as it had been adopted by a major Irish Hospital, it attracted the interest of local enterprise boards, Enterprise Ireland and private investors.
In seeking to develop this idea I have had a working relationship that has a foot in the Arts Council and a foot in Enterprise Ireland. However,there is a fundamental conflict in how these two state agencies approach the funding.One encourages profit,the other does not. The CCI sector needs a shift in focus from one of funding dependency to one of ‘philanthro-capitalism.
Read More: Denis Roche’s response