Cork gets €800k in arts funds
FUNDING for Cork arts projects for the coming year is to be over €800,000, the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht affairs have confirmed this week.
The Briery Gap Theatre in Macroom was confirmed to be in receipt of €250,000 after suffering a fire on it’s premises last year. Cork County Council announced last week that arts funding is to go to over 147 organisations and individual artists within the County. Arts grants totalling €155,000 were approved by Cork County Council at it’s meeting on February 13th, with the rest of the funding coming from the arts and heritage department
This years County Council Arts Grants allocation will support the work of many of the counties arts groups, ranging from choir groups to traditional music to creative writers.
Allocations to 37 arts festivals will account for the largest share in funding provided by the Council in 2017. Members noted that the economic impact of the 37 arts festivals supported by Cork County Council in 2016 was worth €1.5million to the local economy and that attendance at funded festivals was over 125,000.
Welcoming the arts grants report the County Mayor, Cllr Seamus McGrath commented “it was important that the council should continue to support the arts activity at community level, particularly in view of the fact that so much activity is generated by the work of voluntary arts organisations.”
Voluntary groups, he said, play a huge role in the county arts scene, providing opportunities for young people to gain confidence through performance in music and drama and for older members of society to engage in beneficial social activity through the arts.
Cllr. McGrath, acknowledging the approval by his council colleagues of the grant allocations added “I wish all these groups and individuals every success in the events and activities which they have planned. Council funding will go some way to ensuring that our communities continue to have access to and the possibility of participating in a wide range of art forms.”