COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

south dublin county council crest

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, June 10, 2013

MOTION NO.5

MOTION: Councillor E. Tuffy

That the Manager would present a Report on the Council's support for Community Arts activities throughout the County, including information on supports, financial and otherwise, provided by the Council to Community Arts organizations in the 5 Electoral Areas of the County.

REPORT:

The core services carried out by the Arts Office under South Dublin County Arts Development Strategy 2011-2015, include

Context

Arts and cultural activity in South Dublin County is set against a backdrop of a population of approximately 265,174 people, 41% of which is under the age of 25.

Mapping of the arts in the County is an ongoing activity. An extensive audit was undertaken in 2011 to identify the nature of arts activities in the county, the distribution of activity across artforms and the pattern of geographical spread. The audit included information on professional, amateur, voluntary and community organisations from arts grants awarded (2006 -2011); music education, dance and education surveys, and information from the private/commercial arts sector.

Of the 180 documented organisations, (see Appendix B, South Dublin County Arts Development Strategy 2011-2015), 60% of these are in the Amateur, Voluntary and Community sectors, 15% are in the private/commercial sector, 10% in Education, 8% are Professional Arts organisations, 7% are festivals and events.

 The geographic distribution of arts activity shows 40% based in the county town of Tallaght, 22% in the Clondalkin area, 17% in Rathfarnham, 17% in Lucan, 2% in Rural areas, 2% based outside of South Dublin County.

The largest sector is the amateur, voluntary and community sector which is supported through Arts Act grants, as shown in Table 1 below for 2012. There are also indirect supports to this sector including provision of information, project development, project partnership, advice and support in making applications to funding schemes and evaluation supports.

 Table1

Amateur, Voluntary and Community Arts Grants Lucan Clondalkin Tallaght Central Tallaght South Terenure Rathfarnham
2012 €5600 €6000 €6200 €300 €1400

Another key support is provided to artists across through the Council's individual Artist Bursary Award Scheme in the total sum of €16,500 in 2012. 

A suite of on-line resources have been created to increase access to the arts across the county. These include:

·        YAM.ie (Your Arts Map) - a location based events guide for young people integrated with public transport information;

·        NOISE Dublin - a resource website for young people;

·        South Dublin County Public Art - an information resource for permanent and temporary public artworks in the county where the viewer can find information about artists and artworks, access audio and film works, read texts and search for artworks by map, locality, artform or artist;

·        -Art Trax App for Google and Android which provides an overview of the public art in the county for mobile devices.

·       - Arts Infobase currently in development

 A number of strategic programming initiatives have been established to make the best use of resources across the county. These include Ruaille Buaille Lucan Children's Music Festival, which is an education and performance strand of South Dublin County Local Music Education Partnership.

Other programmes includes: NOISE youth film, dance and music festivals; Tallaght Young Filmmakers; Contact Studio mobile recording; Creative Careers, Creative Campus and Creative Approaches to Learning and support to local arts organisations to deliver programmes.  

The development arts infrastructure with a countywide remit including the Civic theatre and Rua Red South Dublin Arts Centre has stimulated new and associated arts programming, opportunities for participation and the development of audiences. Now in it's fifth year Rua Red attracts over 100,000 visitors and users to the centre from across the county. The Civic Theatre attracts audiences of over 50,000 people per year and in partnership with the Arts Office delivers Tenderfoot, an apprentice programme in theatre for 40 young people from across the county each year.

 The Arts Office has supported social inclusion policies through the commissioning of research into the practices of artists of immigrant and culturally diverse backgrounds with a view to increasing cultural diversity in the county and will also be developing a strategy in the coming months for arts and disability across the county in conjunction with other service providers in the county.