Arts Council funding for seven local entities

THE Arts Council has announced 2011 funding for the following Kilkenny organisations: Barnstorm Theatre Company e325,000; Butler Gallery e250,000; KCAT e60,000; Kilkenny Arts Festival e487,000; Kilkenny County Council arts office e84,000; Watergate Theatre e118,750; and Young Irish Film Makers e87,500.

“Despite the financial challenges we face as a country, the Council sought to ensure that organisations remained viable and maintained jobs in order to deliver the best of the arts for people across the country,” said Arts Council chairman Pat Moylan. “Now, more than ever, we need the arts to help restore our self-esteem, bind our communities together, and send a clear signal to the world that Ireland is a hub of creative and innovative talent.”

Further funding to individual artists and to groups undertaking projects, festivals and other events will be announced later in the year.