http://www.ncfa.ie/index.php/news/index/ en theatreforum@ireland.com Copyright 2012 2012-05-05T16:07:39+00:00 http://www.ncfa.ie/index.php/site/ncfa-responds-to-news-of-eugene-downes-departure-from-culture-ireland/ http://www.ncfa.ie/index.php/site/ncfa-responds-to-news-of-eugene-downes-departure-from-culture-ireland/#When:16:07:39Z {summary}   The departure of Eugene Downes as CEO of Culture Ireland coincides with the critical review by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform on the future structure and independence of Culture Ireland, as well as imminent decisions on the proposed amalgamation of IMMA, The National Gallery of Ireland and Crawford Gallery.  NCFA is extremely concerned that the national cultural infrastructure is being undermined and weakened. We call on the Minister to introduce a public consultation procedure so that the public and the arts sector can openly discuss the best way to manage our unique cultural resources. The arts are central to our lives, and have an important part to play in the future wellbeing of our society. Our institutions will be vital to that, and we'll pay a high price later if we undermine them now.  NCFA applauds the signal achievements of Eugene Downes in advancing Ireland's cultural reputation in the international arena. During his five-year tenure as CEO of Culture Ireland, he has transformed the mechanisms through which art from Ireland projects itself internationally, and carved out an enhanced Irish presence in the dynamic, competitive arena of cultural export.  News 2012-05-05T16:07:39+00:00 http://www.ncfa.ie/index.php/site/sarah-glennie-appointed-director-of-imma/ http://www.ncfa.ie/index.php/site/sarah-glennie-appointed-director-of-imma/#When:14:59:06Z {summary} Sarah Glennie, Director of the Irish Film Institute and a founder member of the NCFA, has just been appointed Director of IMMA.  Her colleagues in the NCFA would like to extend their hearty congratulations to Sarah and wish her very well in her new post, which she takes up in April. We look forward to continuing to work with Sarah.  News 2012-01-16T14:59:06+00:00 http://www.ncfa.ie/index.php/site/budget-2012-further-update/ http://www.ncfa.ie/index.php/site/budget-2012-further-update/#When:14:49:51Z {summary} Following our update on Budget 2012 on 7 December, some additional figures have come to light. The following table shows the cuts in 2011 vs. 2010 and also 2012 vs. 2011 and also how these cuts look over two years.    There was some confusion over the level of cut to the Arts Council as Minister Deenihan mentioned a cut of 2% rather than 3% in his speech in the Dail. The 2% cut refers to the Arts Council current budget only which is going from €64,317,000 in 2011 to €63,100,000 in 2012. The Arts Council's capital budget on the other hand  is dropping by 83% from €850,000 in 2011 to €141,000 in 2012. The above table shows current and capital combined and the result is that the overall cut to the Arts Council is 3%. The Arts Council reaction is here.   Similarly, he spoke of a 4% increase for the Irish Film Board. This increase refers to the Film Board's current budget which is going from €2,431,000 in 2011 to €2,540,000 in 2012. Crucially, though the Film Board's capital budget is decreasing by 18% going from €16,000,000 in 2011 to €13,150,000 in 2012. The above table shows current and capital combined and the result is that the overall cut to the Film Board is 15%. You can read their reaction here.    You can have a look at full figures on the Department site.    Finally thank you so much to all of you who have written to us since Wednesday evening. We are always happy to hear from you all and it's only through working together that we can continue to make a coherent case for the Arts. We will be back in touch in January with news on our plans and strategy for 2012. In the meantime, hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and new year and thanks again for all the support in 2011 - it means a lot.  Best wishes, NCFA team  News 2011-12-13T14:49:51+00:00 http://www.ncfa.ie/index.php/site/budget-day-update-from-the-ncfa/ http://www.ncfa.ie/index.php/site/budget-day-update-from-the-ncfa/#When:08:55:20Z {summary}   Budget 2012 update       First of all we want to say well done. We achieved a lot this year.    We held General & Presidential Election hustings We met 70% of newly elected TDs in a nationwide 'Meet and Greet' We lobbied Ministers We briefed Senators We lobbied the City and County Managers Association  We met the Arts Council & the Local Authority Arts Officers Association We liaised with the Department of Arts, Heritage & the Gaeltacht We held regional meetings to brief NCFA supporters in Limerick, Cork & Dublin  We also raised funds, refreshed our goals, refined our vision for next year and are putting in place a new structure for the NCFA  Thanks to those of you who helped make this happen. You have helped the arts in Ireland.    The Department changed from Tourism, Culture and Sport in 2010, to Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht this year. This means straight year-on-year comparisons to the Department are not straightforward.    National arts funding will be down in 2012. The impact on individual artists and organisations won't be known until next year when the Arts Council, Film Board, Culture etc. announce their decisons.  We won't know how much local authority arts funding is cut by until early next year.    On the positive side, it looks like Minister Jimmy Deenihan made a good case and things are not as bad as feared.    Here's the initial news we have about the Budget and the arts:      Gross funding for the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht:This will be €266.997m in 2012 with an allocation for current expenditure of €223.997m and a capital allocation of €43m. A further €8.558m (€7.558m in current funding and €1m in capital funding) is provided through the National Gallery.         Funding for Arts Culture & Film: In his Dail speech this evening, Minister Deenihan said "The key focus for the arts and culture sector is to protect jobs and stimulate creativity right across the country.  With this in mind, some €129.552m, or 49% of my Department's resources, is being allocated in 2012 to Arts, Culture and Film programme area. This will hugely, complement the significant investment in arts infrastructure in recent years. My priority now is to ensure that resources are made available to support the operation of those facilities."           Arts Capital Funding:  Was €32 million. In 2012 it will be €21 million - a cut of 34%. The Irish Film board gets the bulk of this money as their funding is classed as 'capital investment' rather than current. In 2012 they will get 13.2 million of the arts capital budget of €21 million.           Arts Current Funding:Was €124.023 million. (This includes all arts budget lines including the National Gallery). In 2012 it is down to €117.035 million - a cut of 6%.          Arts Council funding:Will be EUR 63.1m in 2012 as opposed to EUR65.16 in 2011 so a cut of 3%. This is a much better result than feared. In his speech tonight, Minister Deenihan said "my intention is to facilitate the Council to maintain its support to over 50 venues, approximately 200 festivals and 400 arts organisations. In this way, the Council will support employment in communities across the country, both directly through funding artists and organisations and indirectly in the tourism sector and the wider economy."     Irish Film Board:As noted above capital funding is being scaled back. However, an increase of 4% on the current side will bring Irish Film Board current funding from EUR2.43 in 2011 to EUR2.54 in 2012. Interestingly, Minister Deenihan pointed out in his speech "It is important to remember that for every €1 of IFB investment close to €10 is generated in the economy".   At time of sending this email, figures for Culture Ireland and the National Cultural Institutions are not available. We understand that they will be on the Department's website tomorrow and we will provide a full analysis of these by Friday morning.    Other, wider, Budget changes will affect us too. For example, the rise in VAT will have an impact because so many arts organisations are not registered for VAT and cannot claim it back and changes to the costs of redundancy payments may impact too.   It is worth noting that for the first time, the Department published estimates of savings that need to made in 2013 & 2014. These are indicative only but are very worrying. Arts and culture will face additional cuts of €5 million in 2013 and €7 million in 2014. Our task in 2012 is to make the case for investment in arts and culture stronger than ever.    To see the Minister's press release in full click here More info to follow ...      News 2011-12-08T08:55:20+00:00 http://www.ncfa.ie/index.php/site/weve-been-busy-the-last-two-weeks-updating-lots-of-interested-groups-in-wha/ http://www.ncfa.ie/index.php/site/weve-been-busy-the-last-two-weeks-updating-lots-of-interested-groups-in-wha/#When:16:09:18Z {summary} On 21 November we went to the annual meeting of the Association of Local Authority Arts Officers on Co Monaghan to update them on the work of the NCFA and discuss how we might work together.  On 24 November we met the City and County Managers Association and had a very successful discusson with them. Here's a copy of  the briefing notes we gave them. On Tuesday 29 November we held two meetings in the National Concert Hall. The first was for all the national umbrella and recourse organisations for the different arts forms (music, visual arts, theatre, dance, literature, film etc) and the National Cultural Institutions. Here 's a summary of the meeting. We discussed how the new structure in 2012 will make the campaign more democratic and accountable.  News 2011-12-01T16:09:18+00:00 http://www.ncfa.ie/index.php/site/presidential-hustings/ http://www.ncfa.ie/index.php/site/presidential-hustings/#When:10:20:35Z {summary}           NCFA teamed up with Temple Bar Cultural Trust to hold Presidential hustings with four of the five declared candidates on Culture night, Friday September 23rd.  Gay Mitchell, Mary Davis, Michael D Higgings and Sean Gallagher took part and the hustings were chaired by journalist Olivia O’Leary and took place in the IFI.  If you were not able to make it you can listen to it here… NCFA Presidential hustings audio by NCFA News 2011-09-27T10:20:35+00:00 http://www.ncfa.ie/index.php/site/seanad-election-and-the-arts/ http://www.ncfa.ie/index.php/site/seanad-election-and-the-arts/#When:15:43:12Z {summary} The current Seanad election is on-going.  A number of candidates have been in touch to indicate their support for the arts as part of their campaign platform. We’ve listed them in alphabetical order below with links to their websites so you can make up your own mind.   Graduates of Trinity College elect three candidates as do graduates of National University of Ireland*. If you already registered then a ballot paper is being posted to you. They must be returned by post by the 27 April.   The candidates in alphabetical order are   University of Dublin    Ivana Bacik Rosaleen McDonagh Iggy McGovern Fiona O’ Malley     *National University Of Ireland - including graduates of UCC, UCD, Galway, Maynooth etc   Donncha O’Connell Peter Mooney James Doorley   News 2011-03-25T15:43:12+00:00 http://www.ncfa.ie/index.php/site/run-the-womens-mini-marathon-in-aid-of-ncfa/ http://www.ncfa.ie/index.php/site/run-the-womens-mini-marathon-in-aid-of-ncfa/#When:13:19:05Z {summary}     Anne Clarke of Landmark Productions is going to run the Women’s Mini Marathon (6 June) in aid of NCFA.  We are looking for 19 people to join her and to pledge to raise €200 each - if you are interested leave a comment on our Facebook page or email us on info@ncfa.ie before Thursday (24 March) and we will contact you with the details.   Please share this message with all your friends.   (Image from film Run Lola Run)  News 2011-03-22T13:19:05+00:00 http://www.ncfa.ie/index.php/site/national-campaign-for-the-arts-hustings-meetings-dublin-galway-cork-li/ http://www.ncfa.ie/index.php/site/national-campaign-for-the-arts-hustings-meetings-dublin-galway-cork-li/#When:16:32:53Z {summary} To mark Saint Valentines Day, The National Campaign for the Arts held meetings around the country inviting the the arts spokespersons for the political parties to outline their arts policies in the upcoming general election.   Click here to link to NCFA Flickr account and see pics of the various meetings.  A podcast of the Dublin meeting will be available shortly!   The Project Arts Centre, Dublin Attendees:   Mary Hanafin, (FF)  Jimmy Deenihan, (FG) Aengus O Snodaigh, (SF) Sen. Alex White, (L) Paul Gogarty, (GP)   200 Audience Members   Radisson Blu Hotel, Galway Attendees: Eamon O'Cuiv (FF) Niall O Brolchain (GP) Paul Connaughton (FG) Catherine Connolly (Ind) Derek Nolan (L) Fidelma Healy Eames(FG) Eamon Walsh(ind) Colm Keavney (L) Tom Welby(Ind) Noel Grealish (Ind)   200 Audience Members   Crawford Art Gallery, Cork Attendees: Kathleen Lynch (L) Deirdre Clune (FG) Dan Boyle (GP) Chris O'Leary (SF) John Adams (Ind) David McCarthy (Ind) Ted Tynan (Workers) Mick Barry (Socialist) Fergus O'Rourke (Ind) Diarmaid Ó Cadhla (Ind) John Gilroy (L)   80 Audience Members   Belltable Arts Centre, Limerick Attendees: Peter Power (FF) Jan O'Sullivan (L) Kieran O'Donnell (FG) Maurice Quinlivan (SF) Cian Prendiville (Socialist)   70 Audience Members News 2011-02-14T16:32:53+00:00 http://www.ncfa.ie/index.php/site/out-of-the-country-on-election-day-you-can-arrange-a-postal-vote1/ http://www.ncfa.ie/index.php/site/out-of-the-country-on-election-day-you-can-arrange-a-postal-vote1/#When:15:16:42Z {summary} If you are out of the country on election day you can arrange a postal vote. In Dublin you fill out a form available here. Get it signed by your employer and hot foot it to 32036 Ormond Quay by 5pm tomorrow! A postal vote then will be sent to you next week. If you have any questions call Natasha in Dublin City Council tel 01 2225035. For other electoral areas check the ‘franchise’ section of your local authority website for more details.    News 2011-02-02T15:16:42+00:00