 Know About Autism 3.jpg "What I (Don't) Know About Autism_Jody O'Neill")
What I (Don't) Know About Autism by Jody O'Neill at the Peacock Theatre. L-R: Jayson Murray, Jody O'Neill, Shay Croke, Matthew Ralli, Eleanor Walsh. Photo by Ros Kavanagh.
Annual award statistics
Our Equality, Human Right and Disability Policy commits to collecting more information about the artists that apply for funding and those that receive funding. In 2020, we published the first of these reports which provides data on gender statistics for 2019 individual awards. This report is available to download here: Individual Awards 2019: Report on Gender Statistics.
In March 2021, we published our first annual report on gender, disability and ethnicity across our awards for individuals. Diversity and Arts Council Awards covers data collected during the 2020 calendar year and also looks at applicants to specialist schemes operated on our behalf by third parties: the Artist in the Community Scheme managed by Create and Arts & Disability Connect managed by Arts & Disability Ireland. You can read more about this report and download it in full here: Diversity and Arts Council Awards 2020.
Gender balance on arts boards and in leadership positions
One specific action we have undertaken is to require gender balanced boards on the organisations we fund regularly. As the graphic below shows, 2020 saw a significant positive shift towards gender balanced boards by strategically funded organisations.
- Of 149 core infrastructure arts organisations and Arts Centres, 52% are chaired by a male and 48% are chaired by a female
- 58% senior leadership positions (Artistic Director/CEO/Director) in arts organisations and centres are held by women
Other research and resources
Shift in Perspective
This resource pack is the result of a partnership between the Arts Council, Arts & Disability Ireland (ADI), Mayo County Council, the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) and South Tipperary County Council. It grew out of the partner organisations' work to develop innovative approaches in high-quality contemporary arts and disability practice, and to make arts venues more accessible to artists and audiences with disabilities.
Shift in Perspective
Working in Intercultural Contexts – Guide for Local Authorities and Cultural Providers
Since 2016 Mayo, Donegal and South Dublin County Councils have collaborated on research to develop models of best practice in relation to cultural diversity under the Arts Council’s Invitation to Collaboration scheme. This guide is a resource to help Local Authorities and cultural providers begin the process of how, through community consultation, they might develop a range of tailored cultural services that engage more effectively with people from culturally diverse backgrounds.
Working in Intercultural Contexts – Guide for Local Authorities and Cultural Providers
Cultural Diversity and the Arts
The Cultural Diversity and the Arts - Research Report was commissioned in partnership with the Office of the Minister for Integration under the Government's National Action Plan against Racism (NPAR). The Arts Council engaged Create - the national development agency for collaborative arts - to manage the extensive research and consultation phases, and the delivery of a report and recommendations. The research process took place throughout 2008 and the final report was published in 2009.
Cultural diversity and the arts - research report
A condensed section of the research, the Cultural Diversity and the Arts - Language and Meanings pamphlet, provides a practical resource for the arts sector and the diverse publics with which it works or wishes to work. It aims to inform and enrich public discourse about culturally diverse interaction, collaboration and experimentation, based on shared understandings of relevant terms.
Cultural diversity and the arts - language and meanings
Artist in the Community Scheme - Cultural Diversity Strand
Research conducted by Create in 2019/2020 with artists from minority ethnic and migrant backgrounds who engaged with the Artist in the Community scheme was undertaken by Evgeny Shtorn in his capacity as Cultural Diversity Researcher with Create. Read more about this research and download the full report here.
Irish Theatre Institute: Code of Behaviour for the Performing Arts
In 2018, the Irish Theatre Institute hosted an event in Project Arts Centre to discuss outcomes and feedback on the implementation of the Draft Code of Behaviour for Irish Theatre. This meeting heard from practitioners and companies who piloted the Code - its effectiveness and implementation, its suitability and value - and the Code of Behaviour was formally adopted by the theatre sector.
Irish Theatre Institute: Code of Behaviour for the Performing Arts
Amplify Women Toolkit
Amplify Women, an umbrella group of organisations that represents, works with or carries out research about women working in the cultural and media industries, produced the following toolkit for dealing with harassment and bullying in the workplace:
Amplify Women Toolkit
Gender Counts: An Analysis of Gender in Irish Theatre 2006-2015
With the support of the Arts Council, in 2016 #WakingTheFeminists commissioned research into the gender balance in ten of the top publicly funded theatre organisations over a ten-year period from
2006-2015. The research findings can be read in full here:
Gender Counts: An Analysis of Gender in Irish Theatre 2006-2015
Useful links
The Irish Human Rights and Equality Authority [IHREC] is Ireland’s national human rights and equality institution.
Fair Plé aims to achieve gender balance in the production, performance, promotion, and development of Irish traditional and folk music.
Sounding the Feminists is an Irish-based, voluntary-led collective of composers, sound artists, performers, musicologists, critics, promoters, industry professionals, organisations, and individuals, committed to promoting and publicising the creative work of female musicians.