I've never been (I think) overly naive - I've never believed that if you simply concentrate on making good work, all the rest will flow. But I did always believe that with the right bits of raising the money, telling the right people at the right time, writing stuff down, communicating what was good about it, sooner or later it would be understood and support would come. And that behind all of that the best most successful projects/artists/organisations had to be making work with some thought and virtue.
What's become clear to me in the last number of months (or is it years and it's just been slowly revealing itself to my optimistic eyes), is that the mechanism by which the arts is judged in Northern Ireland is so wildly out of pace with... well with anything, that I feel slightly stunned into inaction.
Times are hard for everyone - the whole welfare reform issue and swingeing budget cuts across all areas affect me as a taxpayer, homeowner, parent, resident, rates and bill payer. I don't live in a bubble. I also know that I haven't met a politician recently who doesn't agree that the arts budget here is small (just over £12million pa to serve 1.7 million people and falling, thanks for asking).
What I'm struggling with really is the randomness of decisions and public policy that are having a radical effect on me, my organisation, the artists I work with, in fact the entire industry. I can only express this by some examples:
1. ACNI has asked all its core clients to fill in a mid-year report. It's online and only asks for numbers. How many performances, workshops, exhibitions, where and how many went. But nowhere is it asking me WHAT we have done and NOWHERE is there an opportunity to talk about the work. So why does the ARTS council not ask about the arts?
2. With individual artists needing extra support, I helped an artist apply for an individual award (fingers crossed). In 2010, ACNI and ACE published this study showing poor pay levels of artists which have got worse with cuts. But the individual artist application made it compulsory for artists to do community engagement and said they couldn't use the award to pay themselves for the work. Why can an artist not pay themselves for their own work with an individual artists award?
3. NI was ahead of the game revising its curriculum for early years and primary education. At a time when Sir Ken Robinson's NACCEE report All Our Futures was being buried across the UK, he was made a consultant. We have 5 primary learning areas, one of which is "The Arts" but DENI (one of two departments that has a ringfenced budget) has NO arts budget, one of our teacher training colleges closed its drama department in 2002 while the other is scaling back its visual arts department so that teachers will have just 6 - 11 hours study during 4 years of training. Is it any wonder that creative engagement of children is dropping but why is DENI not investing in 20% of its primary curriculum and (see below) in a field that is supposed to be the answer to our economic woes?
4. Creative Industries and Cultural Tourism have been deemed the major drivers for economic recovery here. Events, a vibrant cultural scene and a skills base to support film, television, etc are listed. But the arts budget is dropping (in fact it hasn't really risen in fifteen years), NITB have suspended plans for next year's Events Funding, and other funding for creative industries appears to be only available if you're a commercial business. So if you DON't WANT to make a profit but DO WANT to reinvest your time and money working with new artists, skilling people up and connecting with communities, you're LESS likely to get money.
So what I'm struggling with is I suppose everything. Most of all, if we are to believe public life is all about money, it doesn't make financial sense.
Why cut the non-profit sector that is your driver for both social cohesion and economic regeneration? Why deskill the teaching sector and make no provision for external specialist expertise in a core learning area or for the teaching of a set of skills that you need for your growing industry priorities? Why not realise that the people most skilled at making things happen are the ones being forced out of their industry because they cannot live on what is available? Why not let the experts be good at what they do? Invest in knowledge rather than cut out of ignorance.