An archive of stories about work undertaken during the early years of the Irish Arts Council has been published online. The website commences with a first phase of fourteen stories from the 1950s, and its release is timed to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the Arts Council, which was established on 4 December 1951.

The Arts Council has selected records from a large archive of documentation, which are presented online as digital copies of letters, minutes and photographs.

The stories published include records that document efforts by the Arts Council to support Ireland’s participation at the Venice Biennale in 1958; to subsidise the building of halls in rural areas in 1954 and the difficulties that prominent artists like George Campbell and Gerard Dillon had in making a living from their work in 1955.

Jimmy Deenihan TD, Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, praised the then Taoiseach John A. Costello (pictured) who introduced the Arts Bill in 1951 — which led to the formation of the Arts Council — as ‘a man of vision’.

Future phases of the site will aim to look at the 1960s and the 1970s. The website is a sub-site of the Arts Council’s main website:

www.archivestories.artscouncil.ie

–
Advertise on this page