Singer, Mary Black, actress and star of ‘In America’ and ‘The Tudors’, Sarah Bolger, comedian Risteard Cooper, singer/songwriter Damian Dempsey, Mercury Prize nominee Lisa Hannigan, actress and novelist Amy Huberman, Oscar and IFTA winning director Neil Jordan, internationally acclaimed composer Bill Whelan, television star Don Wycherly and other representatives of Ireland’s music, film, theatre, literary and visual arts industries were there to give their support to a campaign highlighting the value of the arts to Ireland’s economic and social recovery.
The artists congregated at The Ark, A Cultural Centre for Children, Eustace Street, Dublin, on Wednesday 23 September 2009.
During a week in which the Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival is kicking off its fifty-first year and an expected ½ million people around the country will enjoy Culture Night, the Campaign aims to lay an emphasis on the importance of the arts. It calls for the retention of Culture Ireland, the agency for the promotion of Irish arts worldwide and the Irish Film Board, both of which face possible closure following the recent recommendations of the McCarthy Report (An Bord Snip). It also calls for the maintenance of existing levels of arts funding for the Arts Council as well as full representation at senior cabinet level.
The National Campaign for the Arts was established as the first ever umbrella organisation for the diverse arts sectors in Ireland and provides a voice for the country’s artists and arts organisations. It petitions to ensure that the arts are on local and national government agendas and welcomes an open debate on the arts as a vital part of contemporary Irish life. Its membership has a national reach that includes major festivals, venues, producers and representative organisations in visual arts, theatre, film, dance, music, literature, architecture and collaborative arts.
