The Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Heather Humphreys TD, will today (Monday) address a major cultural workshop in Dublin, which is being held as part of the consultation process for the development of Culture 2025, Ireland’s first national cultural policy.
The workshop will also be addressed by Ruth Mackenzie, who served as an adviser to five cultural secretaries under the Tony Blair and Gordon Brown governments in the UK, and acted as Director of the Cultural Olympiad, the cultural festival which ran concurrently to the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Minister Humphreys published a Culture 2025 Discussion Document in August. Since then regional consultation meetings have been held in Galway, Cork, Cavan, Kilkenny and Limerick. The Dublin workshop is the final public consultation meeting. Submissions to the policy can be made online until October 31st.
Speaking today Minister Humphreys said:
“Since I launched the Culture 2025 Discussion Document in August, my Department has been holding consultation meetings around the country to facilitate discussion and debate about the development of our first ever national cultural policy. It has been a very worthwhile process, with more than 600 people participating in the meetings to date.
“Throughout the regional meetings, we have received very valuable feedback. It has been a successful exercise in active participation and it has illustrated how passionately people feel about culture, and rightly so. Some common themes have emerged, including local support for local artists, supporting the creative process and the development of communities through culture.
“The development of our first ever national cultural policy is an important opportunity for everyone to have their say on what we want to achieve in terms of our arts and culture over the next decade. Setting out high level aims up to 2025 will help to protect and promote our unique and varied culture, and encourage new cultural forms to flourish.
“I hope to be in a position to publish the Culture 2025 policy document early next year. But that should not be seen as an end point. I hope the policy will continue to evolve and respond to the needs of the sector.”