Galway arts organisations are set to benefit from a combined total of €2,923,760 in funding from the Arts Council.
The Arts Council said the funding will support artists, festivals, publishers, theatre groups, etc, to create work which will “lead and inspire Irish society as we recover from the pandemic”, while also acknowledging that the sector was “suffering disproportionately” during the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Galway recipients of funding are Druid Theatre Company (€884,000 ), Galway International Arts Festival (€640,000 ), Macnas (€305,000 ), Baboró International Arts Festival for Children (€294,000 ), Town Hall Theatre (€160,000 ), Galway Arts Centre (€160,000 ), Galway Film Fleadh (€150,000 ), Galway Community Circus (€150,000 ), Cló Iar-Chonnachta Teo (€85,000 ), Áras Éanna (€63,500 ), and Galway Dance Project (€32,260 ).
Engineers of imagination
The Arts Council said the Strategic Funding grants would allow key organisations to stay afloat during the remaining months of the pandemic, adapt to the changing landscape, and renew their work for the future.
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Noeline Kavanagh, the artistic director of Macnas [pictured above], has welcomed the funding. “The Arts Council provides the core funding to support Macnas’ main objective which is to advance education and access to the arts.
“We create work year on year that truly engages with audiences of all ages and at a level and scale that would simply not be possible without this Strategic Funding. The Arts Council allows us to invest in something at the very heart of the company, our comprehensive education, and training programme to nurture and develop the next generation of artists, magic makers, and engineers of imagination.”
