There is something undoubtedly attractive about the proposition that Northern Ireland should follow the Republic in establishing a Basic Income for Artists. In a sector characterised by precarious employment, intermittent income and chronic underinvestment, the prospect of providing greater financial security to artists is hardly something I would instinctively oppose.
But the proposition now being advanced, through the endeavours of Independent Councillor Paul Doherty and Green Party Councillors Áine Groogan and Anthony Flynn, deserves rather more examination than its attractive headline has so far received.
The Republic’s extended scheme will provide 2,000 eligible artists and creative practitioners with €325 per week. On a broadly population-equivalent basis, that would suggest c.700 places in Northern Ireland, costing approximately £10.3m annually.
That is a very considerable intervention in the context of arts funding here.
And, as advocacy would have it, another campaign is today making almost precisely the point which complicates the proposition…
Read the rest of the CAPtain’s Blog at the link below.
Basic Incomes and Saving The Arts – it’s all about the money
