Culture 2025 A National Cultural Policy Framework for Ireland

ABSTRACT

Published in January 2020, Culture 2025 A National Cultural Policy Framework for Ireland is the first single national cultural policy in Ireland since the formation of the Irish State in 1922. We outline the development and content of the framework – including its principles, aims and values – in the context of both Irish cultural policy history and the “whole-of-government” policy approach. To interrogate the coherence of the policy framework, we focus on the creative industries in general, and the audiovisual sector, in particular. We question whether Culture 2025’s, broad incorporation of various sectors (language, arts, heritage, and creative industries), can say anything of significance about the promotion of culture in Ireland. Through the integration of pre-existing strategies into the Irish economic system, we argue that Culture 2025 presents itself as the only realistic approach to culture and the arts in the form of a “cultural policy realism”.

KEYWORDS:

• Cultural policy
• arts policy
• creative industries
• Ireland
• national policy development
• audiovisual

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Daniel Carey, NUI Galway, for reading and commenting on a draft of this paper.

Notes on contributors

Steven Hadley is a Research Fellow in the Moore Institute at NUI Galway, Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Leeds, Associate Lecturer at Leuphana University of Lüneburg and an Associate Consultant with the Audience Agency. An academic, consultant and researcher working internationally in arts management, cultural policy and audience engagement, Steven sits on the Steering Committee of the Cultural Research Network (USA) and the Editorial Boards of both Cultural Trends and the European Journal of Cultural Management and Policy. He has recently published on cultural democracy, audience development and hyperinstrumentalism. His forthcoming book, Audience Development and Cultural Policy, will be published by Palgrave MacMillan.

Patrick Collins is an Economic Geographer working with the School of Geography & Archaeology and the Whitaker Institute at NUI Galway. He has published extensively in the areas of global and local development, concentrating on the global production networks and international investment patterns of large technology companies. More recently, Patrick has concerned himself with the development of the Creative Economy in Ireland and Europe. He is particularly interested in how culture and creativity shape the places that we live in. Pat has contributed directly to a number of recent international designations bestowed on his native Galway including European Capital of Culture 2020 and UNESCO City of Film.

Maria O’Brien has recently completed her PhD on the political economy of audiovisual industries in the School of Communications, Dublin City University. She formerly worked as a lawyer before moving into film and screen studies research. Her research interests lie in the intersection of law and policy as it relates to screen media. She lectures media law in the School of Communications at DCU and works as an Associate Lecturer in Arts Management and Cultural Policy at Queen’s University Belfast.

Notes

1 The term “Gaeltacht” is used to denote those areas in Ireland where the Irish language is, or was until the recent past, the main spoken language of a substantial number of the local population. See http://www.udaras.ie/en/an-ghaeilge-an-ghaeltacht/an-ghaeltacht/.

2 We do not offer comment in this paper on the various name changes of the relevant government department during the gestation of Culture 2025, but for consideration of this phenomenon in Irish government see Slaby (2014).

3 “Section 481” is a tax credit, incentivising film and TV, animation and creative documentary production in Ireland, administered by the Revenue Commissioners (Revenue). Projects must either pass the Cultural Test or qualify as an official co-production under one of Irelands Bilateral Co-Production Treaties or the European Convention on Cinematographic Co-Production. See https://www.screenireland.ie/filming/section-481 for further detail.