Europe

Ireland’s Arts Council will receive €134m in government funding in 2024, an increase of €4m.

The allocation was confirmed as part of the Irish government’s budget for next year, published last week.

The €134m represents Ireland’s largest ever annual allocation to the Arts Council. In 2021, its budget was increased from €80m to €130m, the level at which it has remained since.

Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Catherine Martin, also announced a €1m increase for Culture Ireland and a new €1.9m pilot for regional arts venues, which will provide building and equipment needs, artists workspaces, and adapting facilities to reduce energy needs.

“The sectors overseen by my department have great impact across society and they have shown extraordinary resilience in the face of, first, the Covid-19 crisis, and then increases in the cost of living,” Martin said.

“It has been a priority throughout my term as Minister to ensure that we can respond to these, and other, challenges in a robust and sustainable manner.”

Chair of Ireland’s Arts Council, Professor Kevin Rafter, said Ireland’s increase in public investment in the arts in recent years is “hugely welcomed”.

“When I was appointed Chair in 2019, the Arts Council’s budget was €75m and following today’s budget it will be €134m next year,” Rafter said.

“While the figure for 2024 is at the lower end of what had been sought to address increased costs in the arts sector, it is still a positive acknowledgement of the work of artists, arts workers and arts organisations throughout the country.”

The UK Government's decision to rejoin a European Union research programme will help drive growth in the creative industries by providing access to grant funding opportunities, Creative UK has said.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has confirmed that from this week British researchers can apply once again for grants from the £85bn Horizon programme.

In total the UK will contribute about £2.6bn on average a year to Horizon and Copernicus, an Earth observation satellite programme, with the UK’s contributions due to start from January.

Creative UK Chief Executive Caroline Norbury said the Horizon deal has “transformative potential” to increase investment in the creative industries for start-ups and innovation.

"Cross border collaboration through research and development is crucial to fuelling the power of creativity to drive innovation, and access to the Horizon Europe programme promises to turbo charge this potential," she said.

"In unlocking access to Horizon Europe funds, the UK’s creative sector will now be able to benefit from €170m made available by the new European Knowledge and Innovation Community, which Creative UK co-founded. 

"This initial investment seeks to increase the innovation capacity and competitiveness of Europe’s Cultural and Creative Industries, and is expected to leverage a further €700m for start-ups and innovation.

“The transformative potential of investments such as these are precisely why Creative UK is working tirelessly to ensure the UK’s cultural sector and creative industries continues to play a leading role in global collaboration. 

"As Horizon Europe opens its doors to the UK once more, we will be equally determined in ensuring our creative economy makes the very best of the opportunity today’s agreement represents.”

The Arts Council of Ireland (An Chomhairle Ealalíon) incorrectly issued grant letters to 141 applicants earlier this week following an administrative error.

The grant in question, Next Generation Artists Award, offers up to €25,000 funding to artists across all disciplines at early but pivotal stages of their careers to a total of 20 artists.

Following the error, the arts council sent an email to those affected stating: “Please accept our apologies, an administrative error which resulted in an incorrect decision email being sent to you on our recent Next Generation application. Please disregard this email, the correct email will be sent after 4.30pm today”.

A statement issued online followed: “Our mistake has understandably caused upset and disappointment and, for this, we are truly sorry,”  the arts council said.

“We have now put in place additional checks for the issue of decision letters to prevent a repeat of this error.”

Those affected have shared their distress online. Writer and poet Trudie Gorman, who has since arranged two gatherings in Dublin for artists affected, wrote: “I had been awarded €25k through the Next Gen award. They then emailed to say 'ignore that, it was an error.' I am beyond heartbroken”. 

Praxis Union, the artist’s union of Ireland, says the level of distress caused “highlights the financial precarity we face”.

“As artists we know arts council awards like this are a primary source of income. We can only imagine the sense of relief these artists felt when they thought they were funded.

The union’s comments were echoed by National Campaign for the Arts Ireland, who said that Irish artists’ average earnings have been on the decline over the last year.

“We offer our heartfelt solidarity to the artists involved and we hope that due support is provided to them,” the campaign group wrote on Twitter.

“While this was a human error, it has caused widespread disruption. We hope that robust safeguards are put in place to prevent this error being repeated.”

A new mentoring and financial aid scheme will support Ukrainian art students and universities.

The UAx Platform, launched at the Tate Modern, is a partnership between the European League of Institutes of the Arts (ELIA), the Abakanowicz Arts and Culture Foundation and an international network of 280 higher arts education institutions.

It will offer war-affected students and staff wishing to stay in Ukraine a network of mentor schemes and institutional partnerships with European universities, as well as an emergency bursary fund for students in severe need.

ELIA has put its largest ever financial grant towards the programme.

The platform will include a "Sister School" network, which in its first year will consist of partnerships between five Ukrainian universities and five institutions in Germany, Estonia, Poland, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. 

By year three, 15 Ukrainian institutions will become partnered and fully subsidised ELIA members for three years, with access to its networks, resources, programming and other opportunities.

“The need of the higher arts education sector in Ukraine was clear. They did not need an evacuation. They needed support to keep the institutions alive. Support to allow students to keep studying and support to help these young artists keep making art,” ELIA Executive Director Maria Hansen said.

A number of cultural buildings in Kyiv were damaged by Russian shelling on Monday (10 October).

Russia launched more than 80 missiles in what is thought to be the largest attack on the Ukrainian capital since the invasion started in February, killing at least 11 people.

Ukrainian Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko said impacted cultural sites include Khanenko Art Museum, Kyiv Art Gallery, Taras Shevchenko Museum, the National Natural Science Museum of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and the Museum of the History of the City of Kyiv. 

Writing on Facebook, Tkachenko said immediate ground efforts were made “to minimise the negative consequences of the damage” and urgent “negotiations with international partners” were held.

Ukraine’s cultural heritage has been targeted since the start of Russia’s invasion, in an apparent attempt to erase the country’s cultural identity. Over 50 cultural sites have been damaged, more than 40 museums have been looted, and arts buildings have been attacked nationwide.

Tkachenko’s website reports he is now calling for a meeting between culture ministers of G7 countries to “strengthen sanctions against Russia and the strengthening of support for Ukraine”.

Eight theatres around Europe are participating in a new project that will create texts on diverse and inclusive topics for young theatre audiences across the continent.

Young Europe IV is the fourth edition of European Theatre Convention’s Young Europe project, which has been running since 2008.

It will see the Belarus Free Theatre, which is currently based at London’s Barbican Centre, work alongside theatres in Germany, Cyprus, Slovakia, Slovenia, Malta and the Netherlands.

The new, diverse plays will cover issues from mental health to sexuality to the Israel-Palestine conflict and will be performed in school classrooms across Europe.

A separate strand of Young Europe IV, the Forgotten Plays Committee, will select and revive dramatic work by writers from non-dominant backgrounds that have been overlooked, either because of the background of the playwright or theme of the play.

Artistic Lead on Young Europe IV Paulien Geerlings says the European theatre world currently remains the white, heterosexual, male gaze that determines our experiences.

“Women, BIPOC, the LGBTQIA+ community…everyone needs to see themselves represented in the stories that are told. If there is hardly any representation, and the representation that does exist always confirms the same (often problematic) stereotype, as a person or child belonging to a marginalised group you cannot relate to the multitude of possibilities your counterparts are provided with. 

“That is why it is time for a new repertoire – to stop people from being reduced to the ‘single story’ that they have heard all of their lives.”

An online launch event is scheduled for Thursday (6 October) evening.

London's Saatchi Gallery has pulled the plug on an exhibition of Ukrainian art organised by Russians after a social media outcry.

The Ukrainian Way was scheduled to showcase 100 Ukrainian artists, with an accompanying auction of physical works and NFTs.

It was organised by Russian banker and art collector Igor Tsukanov, alongside cultural impresario and fellow Russian Marat Guelman as a consultant.

Speaking on social media, Ukrainian curators and artists said that it was happening without their consent, condemning it as an example of Russian cultural colonialism.

“The organisers of the exhibition do not pay any attention to the opinion of [Ukrainian artists]. Possession of the object does not necessarily give the right to publish and exhibit,” art critic Olha Sahaidak wrote on Facebook.

A number of Ukrainian artists whose work was set to feature commented on Sahaidak’s post, objecting to their inclusion.

A spokesperson for the Saatchi Gallery told The Art Newspaper the gallery was not the organiser or curator of the exhibition, nor was it involved in any direct communication with the artists or collectors.

“Once it became apparent that support from a number of these key parties had been withdrawn, along with the reports of concerns raised by artists in recent days, Saatchi Gallery immediately took the decision to cancel the 10-day exhibition and withdraw its support from the project.”