The National Campaign For The Arts is a volunteer-led, grassroots body which aims to “make the case for the arts in Ireland”.
This amounts to some camaigning and suggested potential policy plans for the government to consider enacting for the benefit of Ireland’s creative economy.
Speaking of which, the NCFA has today launched a ’13 Point Proposal for the Survival and Recovery of the Irish Arts Sector’. You can check out the full proposal right here.
The new proposal comes at a critical juncture for the entire arts sector.
With lockdowns and social distancing ensuring that live performances across all disciplines will not be occurring to same capacity pre-COVID-19 for quite some time, artists are looking at an extremely harrowing coming short to medium term future in terms of potential revenue stream.
There is little doubt that without government support, some critical infrastructure in our arts will simply cease to exist.
The NCFA’s 13-page proposal distinguishes problems of an “immediate”, “medium” and “long term” nature which faces the arts community and details potential methods which the government could undertake to mitigate their effects.
Some seem pretty clear cut and fairly realistic, like calling for an additional 20 million of funding to the arts council (page 6). Other proposals, like extending the COVID-19 Pandemic Unemployment payment for artists until it is “financially and logistically viable” for artists to support themselves (same page) make a ton of sense but would be a hard-fought victory in the face of what could be a €30 Billion deficit this year.
You should take the time to fully read and digest the NCFA’s proposal, it’s important we’re all on the same page about what’s required to help support our national artistic community heading forward, especially with the caretaker Taoiseach already talking about Ireland not being able to “borrow cheaply forever” and looking at cutting spending costs (Source same as link above).
