The Arts Council and Galway 2020 have promised to work closely together, ensuring new opportunities for artists to make great work for more people, and to help build a lasting legacy for the year-long cultural programme.
Publishing a formal ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ this week, the government agency for funding and developing the arts and the European Capital of Culture for 2020 said they shared many goals and outlined more than a dozen areas of direct collaboration. They stressed that they would avoid ‘duplicate funding’ and instead strive to maximise the impact of arts projects through collaboration.
“This agreement is significant because it means more artists will be given more opportunities to develop artistically with new projects in 2020, there will be new audiences for -- and participants in -- the arts, and there will be a lasting impact on the entire arts ecology in Ireland and internationally,” said Orlaith McBride, Director of the Arts Council.
Galway 2020 European Capital of CultureCEO Patricia Philbin said: “Galway will be the cultural capital of Europe next year and it is our ambition to show Ireland, Europe and the world exactly what extraordinary cultural and artistic expertise that Galway has to offer. We want to ensure a lasting legacy that will benefit Galway and its arts and cultural practitioners and audiences for many years to come. Collaborations such as this with the Arts Council is a clear demonstration of how we are achieving that.”
The Arts Council said that it would hold a series of events in Galway throughout 2020, including its Summer Plenary meeting; the announcement of the 2020 Laureate na nÓg; a Creative Schools celebration; and an Equality, Human Rights and Diversity initiative.
Galway 2020 said it looked forward to continuing to work closely with the Arts Council to harness this opportunity as a European Capital of Culture for the benefit of cultural life in Ireland.
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