Speaking today, Mary Cloake, Director of the Arts Council said, "The pamphlet series was commissioned to encourage consideration of the many ways in which the arts impact upon our lives. We are delighted to issue another two pamphlets in the series, and we thank both Emer and John for sharing their views with us. We hope the varied opinions contained in the pamphlets will provoke discussion and focus attention on the crucial role the arts can and do play in our lives as individuals, and as part of our wider society."
In her pamphlet entitled The Case for Elitism Ms O’Kelly says, "The Arts Council has a duty to Elitism. This does not mean that it excludes people by its support for only the very best there is. It must trumpet and herald the best so loudly, and push it into the public consciousness so vehemently that the appetite for the best is whetted and the imaginative parameters are burst wide open." John McAuliffe in his pamphlet, The Siren Alps states, "The individual and the community are central to the arts, but the reverse is also true: the arts change lives and have the power to change a community’s idea about itself. People of all ages see them as part of their daily or weekly life, and for many others they act as a resource or an escape at particular moments in their lives."
http://www.artscouncil.ie/en/news/news.aspx?article=ad9bfa97-36a2-4331-853b-d4fb8dc932e1