Today Aosdana holds one of its intermittent meetings and on this occasion there is only one subject on the agenda: a discussion of the current Arts Plan. This is the plan which was announced by the Arts Council last July and has been steadily implemented ever since. Aosdana intended to discuss the matter at its last general assembly but members became side-tracked by another topic.
Quite what they hoped to achieve by talking over the Arts Plan then, or what they hope to achieve by talking it over now, is hard to imagine; after all, analysis of the document's contents has long since concluded elsewhere and it is unlikely to be altered now to suit the members' whims. More likely, therefore, discussion will take place for discussion's own sake, just as it has at other meetings when the notion of a new national anthem was considered or greater support for the arts from RTE urged. Occasions like these conform to the tradition of Aosdana debates, in which intensity is matched only by irrelevance.
After even a cursory glance at its history, finding a function for this organisation becomes quite impossible. Aosdana is one of former Taoiseach Charles Haughey's creations, established after he had suggested to the Arts Council that there ought to be a means for established artists to receive financial assistance without having to go through the annual process of filling in application forms. The name Aosdana comes from the old Irish "aes dana" meaning "Poets of the Tribe". It was formally inaugurated in 1983, by which time Mr Haughey had left office - but even before then, the character of Aosdana, as the new institution was called, had undergone several changes so that it was defined as an affiliation of artists "whose work had made an outstanding contribution to the arts in Ireland." In addition, the new body would "encourage and assist members in devoting their energies fully to their art."
Still, for the general public, in so far as Aosdana is known at all, it is seen as the body giving some members a tax-free income. That money is called the "cnuas", eligibility for which is means-tested and by no means universal; at the moment, 99 of Aosdana's 178 members are in receipt of such funding, given for a five-year period (renewable) and currently standing at £8,720 per annum. Some 90 per cent of the organisation's total budget - which stood at around £856,000 in 1999 and is likely to be almost £1 million this year - goes on paying out the cnuas. The names of its 99 recipients are not released, out of consideration for their sensibilities, but this situation will probably change next October when the Arts Council's deliberations become subject to the Freedom of Information Act.
Why should this legislative change make any difference to Aosdana? Because the cnuas is administered by the Arts Council, which decides who among the 178 members may or may not receive financial assistance. It is a processana for its existence which the Arts Council carries out independently of Aosdana. The existence of Aosdana, therefore, means there is inherent unfairness in the disbursement of council funds, because only those elected to Aosdana are eligible for the comforts of a cnuas.
The Arts Council could just as easily provide five-year grants to artists judged deserving of such aid, and dispense with the whole concept of Aosdana. After all, it already gives bursaries, on an annual basis, to many independent artists. But as things stand, Aosdana members enjoy a further inequity because they alone can benefit from a pension scheme set up in 1986 and to which the Arts Council makes a contribution. Non-members cannot participate in the scheme even if they have been accepted as an artist by the Revenue Commissioners (and therefore not liable to pay tax on their earnings). The Arts Council's Dermot McLaughlin, who acts as Aosdana's assistant registrar, says this situation may change to allow non-members join in the pension scheme, thereby making the reason for the organisation's existence even more obscure.
If all financial aid can come courtesy of the Arts Council, so too could the honours Aosdana doles out to some of its members. Chief among these is the office of Saoi, to which only five members can be elected at any one time. Presented with a gold torc as a symbol of their dignity, Saoithe are honoured for their "outstanding contribution to the arts in Ireland." But once more, artists who are not in Aosdana cannot expect to have their labours thus recognised; like every other feature of the organisation, membership is essential before anything else is forthcoming.
Acquiring that membership has, from the start, been a matter of some dispute even among those privileged enough to receive it. Initially, the intention was that Aosdana's numbers should be no more than 150; this was later raised to 200. With a current total of 178, the ceiling has not yet been reached and is being phased in with the election of five new artists each year, plus the replacement of any members who have died during the previous 12 months. The election process is contentious, not least because the first 89 members (that is, half the current total) were chosen by the Arts Council. Anyone wishing to join their number has had to undergo an elaborate process of scrutiny conducted in great secrecy. It could be argued that this ensures the avoidance of all questionable practices in elections, but Aosdana's secret ballot has been regularly criticised and may yet be relinquished for a more open system.
After all, in response to pressure from within and without the organisation, the rules governing eligibility have recently been changed. There have always been only three categories of artists judged eligible for election: writers, composers and visual artists. Until last year, the definitions of literature and visual art were very strict but are now open to almost any interpretation. The terms by which an artist may be proposed for election to Aosdana, according to its handbook, are as follows: "To be eligible for nomination to the membership of Aosdana the artist shall have produced a body or original and creative work in one or more of the following categories: literature, musical composition and visual art." From the start, this has meant the exclusion of many fine practitioners in a wide range of fields.
Architects, choreographers, graphic designers, not to mention cultural commentators, biographers, performance artists and music performers: all have been deemed unworthy of membership of Aosdana. They might be allowed to apply from now on, but this remains to be seen; given that the electors to whom they must appeal are all representatives of the old narrow definition of what constitutes a creative artist, any alteration will probably not happen in the immediate future. The jazz performer Louis Stewart has been championed by his admirers as someone who ought to be elected to Aosdana. However, even with its altered rule of eligibility, the organisation may not find a place for Stewart; his work is interpretive, but not necessarily "original and creative" according to Aosdana's terms.
Need this matter very much to Louis Stewart or any other artist? Aosdana is an academy by another name and, like all other academies from the 17th century Academie Francaise onwards, its primary purpose is to gratify the aspirations of its members for public acknowledgement of their worth. Because they are founded by governments, they represent the same bureaucratic officialdom which brought them into existence. Their main tasks - handing out honours and grants - could be as efficiently performed by other bodies. Aosdana is as relevant or irrelevant to members and non-members as they wish it to be. Aside from giving money to the chosen few, it neither helps nor hinders anyone's career. An artist need have nothing to do with Aosdana and experience no sense of absence.
Back in 1986, in this newspaper, Anthony Cronin - one of the driving forces behind the creation of Aosdana - wrote that in its deliberations there was "no shirking of issues and no reluctance to take the State or the Arts Council on; and, of course, it is open to anybody to put down a motion about anything." Aosdana may be taking on the State, the Arts Council and, indeed, a wide variety of other institutions. Today it intends to take on the Arts Plan. But really,will anyone notice?
