I am happy to tell you that our new policy on fair remuneration for artists, Paying the Artist, has been published, and our campaign to keep the issue in the spotlight is up and running.

This is very important, and it’s also urgent. There is still, in 2020, a culture of underpaying or not paying artists for their work, of asking practitioners to work ‘for the exposure’. This is obviously unfair to artists and bad for the arts, but it is also in the long-term damaging to our society. When even successful artists live in such financial insecurity that they cannot plan a normal life in Ireland, a significant number will simply cease to practice, make a career elsewhere, and the work they would have made will never be experienced by us all and by future generations.

So please don’t be shy – be proud instead -- and join us in our campaign, on social media and everywhere else, to #PayTheArtist.

Also in the month’s newsletter is a reminder that the deadline for our wonderful Scoileanna Ildánacha/Creative Schools programme will close on 19 March. This means that if parents or teachers would like their school to be one of the 150 chosen to start in September, they should go immediately to our website and make sure to register and apply in time!

The Arts Council is running Creative Schools in partnership with the Department of Education & Skills and the Department of Culture, Heritage & the Gaeltacht, and it is already a huge success. It aims to put the arts and creativity at the heart of children and young people’s lives, and I heartily recommend it.

Best regards,

Martin O’Sullivan

Acting Director