Galway's Arts' Consultation Process Hijacked

Tuesday August 25, 2009 16:04

by Fred Johnston

City Arts Strategy doesn't include Artists!

Development of a new Arts Strategy for Galway City has not included consultation with the City or County's artists, but has has been closely guarded at City hall

It's coming up on two years since public consultation on the development of an Arts Strategy for Galway was promised. In spite of various declarations that such PUBLIC meetings would take place, given by James Harrold, City Arts Officer, no such public consultation ever took place nor, it appears, will ever take place, though the lip-service continues.

Sarah Searson, a one-time arts officer in Dublin, has been appointed to aid the work of any Arts Strategy and it was hoped by some arts bodies and cultural committees that meetings with Ms Searson might be facilitated and their various points of view put forward. But this looks unlikely to happen as the Strategy is safely vacuum-packed at City Hall.

The arts in Galway are in a disordered and fractured state, with arguments over everything from funding to content raging from The Galway Arts Festival to Macnas and the Western Writers' Centre, who were so disturbed by the blatant opposition of the City Arts Office that they refused to apply for grant-aid this year.

It would seem clear that, before anyone in the arts community has been able to put forward a single suggestion, the City Council have made sure that their spoke was jammed firmly into any strategy arrangements.

Meanwhile, a rather paltry advertisement has been posted in some local newspapers inviting arts' groups to comment on the Strategy website - a scandalously poor substitute for real discussion which borders on insulting every arts' group and arts' practitioner in the city. One of the central problems, a sort of cultural elephant in the room, is that Galway City Council tend to dodge any discussion of the role of the Arts Office in mapping the cultural face of the city. Public comment goes unacknowledged or is not acted upon. There is a real sense that the Council are a law unto themselves and do not welcome being pushed to move things along culturally.

One awaits the outcome of this non-consultative consultation process. The Arts Council, perhaps, should take serious note of what is happening, given their penchant for labelling as divisive any individual or group who criticises the arts in Galway city.