TLDR – they want more funding to encourage young people rather than putting on events that they want to go to
Because it’s entirely a scene that celebrates itself now. Things like sculpture and painting used to be used as ways to express a story/scene to people who couldn’t read. When you look at an old Catholic Church and see the stations of the cross for example be it on stained glass, oil paintings etc. that was a way to tell the story to people who couldn’t read about it. When Raphael did the school of Athens it told a story of the reconciliation of classical philosophy and thought with Christian civilisation and one could study it for literally hours now and still find new things, new stories etc.
Now when I got to art exhibitions I’m always underwhelmed at how it’s basically cliques making art for themselves. There’s an intense snobbery from a lot of people who make it and there’s almost a sense of not wanting “normal people” to come and judge it: “You’re just closed minded” they say as you gaze upon sculptures made of human hair, photographs of naked women holding fish, paintings of abstractions locked in some duel etc. It’s incredibly niche and most people just straight up don’t like it. (To be honest a lot of them don’t even take much skill, there’s not even an appreciation of the work going on.) If all of literature was Proust you’d get the same reaction.
On the topic of theatre I would say there’s a distinct lack of innovation and nothing has come out in a long time (apart from pillow man in my experience) that most people either: would enjoy or haven’t seen before. I love Shakespeare but I’m not going to see 5 different productions of Hamlet year after year etc.
When it comes to Irish art we have stuck in utter stasis since Beckett died and even with him not everyone is going to be falling over themselves to watch Quad. All of Irish art now centres around two things: young person moving from countryside to the city and hating traditional Ireland and “wow Catholic Church bad”. Neither are Novel or interesting anymore and a lot just riff off the exact same things. With that golden age of Yeats, Synge, Wilde, O’Casey, Shaw etc. lauding over everyone it’s hard to compete but I mean come on take the risk.
Then we’ll just get to the inevitable where people would just rather sit inside now. Going to enjoy the arts is becoming increasingly ostracised in this world of scientific and mathematical dominance. Incredibly clever people who were once writers are now working in different fields, or simply don’t want to take the risk to focus on that field etc. so you end up with the very hardcore and niche people like Mr and Mrs Hair sculptures to stop sexism/racism/transphobia etc. Art has been taken from something universal to something inward and closed-off in terms of the visual and on the literary side simply static and overplayed
Maybe lower the price of things. It’s basically a big clique too. Just a bunch of people sniffing each others farts.
The Galway arts festival is on atm.
There is only 1 street event which was a parade of 1 float thru the city on friday and saturday. Hardly call that a parade.
Years gone by the parade was a massive spectable and imo made the arts festival. Now its just a clique of artists running shows for themselves.
Crazy that young people are prioritising rent and food over going to arts events.
An organization that can’t see the wood for the trees
Musician here and I’ve seen a real bump in people going to smaller shows since we’ve come back. Maybe they aren’t coming to art events, but small local concerts? The young people are coming out and thank christ for it
Unless it was an event that gave out free drink, no one is going.
because most people in the Arts are self-righteous assholes……..
The vast majority are stuck up each other’s arse.
People have become more and more desensitised by technology and media. The pendulum will swing back and people will crave something more real than they can find on their smartphone or laptop. But in the meantime, Ireland’s reputation for the arts must finally be reflected in government funding to make it sustainable and accessible – I’m thinking of theatre in particular, here. And as another user pointed out, it must not be art solely created for the arts community or critics/funders.
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TLDR – they want more funding to encourage young people rather than putting on events that they want to go to
Because it’s entirely a scene that celebrates itself now. Things like sculpture and painting used to be used as ways to express a story/scene to people who couldn’t read. When you look at an old Catholic Church and see the stations of the cross for example be it on stained glass, oil paintings etc. that was a way to tell the story to people who couldn’t read about it. When Raphael did the school of Athens it told a story of the reconciliation of classical philosophy and thought with Christian civilisation and one could study it for literally hours now and still find new things, new stories etc.
Now when I got to art exhibitions I’m always underwhelmed at how it’s basically cliques making art for themselves. There’s an intense snobbery from a lot of people who make it and there’s almost a sense of not wanting “normal people” to come and judge it: “You’re just closed minded” they say as you gaze upon sculptures made of human hair, photographs of naked women holding fish, paintings of abstractions locked in some duel etc. It’s incredibly niche and most people just straight up don’t like it. (To be honest a lot of them don’t even take much skill, there’s not even an appreciation of the work going on.) If all of literature was Proust you’d get the same reaction.
On the topic of theatre I would say there’s a distinct lack of innovation and nothing has come out in a long time (apart from pillow man in my experience) that most people either: would enjoy or haven’t seen before. I love Shakespeare but I’m not going to see 5 different productions of Hamlet year after year etc.
When it comes to Irish art we have stuck in utter stasis since Beckett died and even with him not everyone is going to be falling over themselves to watch Quad. All of Irish art now centres around two things: young person moving from countryside to the city and hating traditional Ireland and “wow Catholic Church bad”. Neither are Novel or interesting anymore and a lot just riff off the exact same things. With that golden age of Yeats, Synge, Wilde, O’Casey, Shaw etc. lauding over everyone it’s hard to compete but I mean come on take the risk.
Then we’ll just get to the inevitable where people would just rather sit inside now. Going to enjoy the arts is becoming increasingly ostracised in this world of scientific and mathematical dominance. Incredibly clever people who were once writers are now working in different fields, or simply don’t want to take the risk to focus on that field etc. so you end up with the very hardcore and niche people like Mr and Mrs Hair sculptures to stop sexism/racism/transphobia etc. Art has been taken from something universal to something inward and closed-off in terms of the visual and on the literary side simply static and overplayed
Maybe lower the price of things. It’s basically a big clique too. Just a bunch of people sniffing each others farts.
The Galway arts festival is on atm.
There is only 1 street event which was a parade of 1 float thru the city on friday and saturday. Hardly call that a parade.
Years gone by the parade was a massive spectable and imo made the arts festival. Now its just a clique of artists running shows for themselves.
Crazy that young people are prioritising rent and food over going to arts events.
An organization that can’t see the wood for the trees
Musician here and I’ve seen a real bump in people going to smaller shows since we’ve come back. Maybe they aren’t coming to art events, but small local concerts? The young people are coming out and thank christ for it
Unless it was an event that gave out free drink, no one is going.
because most people in the Arts are self-righteous assholes……..
The vast majority are stuck up each other’s arse.
People have become more and more desensitised by technology and media. The pendulum will swing back and people will crave something more real than they can find on their smartphone or laptop. But in the meantime, Ireland’s reputation for the arts must finally be reflected in government funding to make it sustainable and accessible – I’m thinking of theatre in particular, here. And as another user pointed out, it must not be art solely created for the arts community or critics/funders.