In 2013 the Arts Council took the decision to initiate a strategic review of its work. The decision came at the end of arguably the most significant decade in the history of the Arts Council. Beginning with the 2003 Arts Act, the decade saw five years of unprecedented public investment in the arts and unparalleled development and achievement. Much of that development became severely stressed and some of it was lost in the ensuing five years of sudden, severe and sustained contraction in public investment (from a range of sources) as well as in private giving, corporate sponsorship and in other earned income.

The steering group noted how the outgoing Arts Council chairman expressed clearly what needed to be done in the 2013 Arts Council Strategic Statement: I am now firmly of the view that it is crucial that the Arts Council engages in a fundamental examination of how it addresses its remit. A fault-line has developed between the model of arts provision that was created a decade ago and the resources that are currently available. The turbulence surrounding the arts and the Arts Council since 2008 is part of the wider social and economic instability that characterised most aspects of Irish life and especially our public services. In the world of the arts especially, nothing stands still, so there were other cultural and especially technological changes at work to alter the way in which the arts were made and experienced. All of these factors influenced the environment within which the Arts Council determined that simply managing its funding relationships on a year-to-year basis was not an option. Instead it declared that it was both responsible and necessary that the Arts Council should undertake a review of how it plans, partners, promotes and provides for the arts in Ireland.

Key to the strategic review and to this report was the Arts Council’s decision to invite independent expertise to help steer the review process. That was reflected in the composition of the steering group, seven of whose twelve members were external to the Arts Council. The remaining five (three Council members, the Director, and a Senior Manager) brought different knowledge and expertise as well as ensuring that the strategic review was connected to, if not circumscribed by, the ‘lived reality’ of the Arts Council.

http://www.artscouncil.ie/uploadedFiles/Inspiring-Prospects-Report-2014.pdf