THE MAIN Arts Council grants for 2015/2016 have been announced and have allocated just over €1.6 million to Wexford in funds – the same amount as what was offered in total to the county last year.
Four Wexford arts bodies will receive grants ranging between €45,000 and €1.42 million.
The highest funded group in the county is Wexford Opera Festival which has been awarded €1,420,000, a €200,000 increase on what it was awarded for 2014 when it had seen a €10,000 increase on its 2013 allocation.
The next highest award was granted to Wexford Arts Centre with funds of €140,000 being made available to what is the oldest arts centre in the country, having been founded in 1974. Last year, the centre was cut by 4% from €141,000 down to €135,000 but this cut has all but been undone in this year’s funding.
Bui Bolg, which interestingly was cut completely from regular funding in 2013, secured a grant of €45,000, a cut of €15,000 on what it received in last year’s annual funding allowance. The group faced potential travesty the previous year when their annual funding was cut entirely but they were lucky enough to later secure one-off funding of €66,500.
Wexford Co. Council’s Arts Service was granted funding of €75,820. Wexford Co. Council is undertaking a major review of its arts programme, including organising a range of public consultations between now and the end of February. This will result in the compiling of a new Arts Plan covering 2015 to 2019.
It is expected that further grants will be announced in different categories in the coming weeks but the overall money allocated to organisations around the country accounts for 66% of all funding available to groups for 2015.
[Full story in this week’s Echo]