Well said Tom Collins.
www.irishnews.com/opinion/columnists/2018/10/16/news/tom-collins-it-is-time-for-the-arts-council-...
Tom Collins
16 October, 2018 01:00
The luvvies are at it again: ructions in the Arts Council of Northern Ireland; claims and counter claims; pistols at dawn; visits to the lawyers; votes of no confidence; rumours and leaks.
It’s a sorry mess.
The arts in Northern Ireland have never been stable. But the current row is unprecedented.
The catalyst was the appointment of John Edmund as Arts Council Northern Ireland (ACNI) chair in 2016 by the DUP’s Paul Givan.
We do not know what brief Edmund was given – but it’s clear that he has taken sides with those who claim the arts is fat, lazy and a luxury we cannot afford.
The role of a chairman is normally to pour oil on troubled waters, to build consensus within an organisation about its vision, and to ensure it delivers.
It’s a job that needs diplomacy and tact. You have to build alliances and take people with you. You have to be an ambassador for the organisation you lead, and a champion for those who work for it, and rely on it.
Crucially for the arts, the ACNI chairman also needs to be prepared to stand up to those who appointed him.
In less than two years in the post, Edmund has alienated members of his board; his chief executive, who has lodged a discrimination case; ACNI staff who have been demoralised by his apparent refusal to support their decision-making, and the wider arts sector, which he has lectured about making ends meet.
Edmund appears to believe that a ‘wrecking-ball’ approach is preferable to working with a sector that has contributed much to helping Northern Ireland come to terms with issues of identity and division, and which continues to do so against the odds.
He has managed to do what all his predecessors have failed to do: unite the arts community in Northern Ireland in opposition to the crass way he has handled his role.
Edmund is one of those people who has risen without trace. Working behind the scenes, he has made a living as a consultant – producing many reports on arts organisations and strategy.
He chaired the Northern Ireland Music Industry Commission, which collapsed in 2006 over irreconcilable differences within the board, and (very briefly) the Grand Opera House.
He, I am sure, has a different view of his role and his purpose in setting out a few home truths.
He made much of his track record in the arts when defending his much-criticised speech at the Arts and Business Awards in February.
There is an argument that in times of austerity the arts are an indulgence. Why pay for music, and theatre, and poets when people are on trollies in hospital corridors?
Edmund appears to have accepted that argument.
In February he said: “The government just doesn't have the money to meet all the demands placed upon it and the priorities it has set are those that society cares deepest about - health, education, jobs, infrastructure, identity.”
One of the ironies of that comment is that the arts are critical to all these areas. There is much evidence about the positive impact culture and the arts have on health and on achieving healthy outcomes for patients.
In education, art and culture is critical to the development of young minds, more so today as we enter the ‘knowledge economy’ that relies on creativity for its success.
The arts is a major employer – directly and, crucially, indirectly. And the creative industries, and the associated hospitality and destination tourism sector is one of the few strings Northern Ireland has to its economic bow.
On infrastructure, the opening of the Grand Opera House, and the launch of the Ulster Orchestra’s subscription concerts in the early 1980s led the regeneration of Belfast city centre and the development of a night-time economy. The Waterfront Hall and the Mac would not have been possible without their trail-blazing.
The multiple identities of people in Northern Ireland - British, Irish, Scots, Ulster-Scots, Polish, Indian, among others - have enriched literature, music, and theatre in ways that have given voice to the marginalised and the dispossessed.
The contribution made by the arts and artists in Northern Ireland is out of all proportion to their number, and many have made a difference to communities for a pittance, and at great personal cost.
Whatever his motivation – and let’s assume Edmund’s actions are well meant – it is clear he has lost the confidence of those he represents. Therefore is no coming back. It must be obvious, even to him, that he has to go. ... See MoreSee Less