Sir – Artists across Ireland must have collectively groaned in solidarity with the frustrations outlined by Emer McLysaght (“I’ve been turned down for arts funding several times. There are unwritten rules.” Arts & Ideas, April 24th).
I can attest to the skills required to submit proposals. It was once something I thought I’d mastered. The current climate has disabused me.
We are now at a point where it feels rare to get anything past the post. The demand is so high, and funds are so limited, that many artists who submit robust applications that meet all the criteria are not even shortlisted.
Generally, applications are evaluated by the relevant Arts Council department(s), proposed for shortlisting (or not) and then progressed to be assessed by a panel of peers who determine the funding outcome.
RM Block
Just last week, I received feedback that was entirely positive. It included terms such as “excellent track record, innovative visual approach, strong understanding of audiences, and meets the priorities for the award very well”. There were no critiques in the document. That proposal was not shortlisted. I have no sense of how the internal shortlisting score was arrived at. It is confusing at best, and invisible curation at worst.
Unfortunately for many of us, this has become the norm. Arts Council rejection is an unavoidable bedfellow for artists. The current system however, which is both under-resourced and oversubscribed, disqualifies so many artists who should, in normal circumstances, get to panel. Each elimination with little explanation as to why, does nothing to uphold the Council’s core values of “integrity, accountability and transparency guiding its decision making”.
It’s vital that we lobby the Government for more cultural sector funding, and that we generate a better understanding of how “The Arts” should be funded more broadly. In the meantime, I would appreciate it if the Government agencies charged with supporting artists could be much more transparent and direct.
McLysaght writes of the vulnerability and embarrassment of rejection after baring your soul in an application. I, for one, was much relieved to see her saying the quiet part out loud in the national press. – Yours, etc,
LOUISE WHITE,
Theatre Director,
Dublin 12.
