Aosdana

The arts elite welcomes 7 new members

Aosdána, the affiliation of creative artists in Ireland, elects 7 new members at General Assembly in Armagh bringing its total membership to 246.

While this is the first time the Aosdána General Assembly has been held in Northern Ireland, the meeting reflects the long-standing tradition of all Ireland collaboration and interaction between artists and arts organisations.

New members include: Yvonne Farrell, Vona Groarke, Francis Harvey, Conor McPherson, Gráinne Mulvey, Sheila O'Donnell and Kevin Volans. Congratulations to them.

But what is Aosdana?
The Arts Council established Aosdána in 1981 to honour those artists whose work has made an outstanding contribution to the arts in Ireland, and to encourage and assist members in devoting their energies fully to their art.

Members of Aosdána may avail under certain conditions of the Cnuas, a stipend which is designed to enable them to devote their energies fully to their work. The Arts Council reassesses eligibility of the Cnuas every five years. (that's money, by the way)

I don't ever expect to get elected to such a high-falutin body. In the words of Groucho, I don't care to belong to any club that will have me as a member

Arts Council: Touring & Dissemination of Work Scheme

This grant could apply to literature. Why not? How about getting the Poetry Divas to tour to your county?

The Arts Council has announced a new scheme for supporting the touring and dissemination of work in all arts disciplines. The principal purpose of the scheme is to ensure that audiences throughout the country may have access to high quality arts experiences.

Applications are invited for proposals seeking funding in support of high quality activities aimed at reaching various types of audiences in any art form or area of arts practice. These activities should be due to take place this year, or at least begin in 2010.

Deadline: 5.30pm on Thursday 15 April 2010. 

Full information (including Guidance Notes and a sample Application Form) on the Arts Council website.

The Touring and Dissemination of Work scheme is open to applications from organisations, individuals and various types of networks / consortia. Applications are encouraged from networks, consortia or other collective groupings of presenters, particularly where these indicate a high degree of collaboration with the producing entity or artists.

Arts Council Grants

I start this post with the admission that I know nothing about the finances of running a magazine or a small press. But looking at the spreadsheet * of the Arts Council funding decisions, there seem to me to be some real inconsistencies. I'd be interested to see the accounts and applications.

Magazines:

Cyphers 12K down to 7K. How often is this published? The website doesn't work.

Feasta 8.5K down to 6K. Looks like a monthly Gaelic magazine.

Fish. 7K down to 5K. I'd like to see Fish accounts. They get hundreds of entries for the competitions (1,500 for the short story competition) and only publish once a year.

Irish Pages, 13K down to 10K. Editor: Chris Agee. Belfast magazine. Published biannually. Print run 2,800. Why such a big grant for a magazine that comes out every other year?

The Dublin Review 64.5K down to 57K. Quarterly magazine of essays, criticism, fiction and reportage.

The Stinging Fly 54.5K to 50K. Publishes poetry, reviews and short stories quarterly. It's a great mag. Also publishes occasional books. (compare with The Dublin Review 57K)

The Shop 13K unchanged. I think is published twice a year. It's a high quality poetry magazine. Seems like a small grant to me.

Publishers:

Mercier Press 32K down to 20K. How many books do they publish a year? Many are non-fiction which is a bit of a grey area as to the arts (ref: Bertie Ahearn's memoirs tax status)

Carysfort Press 85K to 60K publishes contemporary writing for and about the theatre, and about other performing arts.

Cork University Press Looks like they published 14 books last year including the Fish anthology.

Dedalus Press 95K down to 80K. Poetry. There's no money in poetry and they're a super press (IMHO) Looks like they only published 12 books 2009/2010 though.

Lilliput 95K down to 80K. Mix of genres. Don't seem to publish many a year.

Sliabh An Fhiolair 80K down to 70K. Something to do with the address for Brandon Books in Dingle. No website.

The O'Brien Press 65K to 60K. Publish all sorts of books, lots of them for children. Not really sure why they get a grant. At first glance, they're fairly commercial looking.

New Island Books 115K to 107K. Publish literary stuff and other less commercial titles. Again, can't tell how many titles a year.

Clo Iar Chonnachta 75K to 70K. Irish Music and Irish books in Connemara. Not many titles a year.

Cois Life 37K unchanged. Irish Language publisher. Looks like they have 8 books in 3 years. Too much money.

Salmon 40K unchanged. Publishes poetry. Probably the same or more titles than Dedalus? Yet a lower grant?

The Gallery Press 167K unchanged (I know who I'm sending my collection to...) Poetry and Drama. 400 books in 40 years. That's a lot.

Dalkey Archives Press. New 2K. publication and republication of high quality and out-of-print works, particularly modernist and postmodernist.

Futa Fata. New 10.5K. Another Gaelic publisher in Spiddal. Not sure how many titles they publish.

Liberties Press. New 10K Lots of non-fiction, tax, health, hobbies. Nothing in the literary category. Why the grant?

Random:

Dingle Writing Course
25K down to 22.5K. Not sure why they get a grant at all. Do other course organisations? Irish Writers Centre, for instance? Inkwell? Anam Cara? Long weekend cost 420 Euro with accommodation.

* Note spreadsheet from the fabulous Irish Publishing News blog.

Arts Council Bursary Decisions

The arts council received 390 applications for this award and has offered a total of 68 awards in response, 18 of which were in the category English language literature. 29 (or it might have been 20) for visual arts, a handful for Dance, Film, Theatre, Opera, Traditional Arts, 1 for circus.

Here are the literary bursaries for round 1 2009, a mix of well known and not so well known (and unknown to me) names.

Kevin Barry, Dublin City Council, €15,000

Mary Branley, Sligo County Council, €3,200

Declan Burke, Wicklow County Council, €10,000

Monica Corish, Sligo County Council, €5,000

Danny Denton, Cork County Council, €3,200

Katie Donovan, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, €6,000

Christine Dwyer Hickey, South Dublin County Council, €15,000

Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick, Wicklow County Council, €15,000

Andrew Fox, Fingal County Council, €10,000

Caroline Lynch, Galway City Council, €10,000

John Maher, Laois County Council, €10,000

Cormac McCarthy, France, €15,000 (Don't think this is the US author) Writes as Cormac James per Fin

Belinda McKeon, USA, €10,000

Helena Mulkerns, Wexford County Council, €9,000

Pete Mullineaux, Galway County Council, €3,600

Dennis O'Driscoll, Kildare County Council, €15,000

Slevin, Ailbhe, Galway City Council, €5,000

Wild, Ian, Cork County Council, €10,000

Whose name isn't there? Mine. But I did get a letter which didn't say it didn't get, if you know what I mean. It said the decision will be made after the September council meeting. I have no idea what that means. Did anyone else get a similar letter?

Arts Council Bursary Decisions

The last round of arts council bursary decisions are announced. Here are the literary ones:

Begley, Barty Limerick City Council €14,000 (Postgraduate translation studies Leeds) He won the Aidan Higgins Competition, otherwise little information to be found.

Dorcey, Mary Wicklow County Council €14,000 Here's a poem by her.

Firetog, Emily Dublin City Council €14,000 MA in Creative Writing TCD. Short Stories.

Granier, Mark Poet Multi Annual Bursary. €45,000 awarded over 3 years:€15,000 in 2008, €15,000 in 2009 and €15,000 in 2010 South Dublin County Council. Mark's blog is here.

Groarke, Vona Multi Annual Bursary. €29,000 awarded over 2 years: €14,650 in 2008 and €14,650 in 2009 United Kingdom Poet

Harpur, James Cork County Council €9,984 Poet

Malone, Martin Kildare County Council €14,000 Novelist.

McManus, Manus Dublin City Council €5,000 poet won the Patrick Kavanagh in 1985.

Ni Bhroin, Ainin Dublin City Council €14,000 MA in creative Writing TCD. I think she's a poet.

Wyley, Enda Multi Annual Bursary. €20,000 awarded over 2 years: €10,000 in 2008 and €10,000 in 2009 Dublin City Council poet

There's quite a lot of poets here and it's a bit Dublin centric. Quite a few emerging writers too.

Arts Council

Reminder - the arts council bursaries deadline is fast approaching: Thursday 27 November 2008 at 5.30pm.

It is planned that all applications received prior to the closing date will receive a decision in February 2009. The closing date for round 2 will be in April 2009.

The purpose of an Arts Council bursary is to support professional artists at all stages in their careers and in the development of their arts practice. The aim of the award is to allow artists, working in any context or in any artform, to buy space and freedom to concentrate on a body of work and provide the equipment, facilities and third party expertise to develop practice. Recipients can receive up to a maximum of €15,000 per year through the Bursary award. A number of multi-annual bursaries, which offer artists funding for up to a three-year period, are available each year.

Remember, the Arts Council grant is slashed by 10% in the budget and almost certainly more next year so get in early.

Remember also, the proportion of money that goes to the literary side seems unbalanced so let's correct that with a slew of applications.

Another thing the arts council are doing is running an interesting conference New Media, New Audience?
Tuesday 25 November in Dublin Castle.
(So any artist with a full time job will struggle to go)

"to explore the ways in which artists and the public are adapting and adopting new ways of producing, presenting and promoting the arts."

One Off Project Arts Council Decisions

OK, the last one now. The ones for one-off projects. None, count them, NONE for literature. And look at the amounts involved. Why is literature so badly funded? Actually, not so much literature as writers.

Ursula Mawson-Raffalt Dance Leitrim County Council 59,723

Victoria O'Brien Dance South Dublin County Council 25,027

Brendan Culleton Film Dublin City Council 28,500

Neasa Hardiman Film Dublin City Council 45,000

Tony Kenny Film Dublin City Council 23,000

Carol O'Keefe Film Cork County Council 11,000

Electro Acoustic Revue Music Fingal County Council 22,500

Una Hunt Music Dublin City Council 30,000

London Irish Camerata Music Dublin City Council 37,000

Jazz on the Terrace Music Dublin city Council 10,315

Louth Contemporary Music Society Music Louth County Council 71,200

Jikijela Project Arts Participation Sligo County Council 45,900

Offaly County Council Arts Participation Offaly County Council 6,340

Kunle Animashaun Theatre Fingal County Council 12,000

City Theatre Dublin Theatre Dublin City Council 55,000

Decadent Theatre Company Theatre Galway City Council 40,000

Alan Gilsenan Theatre Wicklow County Council 83,000

Pageant Wagon Theatre Company Theatre Dublin City Council 40,000

AFTER Visual arts Leitrim County Council 50,000

City Arts Visual arts Dublin City Council 11,000

Karl Grimes Visual arts Dublin City Council 40,669

More from the Arts Council

New Work Award Recipients announced. This time one literature award. Seriously, how's an emerging writer supposed to manage? It's enough to turn one to visual arts (as if!)

Asylum Productions Arts participation Cork City Council €50,000

Bui Bolg Ltd Street art Wexford County Council €25,000

Burke, Karl Visual arts Dublin City Council €5,000

Canell, Nina Visual arts Dublin City Council €21,660

Collins, Pat Film Galway City Council €40,000

Contemporary Music Centre Ltd Music Dublin City Council €22,598

Cranitch, Ellen Music Dublin City Council €27,900

Crazy Dog Audio Theatre Company Theatre Dublin City Council €25,795

Delaney, Anita Film Dublin City Council €23,500

Doyle, Eamonn Music Dublin City Council €30,000

Fuzzy Logic Ensemble Music Dublin City Council €34,930

Junk Ensemble Dance Dublin City Council €46,550

Kids' Own Pblshng P'ship Ltd Young people children and the arts Sligo County Council
€39,000


Kinsale Arts Week Spectacle Cork City Council €15,000

Limerick Youth Theatre Young people children and the arts Limerick City Council €5,000

Lovett, Louis Theatre Dublin City Council €12,900

Lynch, Sean Visual arts Kerry County Council €42,000

Mac Erlaine, Sean Music Dublin City Council €8,095

MacMullan, Philip Music Dublin City Council €10,920

McCormick, Chantal Circus Mayo County Council €50,000

McKeown, John Opera Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council €47,500

O'Brien / DOBZ, David Visual arts Cork City Council €15,100

O'Brien, Regan Theatre Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council €13,316

O'Sullivan, Tadhg Film Dublin City Council €26,500

Playgroup Theatre Cork City Council €17,000

Randolf SD/The Company Theatre Dublin City Council €35,325

Roche, Cathal Music Sligo County Council €9,000

Rossi Anneli, Pia Arts participation Dublin City Council €8,790

Roth, Nick Music Dublin City Council €15,490

Stewart, Mark Literature (English language) Cork County Council
€6,000

thisispopbaby Theatre Dublin City Council €23,465

Turrisi, Francesco Music Dublin City Council €3,000

Upstate Theatre Project Ltd Arts participation Louth County Council €8,000

Whelan, Fiona Young people children and the arts South Dublin County Council €10,000

Whelan, Michael-John Visual arts Germany €9,975

Wright, Daphne Visual arts Longford County Council €45,000

Arts Council Decisions

The Funding for the first round of Commissions have announced. These are designed to promote creative partnerships between a diverse range of commissioners and artists. The Arts Council received 65 applications and has offered a total of 33 awards in response, none of them for literature. Why did no one commission a book? Or a poetry collection?

There are some interesting sounding partnerships though.

Burke, Karl /Model Arts and Niland Gallery
Arts participation
Dublin City Council
5,000

Bertrand, Frederique / Fidget Feet
Circus
France
5,500


Clarke, Ella /Project Arts Centre
Dance
Dublin City Council
5,000

Ó Conchuir, Fearghus /Dublin City Council- Intercultural Relations Unit
Dance
United Kingdom
7,500

Simpson, Jurgen/ Andrew Legge
Film
Clare County Council
10,000

Farrell, Ciaran /Craig Ogden
Music
Fingal County Council
10,000

O Maolain, Aengus /St Patrick's Cathedral
Music
Dublin City Council
1050

Hamilton, Andrew /Crash Ensemble
Music
Germany
8,500

Dwyer, Benjamin /Susan Doyle
Music
South Dublin County Council
4,070

Carpio, Sean /Project Arts Centre
Music
Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council
8,000

Gardner, Stephen /Prey Trio
Music
Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council
4,200

Volans, Kevin /Wigmore Hall
Music
Fingal County Council
10,000

Nangle, Jonathan /Ergodos
Music
Kildare County Council
3150

Harker, Alex / Ergodos
Music
United Kingdom
3150

Roche, Cathal / Sligo Jazz Project
Music
Sligo County Council
4000

McLachlan, John /Miso Music
Music
Donegal County Council
5000


Cleary, Siobhan /Ian Wilson
Music
Sligo County Council
4000

Mulvey, Grainne /Martin Johnson
Music
Carlow County Council
4000

O'Leary, Jane /Martin Johnson
Music
Galway City Council
4000

McDermott, Dermot/ Martin Johnson
Music
South Dublin County Council
2000

Flynn, David / Kerry International Chamber Music Festival
Music
Galway County Council
8,750

Amharclann na nÓg Corca Dhuibhne / Kerry International Chamber Music Festival
Music
Kerry County Council
2000

Cawley, Jack /The Performance Corporation
Theatre
Dublin City Council
4000

Agnew, Elaine /Tall Tales Theatre
Theatre
United Kingdom
5,500

O'Neill, Rory /Project Arts Centre
Theatre
Dublin City Council
7000

Quinn, Conall /Upstate Theatre
Theatre
Dublin City Council
7000

O'Neill, Jody /Asylum Productions
Theatre
Cork City Council
4000

Meade, Paul /Guna Nua Theatre
Theatre
Dublin City Council
8000

Kostick, Gavin /Kabosh
Theatre
Dublin City Council
8000

Winters, Carmel /Louis Lovett
Theatre
Cork County Council
7000

Hallinan, Fiona /Ian Russell
Visual arts
Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council
2000

O'Toole, Daragh /CityArts Tower Songs
Young people,
children and the arts
Dublin City Council
7000

Morrison, Leighton /Youth Ballet West
Young people,
children and the arts
Galway County Council
3000

James Barrett And The Doll In The Corner

This sounds interesting. This project is looking for writing for inclusion in a limited edition Artist Book entitled, "James Barrett And The Doll In The Corner".
The book is being produced as part of an Art's Council funded project that will culminate in a multimedia exhibition in the Europa Hotel in Belfast in 2008. The project was started during the Heinrich Boll Writer's and Artist residency in Achill Island, County Mayo in January 2007.

All successful submissions will be bound into an illustrated limited edition artist book; all contributors will receive a copy of the book.

Kathy says:

It will be a mix of art work, poetry, prose and short stories-all based on or inspired by the title/imagery of James Barrett and The Doll In The Corner) I'm interested in the concept of using imagery or the interplay between images as a catalyst for an imagined story or situation.

Out of many pieces I've received via Belfast and Dublin writer's networks, I have chosen around 6 so far and am looking for another 4. A couple of short stories would be good.

She's looking for submissions asap. It's a good idea to write outside you usual parameters from time to time so why not give it a lash?

Arts Council Bursaries

These are the lucky recipients of the arts council bursaries. Some well known names and some new ones (for me)
Not me though. What does an emerging writer have to do to get some arts council money? Maybe I didn't ask for enough.

Claire Kilroy Multi-annual bursary. €45,000 awarded over 3 years: €15,000 in 2008, €15,000 in 2009 and €15,000 in 2010 Fingal County Council

David Wheatley United Kingdom €10,000 (Wonder why the English arts council doesn't fund him?)

Eoghan Walls Meath County Council €5,000 (Wonder why the Arts Council NI don't fund him?)

Julia Kelly Multi-annual bursary. €30,000 awarded over 2 years: €15,000 in 2008 and €15,000 in 2009. Wicklow County Council (Never heard of her of her book)

Leo Cullen Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council €8,500

Martina Evans United Kingdom €7,000 (She's already had a grant from the Arts Council of England. She must be doing something right. I've never heard of her.)

Mia Gallagher Dublin City Council €8,500

Mike McCormack Multi-annual bursary. €25,000 awarded over 2 years: €15,000 in 2008 and €10,000 in 2009. Galway County Council

Oran Ryan Dublin City Council €8,000

Philip O Ceallaigh Romania €12,000

Richard Tillinghast South Tipperary County Council €7,000

Selina Guinness Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council €8,000

Susan Carleton Cavan County Council €15,000 (no links)

Valerie Sirr Fingal County Council €600

Arts Council Commissions Award Decisions

Commissions award decisions round 2 (2007)

The Commissions award encourages creative partnerships between a diverse range of commissioners and artists. It provides valuable opportunities for artists and organisations to work together. The aim of this award is to foster the creation of new work, encourage dynamic proposals for repertoire renewal and to build artistic networks and artistic relationships between artists and commissioners. It also aims to encourage new types of commissioners and to promote greater diversity in the opportunities available to artists.
The Arts Council received 77 applications for the Commissions award in round 2 of 2007, of which 31 have been offered funding. The total amount of funding offered for this round of Commissions is €196,630.

So why are none of them involved in literature? Did none apply? They're all music, dance, film, theatre and visual arts.

CLOSING DATES FOR 2008 ARTS COUNCIL AWARDS AND GRANTS

Shopping trolley art in Birdfair 2006 England 4
Originally uploaded by sparkyfaisca

The closing dates for Arts Council awards and grants in 2008 are as follows:

Regularly Funded Organisations: 27 March
Annual Programming Grants: 25 June
Annual Funding: 2 October
Travel & Training Award: Ongoing
Deis: Ongoing
Bursary Award: 14 February & 26 June
Location One Fellowship: 21 February
Small Festivals Scheme: 29 February & 19 September
Projects: New Work Award: 6 March & 24 July
Projects: Once-off Award: 6 March & 24 July
Banff Residency: 13 March
Commissions Award: 20 March & 11 September

I recommend studying the list of people/organisations who got funding the last couple of years but remember this is your money, the taxpayer so why not apply?

There is a certain skill to filling in grants applications successfully. I haven't got it. Any recommmendations? Buzz words? Buttons to hit?

Small festival funding

The Arts Council has announced funding for small festivals. Lots of these have a literary slant so watch you local papers for information and support them.

Alliance Francaise de Cork (Cork) €4,500
Alliance Francaise Dublin (Dublin) €7,000
Ballymun Festival (Dublin) €5,000
Breaking Ground (Dublin) €8,000
Buncrana: Ar Ais Aris, (Donegal) €16,000
Cairde na Cruite, (Louth), €14,500
Carlingford Community Development, (Louth) €10,500
Carrick-on-Suir Tourism & Economic Development Committee, (Tipperary) €2,200
Christ Church Waterford, (Waterford) €15,000
Clann Resource Centre, (Galway) €3,000
Classicallinks, (Galway) €10,000
Coiste Choilin Sheain Dharach, (Galway) €3,000
Coiste Cruinniu na BhFliuit, (Cork) €4,000
Coiste Ealaion Traidisiunta Ghleann Cholm Cille, (Donegal) €5,000
Conamara Environmental Education and Cultural Centre, (Galway) €6,500
Cork World Book Festival, (Cork) €7,000
Corofin Trad Festival, (Clare) €13,000
Cosgallen, (Mayo) €3,000
Cumann Cheoil na Rinne, (Waterford) €1,400
Different Directions Festival, (Galway) €3,500
Drogheda Borough Council, (Louth) €13,000
Dublin KlezFest!, (Dublin) €2,000
East Wall North Port Development, (Dublin) €5,000
Emergent Events, (Dublin) €10,000
Ennis Book Club Festival, (Clare) €3,500
Feile Chomortha Joe Einniu, (Galway) €3,000
Foram Gaeilge an Chlair, (Clare) €2,000
Friends of Coole, (Galway) €4,000
Gaeilge Locha Riach, (Galway) €3,500
Gaelacadamh Teo, An, (Galway) €6,000
I and E, (Dublin) €7,000
Immrama Festival of Travel Writing, (Waterford €4,000
Iniscealtra Festival of Arts, (Clare) €15,000
International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival, (Dublin) €5,000
Itchy Feet Promotion - One Voice, (Sligo) €2,000
John McKenna Traditional Society, (Leitrim) €3,900
John Roberts Weekend, (Waterford) €3,000
New Soundworlds, (Dublin) €8,500
North Beach Poetry Nights, (Galway) €2,000
NYAH Cavan, (Cavan) €12,000
O’ Bheal, (Cork) €2,000
Oireachtas Na Gaeilge, (Donegal) €8,000
Oranmore Community Development Association, (Galway) €2,000
Outsiders Festival, (Limerick) €7,000
Over the Edge, (Galway) €4,500
Rathmines Festival, (Dublin) €4,000
Russell Memorial Weekend Festival, (Clare) €3,500
Scoil Cheoil na Earraigh, (Kerry) €18,000
Sean Nos Cois Life, (Dublin) €7,000
Shannonbridge Festival Committee, (Offaly) €6,000
Solstice Arts Group, (Galway) €1,500
Soundeye, (Cork) €7,000
TASCQ, (Dublin) €4,000
Tech Amergin, (Kerry) €5,000
Terryglass Arts Festival, (Tipperary) €13,000
Three Rivers Storytelling Festival, (Roscommon) €2,500
White House Poets, (Limerick) €7,500
Wicklow Arts Festival, (Wicklow) €3,000

Arts Council Bursaries

Who got the literature ones this time around?
Dated 19th October

Applicant Amount awarded 2007 € Amount awarded 2008 € Amount awarded 2009 €
Kevin Barry €12,500. THis short story writer was also awarded the 2007 Rooney Prize
for Irish Literature on Oct 10th so he's having a good fortnight. See stinging Fly for details on his collection There Are Little Kingdoms which has been recommended to me but I have yet to read.

Rose Doyle €10,000 Novelist, mostly fairly light. See this link. I didn't rate the one book I read by her but I'd give her another chance.

Ann-Marie Hourihane € 9,000 The insightful journalist. I wonder what project she's using this for.

Catherine Mac Carthy € 7,500 € 7,500 The poet gets cash for two years. She also has a novel from 2003. Wonder if it made more money than her poetry?

Martin Malone € 7,500 Kildare based writer. Try his novel called US (as in we, not United States) He was longlisted for the IMPAC for his novel The Broken Cedar.

Alan McMonagle € 3,500 An emerging Galwegian writer.

Judith Mok € 9,000 The writing opera singer. Don't rate her stuff myself.

Paul Perry € 7,500 € 7,500 €10,000 won the Hennessey in 1998 when he was about 7 (young anyway) He has a great biog here but I'd never heard of him before.

John Staples € 3,500 Who?

Dolores Stewart €10,000 €10,000 €15,000 a bilingual poet.

Total €80,000
I'm going to apply for this next time around.

Arts Council Decisions

The arts Council have announced the decisions of the February round of New Work and Once Off grants and Commissions. There is one (count them, one) for Literature.

Lenor Bethencourt

Who? What? Never heard of him/her/them/it. Nothing on Google. 14,000. And they couldn't spare Poetry in the Waiting Room a cent. Am I peeved? Yes I am.

whatisstephenharperreading

Yann Martel wrote the "The Life of Pi" which won the Man Booker Prize in 2002. It's a great read. He is a Canadian writer and was chosen this April to be one of 50 artists selected by the Canada Council to represent the work of the Council over its 50 years of existance. He received a grant from the council in 1991 which helped him when he was writing his first novel.

You have to read his own account of the acknowledgement (or lack of it) that the group of distinguished artists received from the government but this spurred him on to send the prime minister, Stephen Harper, one book to read every two weeks as long as his governement are in power. Artists are worried in Canada, as in many other countries, where support of the arts fits into the government agendas. The Return on Investment on the arts is a little harder to calculate on spreadsheets than a Honda Factory.

So every two weeks he posts a book to the prime minister, including a short descriptive note about the book and why he should read it and invites the prime minister to comment. The first book received a polite acknowledgement of receipt but his office and since then, nothing. The notes are worth reading. They are on his website whatisstephenharperreading.ca.

The selection includes novels and poetry, which is great and from all over the world, a mix of styles and centuries too. I've only read 3 of them mentioned so far. How many have you read? And here's a question. Which books would you send to Bertie or Gordon to help them in the appreciation of the arts?

Apparently the prime minister said a few years ago that his favourite book was The Guinness Book of Records. Maybe Yann Martel's selections will change his mind.

Arts Council Bursaries

The Arts Council of Ireland have announced the first round of the 2007 bursaries.

For Literature

Multi Annual awards to Peter Sirr (poetry) Sean O'Reilly (literature) Conor O'Callaghan (poetry) and Claire Keegan (short stories mainly)

and annual awards to
Dermot Bolgers (lots of stuff) Alice Lyons (Poems and visual art) Anthony Glavin (poetry) Leanne O'Sullivan (poetry) Mike McCormack (novels mainly)

That's it. Total 105K
another 30K for irish language. (It has to be said, it's hard to make a living writing in Irish without grants.)
They are all well known names. No snifters for emerging writers such as myself. I didn't apply, thank goodness. It would have been a complete waste of time and effort.

Music gets 86K
Performing arts gets 80K
Visual Arts gets 265K

Very uneven if you ask me, which they didn't. Wonder how themomney for New Projects and One Offs will be spread out.

Poetry in the Waiting Room

Vision
Poetry has an image of an esoteric, hard to fathom, academic artistic form and, apart from the Poetry on the Dart project, the general public have to go looking for it rather than come across poetry in day to day life. Inspired by the many public pieces of sculpture across the country, this project is designed to bring poetry back into public spaces, introducing it to new audiences and encouraging awareness and interest in all parts of the community.

The idea is to develop a poetry leaflet for waiting rooms - doctors and dentists, hospitals, hairdressers, council offices, day centres, social welfare offices, NCT centres, anywhere the public has to wait. The waiting room is the one place that at some point, everyone has to pause. It is a room full of strangers that levels us and where we have a chance to reflect. Poetry can help humanise these impersonal places. And hopefully, some people will take away something more than a brief relief to the boredom or worry of the wait. They will take away a newly awakened appreciation of poetry.

Research
A similar project in the UK has been supplying free poetry cards for years to non-literary institutions including hospitals, medical centres, doctors surgeries, homeopathy centres, citizen’s advice bureaus and prisons. They currently supply up to 25,000 free leaflets each quarter. Research found the scheme had established strong appeal throughout the whole range of social groupings, including strong representation in disadvantaged areas. A knock on effect was the positive impact of the poetry on the staff working in the offices.

The UK based project did have some penetration into Ireland including The National Children’s hospital in Tallaght, Mid Western Regional Hospital Radio and some doctor’s surgeries but this was dropped when the Arts Council of England funding was cut.

Practicalities
The poetry is carefully chosen firstly to be accessible. Many people complain of being put off poetry since school so experimental or demanding poetry would not work well in this context. It must also be sensitive to the possible feelings of people in a waiting room, frustrated, worried, even emotionally disturbed. The poetry should speak to all parts of the community. New poems will be commissioned from poets with a preference for Kildare based writers. This will provide a much needed outlet, payment being on a par with that from Poetry Ireland. This new work will be put alongside older poems, which are familiar to the older generation, poems for children, which are also enjoyed by adults, and poems in translation to include Ireland’s new immigrant communities.

The leaflet is an A4 folded card printed on both sides and holding 6 or 7 poems. The reader may take the card home and then recycle it, leaving it in another waiting room when they have finished with it. The leaflet may also carry a small amount of poetry related advertising. Institutions may laminate a copy for the office so it can be read on both sides.