NCFA June 2014 Newsletter

We’re pleased to share news of our recent activities including a new appointment and preparation for our pre-budget campaign.

NCFA Colloquia
Firstly, to report back on the inaugural NCFA Colloquy held last month in the National Concert Hall. We’re delighted to say it was a huge success with over 50 people attending from both the arts, academic and policy-making areas. Professor Elizabeth B. Silva’s opening provocation on the question of public engagement with the arts and Dr. Pat Cooke’s reply sparked a series of robust conversations. We’d like to thank the National Concert Hall for their ongoing support of the NCFA.

You can download the Introductions, Keynote speaker and Respondent here. 

If you were on the waiting list and couldn’t be accommodated on the day, we had to observe a limit for safety and comfort! We greatly appreciate your interest and enthusiasm for the event, so please keep an eye on our next Colloquy.

Our next Colloquy will be held on 12 August 2013 in the Pembroke Hotel, Kilkenny. The Guest Speaker, on this occasion, will be Dr. Dave O’Brien from City University London. He is particularly interested in how we determine cultural value and urban cultural policy issues. The respondent will be Professor John O’Hagan from the Department of Economics, TCD. Booking info will go out through the NCFA newsletter and social media in mid-July.

Administrator appointed
Our recent fundraising drive has given us the scope to have some administrative support. We have appointed Emma Haugh as NCFA Administrator. Emma will work one day a week with her priority activity to re-connect with our membership and Constituency Co-ordinators locally and prepare for our pre-budget campaign. Emma is an artist, facilitator and has extensive experience in managing outreach and education programmes. She has worked for the Arts Council, Tallaght Probation Project, Dublin Youth Theatre, CDVEC, National Association of Youth Drama, amongst others.

Full biog available here.

Philanthropy v public funding
At the end of May, Minister for the Arts Jimmy Deenihan publicly stated that ‘in no way will there be a reduction in public funding because of an increase in philanthropic funding …I am trying to gain additional funding for the arts through the philanthropic process.’ We’ll hold him to that.

The Minister replies here to TDs parliamentary questions about how the low level of philanthropic ‘giving’ in Ireland, when compared to the UK and USA, can be strategically improved. 

Arts in Education Charter
Among the ideas in this new charter is a proposal that any artist or organisation in receipt of public money ‘will be obliged to donate’ time and talent to local education initiatives. We’re keeping an eye on the initiative and we were interested to read what former Chair of the Arts Council, Ciarán Benson, had to say on the matter in a recent article. 

NCFA committee members contributed to the Lighting a Fire conference organised by the Council of National Cultural Institutions, where the Arts and Education Charter was debated and the achievements of arts and education programmes already in place were celebrated. Separately in the Dáil, parliamentary questions about the charter were put to Minister Deenihan by several TDs and these can be read here under the section on the promotion of art.

Research activity
We are making good progress with potential partners in devising practical and effective ways to create a better research base for improved arts policy-making. We are also actively keeping ourselves informed about what’s happening in areas related to our research agenda. NCFA committee members attended Making Open Access Work for Ireland at the Royal Irish Academy as well as the European Data Forum 2013, a part of the EU Presidency programme. At the Forum, an inspiring presentation by Fingal County Council on their Open Data and Open Government work provided much food for thought.

Planning ahead
A workshop session was held last Saturday with members of the National Steering Committee and subcommittees as well as constituency coordinators and we’d like to thank the Friends of the National Gallery of Ireland and the NGI Development Office for accommodating us on this occasion. We will be outlining the goals and actions for our pre-Budget 2014 campaign over the coming month.

The next stage is to develop the actions to support this campaign with our constituency coordinators. Thanks for keeping in touch with us – we will be in touch soon with more details about how you can get involved.

Support us
As we move towards campaigning mode, we need your support more than ever. A donation no matter how small makes a difference. If you can, please give what you can.

Thank you. 

With best wishes,  

The Steering Committee:

Tania Banotti, Mark Brennock, Valerie Connor, Loughlin Deegan, Vincent Dempsey, Gerard Howlin, Fiach Mac Conghail, Niamh O’Donnell, Mags Walsh.