Funding Up The Arts (1 Viewer)

New ZEaland did something similar, thats why there are quite a few promintent NZ artists who have managed to break out of that island which has the same logistical bother we do.
this article seems to be from 2017 it's quite detailed:

Don’t stream it’s over

cheers Ann Post. I realize you are extremely supportive of the Irish music scene.
didn't know about the NZ situation until now until now.

I had visions before i read the above article of the likes of THE DEAD C
having foreign tours subsided but it was actually a plan in NZ to give locally
successful Kiwi bands a kick start toward international commercial success.

it seems the local charts became full of NZ music as part of the NZ government's
Cultural Recovery Package worth 84 million NZ dollars (beginning about 2000)
was given out usually in artists 'grants' usually of $50,000 NZ that were repayable
if the artists made the money back.

very few music artists who received funding were successful abroad.
EDIT: yes, some were but a large amount of artists got this funding.


and when spotify happened it didn't account for local Kiwi tastes and you needed
100,000 hits instead of selling a 1,000 singles per week so the national dominance
of NZ bands has plummeted.

now the NZ government has massively cut this funding and it is very targeted...

very interesting experiment - NZ scene got a huge benefit even if world success
rarely materialized

edit:
Covid 19 coronavirus: Government's $175 million package for 'decimated' arts, creative sector - NZ Herald
 
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Lads, you’re really playing the “only the arts I like deserve funding” game? Or the “arts aren’t essential” game? Or the “opera/ballet are for the rich” argument? Is this Newstalk?
 
I like ballet, and I'm not necessarily arguing against state funding for classical music - but I do think that if the state funds something it should be accessible to people who don't have EUR100 to spend on a ticket. Fund away on the opera, lads, but - like the galleries - if it's state-funded it should be accessible to all
 
Well so far we have ruled out funding for Greyhound racing and, for some reason, Fatboy Slim.


I mean i dunno, the Housemartins have a few good tunes.
 
I like ballet, and I'm not necessarily arguing against state funding for classical music - but I do think that if the state funds something it should be accessible to people who don't have EUR100l
Ah yeah this is fair enough. Watching those French ballet groups on strike at the start of the year, putting on performances on the street was really amazing to me. I'm all for letting professional ballet performers get a state pension at 35.
 
is part of the problem that picking ballet as an example is a tough one? i don't know how many people in ireland can ballet to a professional level, cos it's a fairly niche pursuit in a country the size of ours. so would a ballet ticket cost that much because if you wanted to see a top level ballet show, you'd need to see an international touring one with all the extra expenses you'd expect with that?
plus, the expected size of the audience would be a factor too.

in short, is the issue with ballet maybe not the principle of whether or not it should be subsidised, but whether it can be sustainably subsidised?

i'm kinda just making this up as i go along, i've not put much thought into it.
 
I'd imagine so, it's all a bit first jamaican bobsleigh team. The funding for Classical Music is probably a better example.
 
Lads, you’re really playing the “only the arts I like deserve funding” game? Or the “arts aren’t essential” game? Or the “opera/ballet are for the rich” argument? Is this Newstalk?

All arts funding should be devoted to me building the most kickass home studio on earth.
 
if I was in charge of an arts and culture budget I would spend nearly
the whole lot on grassroots projects.

from a music angle - give every child a chance to participate in and learn
music on their own terms. places to rehearse, places to record,
chances to to learn sound engineering, recording and programming skills etc.

set up an environment where ordinary folks playing music of their own choice
is encouraged and supported.

the closest country (that I know of) to this would be Sweden and having a
great grassroots set up means you will have have plenty of commercially
successful people by default as an bonus.
get the basic set up right first. but there is no instant fix; this pays off long term.


Yeah, the last place this is ever going happen is Ireland but it's not impossible.

but don't LOL at this. the should be put on the agenda.
 
one interesting public funding project i've been curious about is the indoor velodrome one, a classic chicken and egg scenario. it's been promised for years - decades, i think - but one of the complaints i heard about funding it (it won't be cheap) is that track cycling is very much a niche sport in ireland. but one reason it's a niche sport is that we don't have an indoor velodrome.
i was talking to a chap stewarding the one UCI track event that's run in ireland (in ceannt park) and he said to me that if it rains, the track is closed. which is pox all use in an outdoor velodrome.


so yeah, the jamaican bobsleigh team is an apt example. lots of things we fund cannot bootstrap themselves into existence.

that said, if you offered me a free, fully government subsidised, ticket to go see a world class production of 'swan lake' i'd probably turn it down (in the sense i'd let someone else more likely to appreciate it to go instead).
 
sadly trying to put free music for kids on the agenda with the likes of Varadkar
would be LOL.


as far as the velodrome goes, I'm sure they looked at what the Manchester track
did for British cycling and Ireland already has some world class track cyclists
without even having decent facilities.

10 million plus is a LOT of money to justify though.

also reminds me of the time Sam Bennett became European U18 points race champion
- he was so unfamiliar with the event he didn't realise he had won.

I'm sorry I brought up Ballet because it derailed the thread.
actually I've since remembered my younger sister got ballet lessons aged 5-7
but was then told to bugger off when she wasn't good enough.
 
one interesting public funding project i've been curious about is the indoor velodrome one, a classic chicken and egg scenario. it's been promised for years - decades, i think - but one of the complaints i heard about funding it (it won't be cheap) is that track cycling is very much a niche sport in ireland. but one reason it's a niche sport is that we don't have an indoor velodrome.
Yeah, it's not like Ireland has any world-class cyclists that would benefit from a track right now or anything...
 
that said, if you offered me a free, fully government subsidised, ticket to go see a world class production of 'swan lake' i'd probably turn it down (in the sense i'd let someone else more likely to appreciate it to go instead).
You should go! The music in Swan Lake is class, and the physicality of the dancers is kind of amazing ... I know this cos my eldest had a DVD of Swan Lake that she and I used to watch every Saturday morning, and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it
 
having a professional class of arts / culture / music people isn't essential
No, it's not essential - Irish traditional music thrived for a long time without players being professionals. But here's the thing - the professionals are better. Martin Hayes, for example, is light years ahead of my Da when it comes to playing the fiddle. Similarly, David Bowie's songs are better than mine. If artists are funded enough to do it full-time then we all benefit, I think ... but obvs the state can't be funding every rockstar/ballet/whatever wannabe, cos you get into diminishing returns pretty quick
 

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