ARTSCAPE: As Charlie McCreevy casts around wildly for possible savings in next week's Budget, his eye may have fallen on the artist's tax exemption scheme scheme, one of the most enlightened pieces of legislation produced in relation to the arts, writes Deirdre Falvey.
But while there are some anomalies - the exemption was clearly not intended as a tax relief for multi-millionaire songwriters and authors - the truth is that most of the people who benefit are artists who might barely come into the tax net much of the time, but to whom the exemption makes a very real difference in terms of being able to make a living as an artist. The tax exemption also goes a small way towards recognising the ways that we all benefit from the work of artists, while artists themselves often don't earn the true value of their work during their lifetimes.
The nature of many artists' work means they may have an apparently large income in one year - say, because of a big exhibition or the publication of a novel - but that income is often the result of a number of years' work, over which time their income is very low, making annual taxation unfair.
While not seeking to make a case for the (very few) high earners, who are well able to look after their own interests, some people make the point that a small number of high-profile individuals - mostly rock stars and writers - have created an international reputation for Ireland. We need to decide how much that is worth to us, along with the associated employment their ancillary activities, such as recording, generate.
Tax incentives are used to generate activity in many other sectors. Why should the arts be any different?
If he's intent on doing something to claw back some of the money, Charlie could always cap the eligible amount, while allowing a number of years to be considered together. That way, he could net the big earners while not removing something which is a lifeline for most artists.
Cross words at the awards
Clearly differing perceptions of how the Arts Council is faring under the recent cutbacks in funding emerged in two speeches at a event to present grants and bursaries to writers working in both Irish and English in the council's Merrion Square HQ this week.
Council Chairman Pat Murphy, in an expression of disappointment at the funding cuts, spoke of the organisation facing one of the most difficult periods in its history following the €3.7 million reduction in the budget for the next year.
Minister John O'Donoghue, taken aback at this reference to the issue that couldn't be ignored, departed from his scripted speech, to remind all present - but particularly, one suspects, the council members in the gathering - that the provision of €44 million for the coming year was still a good deal when compared to the bad old days when the arts had to make do with far fewer resources. He, perhaps pointedly, drew attention to the fact that, in money terms, the sector had done well in recent years, and seemed to hint that, in the current economic circumstances, the news could have been much worse for the arts, and that the 8 per cent cut was less than some might have anticipated.
In his speech, the Minister quoted Elizabeth Bowen's remark that "arts is the only thing that can go on mattering once it has stopped hurting". After the speeches, the Minister made a hasty exit, leaving the writers wondering who might have been hurting from the cross words.
Among the scribes who gathered to share in the €110,000 disbursement, poets seemed to be major beneficiaries this year, with €12,000 going to Moya Cannon, and a further four bursaries worth €9,500 each going to Peter Sirr, Sheila Phelan, Mark Granier and John McAuliffe.
A bursary of €12,000 was given to short-story writer and novelist Clare Keegan, while novelist Clare Kilroy and short-story writer Noreen Desmond each received €9,500. Two Irish language writers, Dáithí Ó Muirí and Pádraig Standún, received bursaries (worth €10,000 and €7,000 respectively) to enable them to complete their works in progress.
It was good to see the council's former literature officer, Lar Cassidy, being honoured with the establishment of an award bearing his name. Cassidy had his wondrous ways of helping writers, and the literary arts lost a loyal supporter when he died in 1998. This €15,000 award was presented to John Maher for a novel-in-progress, The Luck Penny.
Poet Sinéad Morrissey was given the Macaulay Fellowship, an annual award rotating between the visual arts, musical composition and literature. The €5,000 award is made to allow its recipient, who must be under 30, to pursue a "liberal education". Morrissey's collection, Between Here and There (Carcanet, 2002) has just been shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Award
Hunt, Hendrix and the 1960s
Jimi Hendrix would have been 60 on Wednesday - which was the day Marsha Hunt delivered her manuscript for her biography of the legendary guitarist to New Island Books in Dublin, writes Deirdre Falvey. A 1960s icon herself, with a long association with Ireland, Hunt's book promises something different to the other 13 Hendix biographies. Nearly all of those have been written by white men, whereas Martha Hunt is a black woman who knew Hendrix personally. The book, which is due in February - a quick turnaround by New Island, which will be first to publish it worldwide - pays a lot of attention to Hendrix's final 36 hours, who he saw and why he died alone and effectively homeless. Hunt has spoken to a number of people in the business who knew Hendrix and who have not been forthcoming up to now. She promises to shed new light on his life and the events surrounding his death.
And furthermore...
The Up North! festival of Nordic and Irish music, being run by the Crash Ensemble in Dublin from Thursday until next Sunday, is full of unusual connections, writes Michael Dervan. Norway's Cikada String Quartet, for instance, joins Irish jazz guitarist Mark O'Leary for a concert of free improvisations. Also from Norway, Oyvind Torvind is tamed up with the electro-acoustic experimentalists of Whispering Gallery. There are new works from Ireland (by Donnacha Dennehy, Jane O'Leary, Kevin Volans, Jennifer Walshe and Ian Wilson), Denmark (Ejnar Kanding), Finland (Kimmo Hakola), Iceland (Hilmar Thordarson), Norway (Mark Adderley and Oyvind Torvund) and Sweden (Thomas Jennefelt and Kent Olofsson) in a festival which boasts that over half the music it contains was written in the 21st century. Performers include the Crash Ensemble, Concorde, the Callino Quartet, the Avanti! Ensemble from Finland, the Danish group Contemporanéa and the Rilke Ensemble Choir from Sweden. See www.crashensemble.com . . .
. . .When one small theatre group decided to get the show on the road, they literally did just that. Navan's Bare Bodkin Theatre Company launched Ireland's first mobile theatre, named in honour of the doyen of Irish travelling theatre, Anew McMaster. The new venue on wheels has 107 tiered upholstered seats, a refreshments facility, lighting rig, dressing-room and stage. A lack of performing space throughout Co Meath forced Bare Bodkin, which is based in Watergate Street, Navan, to come up with this imaginative alternative. The ready-made theatre can be assembled to fit whatever size venue is chosen. Three years of fund-raising and a contribution from the Arts Council enabled Bare Bodkin to bring the idea to fruition. Artistic director Terry O'Dea is now looking forward "to bringing live theatre to places where it previously hasn't been". The first production the company is taking on the road in the McMaster Mobile Theatre is Spoonface Steinberg, written by Lee Hall, author of Billy Elliott. It will visit Navan, Dunshaughlin, Kells, Ashbourne and Nobber in early December. More information from Bare Bodkin Theatre Company, telephone: 046-74877 . . .
. . . Congratulations to Dublin company Moving Still Productions, which this week won a children's BAFTA for animation for their production of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, which was commissioned last year by Channel 4.
artscape@irish-times.ie