Sir, – The city of Galway is gearing up to make a bid for the title of City of Culture in 2020. It is difficult to consider how, at least at present, the city can reconcile such a bid with the atrocious behaviour of Galway City Council concerning grant allocations for the arts.
Macnas, following a very successful Halloween parade, saw its grant slashed from €32,000 to €24,000. Other arts groups saw a similar degradation in funding, with the 12-year-old Western Writers’ Centre receiving the grand sum of €300. No, that is not a typo. The city fathers seem to be betting hard on the new €7 million-plus art-house cinema to carry them successfully over the line. Galway City Council has no defined arts policy. The result was what was described as ‘horse-trading’ in the council chamber over grant allocations. I was there as a member of the public and witnessed depressing, embarrassing scenes.
Before any bid is made for the City of Culture title, perhaps Galway City Council could explain how it manages to give a writers’ centre €300 after 12 years of operation; while pouring millions into an art-house cinema, when an art-house facility can already be found in Galway’s The Eye cinema (which has been there for some years). – Yours, etc,
FRED JOHNSTON,
Circular Road, Galway.