Why does the arts community insist on fighting for the status quo or at the very least being indifferent to it, being apolitical? The status quo has done very little to create a space for true artistic expression, a space for artistic development. No, rather it has turned the artist into a producer of product supported by the state. Now don’t get me wrong, state funding and support has a part to play – without it many arts institutions would not exist – however we have been coerced into a cultural economy that relates artistic output to monetary value and this can only have a long term negative effect on the development of the arts within our culture.

Why should this be so? Because by relying on the state for support artists will always be subordinate to the will of the state. And being dependent on taxpayers money means the state can always assert itself – to the detriment of artistic expression – by supporting those that create and produce generic product that can be of benefit to the state.
Think this is overstating the case? Then just take a good look around. See how many state funded organisations, festivals and companies are producing relatively the same thing; the same programmes, the same style, genre all under the banner of D-I-S-C-O-V-E-R –I-R-E-L-A-N-D.
Listen to what the government has said about monetizing ‘brand Ireland’.
Read the bureaucratic rubbish that serves as arts organisations mission statements.
It’s a lie wrapped up as culture, sold to us through the media and endorsed by ‘influencers’, ‘cultural commentators’, sycophantic artists, administrators and quangos whose livelihoods depend on the lie being perpetuated.

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