Thread by @peterdaly10, Thanks everyone for the lovely feedback on yesterday’s @Campaign4Arts session. Look, everyone [...]

Thanks everyone for the lovely feedback on yesterday’s @Campaign4Arts session. Look, everyone is doing something to support their friends and colleagues during this crazy time when the Arts is one of the hardest hit. Some out front, some in the background. 1/N

We are a community (never forget that) and we love and respect each other. And we are there for each other. 2/N

Investment in the Arts was decimated over the last 10 years so. Investment v cost of living etc. Despite public promises to double funding, or the setting up of new funding bodies, anyone on the ground, or willing to listen, knows it has been a pretty shitty time. 3/N

So before COVID even hit - the Arts were at their lowest in about 25 years. An already poor sector (precarious work, almost no pensions, no savings, low home ownership) then gets hit by a Pandemic which effectively shuts our doors for the foreseeable. 4/N

Over the last few years @Campaign4Arts @TheatreForumIE @IrishEquity @IrishTheatreIns @1GaryGannon @RBoydBarrett & others have reframed the conversation.They’ve pointed out, again&again, the pitifully low level of investment in the Arts in Irel compared to other EU countries 5/N

The hypocrisy is now undeniable when a Politician quotes a poem to bring us together - or make eloquent their pleas for compliance - fully aware that many of us, whilst getting up early in the morning, and staying late at night to entertain, are on the breadline. 6/N

But that was then and I’m looking forward now. I am trusting that @cathmartingreen @EamonRyan
@LeoVaradkar and @MichealMartinTD have appreciated just how essential Art is in normal times, never mind getting us through this Pandemic. 7/N

And they realise that you don’t get Normal People @NormalPeopleBBC @lennyabrahamson or Sinead O Connor - @MagdaDavitt77 blowing us away on the @RTELateLateShow
- If you don’t fund @BewleysCTheatre and @CorkOperaHouse
It doesn’t happen. 8/N

The latest injections of money into the Arts are necessary and welcome. They MIGHT just bring us close to some of our European neighbours in terms of investment. 9/N

And the wider public is going to get to experience some Great Art as a result. This will further salve the nation, as Art has - without a doubt - done over the last 4 months. 10/N

And just to put it out there, not one taxpayer is going to look at their paycheque and notice a difference in their tax bill. €56million (is that the final tally?) is WAY WAY too small in the context of our national budget to make that difference. 11/N

I can get into that more, and make a very strong argument to the well-meaning person who asks why invest in the Arts when health is underfunded. But that’s not for here and now. But grab me in the pub, or a theatre foyer anytime and I’ll happily chat. 12/N

So, this is an incredibly difficult and uncertain time. And success/survival is not guaranteed by any means. But I’m hopeful. 13/N

We are at the moment in Normal People [spoiler - look away] when Marianne @DaisyEdgarJones is telling Connell @mescal_paul he has to go to New York. It’s painful and feels unfair after everything that has happened, but I think it’s going to be ok. #SAVETHEARTS
14/N

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