Arts success isn’t measured by wealth... but we definitely need more funding!

Choreographer and artistic director LIZ ROCHE puts her dance skills to good use balancing her business and personal finances. You’ve not only set up your own successful company, which is tough enough, you’ve done it in the arts. How hard is that? It hasn’t been easy. The workload is huge and an ability to multitask is essential. Building our artistic reputation goes hand in hand with the growth of the company. What’s the biggest challenges of keeping a dance company going? We have to be innovative and uncompromising in our artistic work, look after our artists and collaborators, be ambitious, but also keep a steady operation running, so there’s never a dull moment. Running a company in Ireland is hard. How would you make it easier? Put more hours in the day? Despite a thriving community, the arts in Ireland is under-resourced in comparison to other European countries, and this puts us at a disadvantage. People in the arts in Ireland, I believe, are working as hard as they possibly can – there comes a point when people just need to be better resourced. If I had a magic wand... Many people would love to do something artistic, but wonder if they can really make money doing it. How did you fund yourself getting started? Well, for sure, you wouldn’t choose this way of life to make money! When I was starting out I danced in contemporary companies in Europe and in Ireland, and I earned my living that way. At that age it was all about seeking new experiences and learning from the amazing choreographers and dancers who you were lucky enough to work with. When the company began, we all worked for very little for a very long time, and continued to subsidise the making of our work with other jobs. The arts scene here is always developing and so I am hopeful that, in the future, it will be easier for people to carve out a career and earn a living wage while generating internationally recognised work. Did you do the whole artist ‘starving in a garret’ thing? Maybe not starving, but being broke was the usual state of play for a long time. In terms of personal finances, the accepted bar is quite low for people working in the arts world. Success is not really measured by your personal wealth. Little by little, things got easier – work came more often and I began to also understand better how to get projects off the ground, which now is a big part of what I do. How hard is it to raise funding? Have you any tips for financial success in the arts? We are funded by the Arts Council and Dublin City Council and receive touring support from Culture Ireland. Dance is very expensive to make, as the rehearsal process is quite slow in comparison to some other art forms. Also, it involves many different collaborations with other makers such as composers, and set, costume and lighting designers. For prospective artists wishing to make new work, I think the key is to work with as many people as possible and learn as much as you can so by the time you are setting out on your own, you are really clear about who you are and what you want to make. Do you have a pension? I don’t have a pension. I get scared when I see that written down, so I will try to do something about it soon. I think having a pension in the arts is a very rare occurrence. I was at an arts meeting recently and out of an entire gathering of about 200 people only one hand went up when we were asked who had a pension. What are the best lessons you learned about money? That your wealth is your health and your family and that it is good to remember this also when dealing with the people you work with. What was your biggest money mistake? In general, I don’t respect my credit card balance, so I am always chasing my tail with that. Also buying a house at the wrong time. What was your best financial decision? Selling a house at the right time! Name three things you’d do if you were to be appointed minister for finance. Increase funding to the arts. Lower tax rates for artists. Pay the country back for bailing out the banks!