Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and the Media, Catherine Martin, announced the awarding of 2,000 grants for artists and creative arts workers through the new Basic Income for the Arts pilot scheme.
“Today is an historic day for the arts in Ireland and a significant change to the way Ireland recognises and supports her artists. The Basic Income for the Arts pilot scheme is a once-in-a-generation initiative. It makes a strong statement about the value Ireland places on the arts and artistic practice, both for its intrinsic value and in terms of our personal and collective wellbeing, and also in terms of its importance to our identity and cultural distinctiveness on the global stage.”
Catherine Martin, 08.09.2022
A basic income for the arts was the number one recommendation of the Arts and Culture Recovery Taskforce which was set up by Minister Martin in 2020 to examine how the sector could adapt and recover from the unprecedented damage arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. The main objective of the scheme is to address the precarious and financial instability faced by many working in the arts, and to assist the sector recover post-pandemic.
Main characteristics of the pilot scheme:
- Pilot a sector-specific support for the arts, in the form of a basic income, to recognise the value of time spent on creative practice, and for arts workers who make a key contribution to the creative production process
- Enable artists and creative arts workers to focus on artistic production/practice without having to enter into employment in other sectors to sustain themselves
- Support participants to develop their practice by providing income during periods when practice and portfolio are being developed
- Give recognition to the value of the arts and the role of creative practice in Irish society
- Minimise the loss of skill and experience from the arts sector
- 2,000 recipients were randomly selected from the pool of 8,206 eligible applicants. EY were contracted as independent verifiers for the selection process to oversee that selection was both random and anonymous
- Participants will receive the payment – set at €325 per week – paid on a monthly basis
- Participants will be required to take part in the research programme, which will require them to collect and share data on a number of topics including, but not limited to, the following:
Find out more about the ground-breaking initative on the website of the Irish government.
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