Speakers include:
Emmet Kirwan – Actor, Playright and Screenwriter
Christy Dignam – Lead Singer of Aslan
Alana Daly Mulligan – Film & Spoken Word “Artivist”
Angela Dorgan – Chair of the National Campaign for the Arts
Niall (Bressie) Breslin – musician and mental health campaigner
With the onset of COVID arts workers, musicians, live entertainment, crew and all in the sector saw their opportunities to perform, practice their art, and their ability to earn a living devastated.
While for other sectors there is some roadmap back for arts and arts workers it is difficult to see the way forward in a time of physical distancing. To make matters worse many in the sector have been carved out of any support from the state either because they were not employed by a company that could avail of the Wage Subsidy Scheme or because they were not eligible for the COVID payment as they did not work on the relevant date.
While the government has found €6.5bn to support big corporations, many of which are still profitable, it has only mustered up a paltry €1 million additional funding to support arts workers. This *comes at a time when our society has never needed *the arts and* artists more to maintain our spirits and mental wellbeing.
It is a matter of absolute urgency that the government listen to representatives from this sector and work with them to develop a way forward out of this crisis for all in the sector.
Richard Boyd Barrett is hosting this panel discussion to try and get this conversation started.
Please join us at 7.30pm on Thursday
