'Artists have to catch a break'
The creative industry must be the most volatile imaginable. As a music producer and founder of a music label Odhrán O’Brien has seen up close how many talented people struggle to survive, and some opt out, unable to face “this precariousness they’re consistently under.”
“I’ve applied for multiple Arts Council grants and you know there’s one person on the other end saying, ‘This is worthy. This is not worthy’. You’re either validated through this, or you’re not,” says Odhrán. The Castletara man chats candidly in the Celt office, always with a smile even though he’s impacted directly by this.
“I applied for 13 grants last year and I got one of them - how much rejection can an artist go through? You’re like, ‘OK who do I have to speak to in order to validate myself?’ That’s kind of what art has come down to right now.”
For the last three years the government has run a modest pilot scheme in which 2000 artists have received a weekly payment of €325. Ahead of October’s Budget the National Campaign for the Arts (NCFA) is lobbying for the government to retain and expand the Basic Income for the Arts (BIA) scheme.
Odhrán releases hip hop tracks under the moniker Odd Numbers and is also the founder of the independent Golden Éire Records in which he has two Irish rap artists on his books. It was through this that he became the NCFA Constituency Coordinator for Cavan.
“When you look at the income that creatives generally make, it’s [the BIA] like a buffer – it’s a floor that people can work off. That covers the necessities for people,” he says of the taxable payment, which equates to €16,900 annually. “But when you look at it objectively €325 is not that much money for anyone by any standards.”
In addition to the 2,000 artists in receipt of BIA, the pilot included a further 2,000 artists who received no payment as a control group. Both groups were surveyed throughout. The survey found that BIA recipients are better able to make ends meet, and spend eight extra hours a week on creative work, and complete more new work.
He notes how Irish artists in music, film and literature are “at the top of their game right now” and the impact of this in our sense of ourselves and the image this projects of Ireland worldwide.
“We can’t consider culture as this ‘nice to have’ thing. It must be an economic necessity, and we need to invest in it. Then it has a ripple effect - it leads out to economic development, it leads out to community well-being and the results of the pilot are showing that, again on a small-scale, but if we blow this out, make it a proper scheme then we’ll definitely see the results.”
Voicing his own opinion, Odhrán is wary of any scheme that may create a dependency.
“I’m against the notion of this being a hand-out for creatives. I don’t think it benefits anyone if it’s just a reliance thing that after three years people are so dependent on it that when say after this pilot ends they don’t know how to make ends meet when they come out of it.”
He observes how the sector consistently has “the rug pulled from under them” with new technologies and now AI.
“Every decade there’s something new that comes out that makes it easier for people not to pay artists for the work that they do.
“In 2022 it came out that creative workers earned a third less than any other employee in Ireland.
Odhrán is confident the government will come good.
“The results have shown that it’s beneficial for the artist themselves and the communities around them, I think it’s really worth investing in this.”