€1.7 MILLION IN FUNDING FOR ARTS ACTIVITIES
THE ARTS COUNCIL has announced that it is investing over €1.7 million in the arts in Wexford for 2018.
The vast bulk of the annual allocation, €1.450.000, is going to Wexford Festival Opera with €150,000 granted to Wexford Arts Centre and €82,200 for the Wexford County Council arts service.
The money is part of an overall €68.4 million in grant aid to arts organisations throughout Ireland for the coming year.
The focus of this year’s funding llocations is on creating opportunities for the public to experience large-scale work, as well as work of real artistic ambition, according to the Arts Council Director Orlaith McBride.
‘2018 is going to be an excellent year for people in Wexford who enjoy the arts.
‘Whether you enjoy opera or festivals and events, whether you are young or old, you will experience great work that will lift your spirit’, she promised as the 2018 allocations were announced.
The council said that more than half of its total grant from Government is being invested through the new Strategic Funding programme for established organisations operating at the highest level across all areas of the arts.
In addition, there will be increased funding for particular work by artists, emerging companies and organisations through the new Arts Grants Funding programme.
Individual artists will be supported through a range of schemes such as bursaries and the Next Generation Award with funding also for the many festivals taking place in communities around Ireland in 2018.
The Arts Council has described Wexford Opera Festival as an internationally significant festival providing audiences from Ireland and abroad with an opportunity to see high quality productions of rarely-produced operas in a unique and vibrant setting.
Acknowledging the contribution of the local authority Arts Department, the Arts Council said its work has always been policy-based and research-led, particularly in areas such as youth arts, schools, health, support for artists and public art.
‘It identifies and develops plans to address gaps in arts provision in the county’.
The council described Wexford Arts Centre, founded in 1974, as an arts resource in County Wexford with a programme of touring work, an in-house fvisual arts programme, art classes for the community and collaborations with other organisations.