‘Budget bloodbath’ for Galway 2020 projects

Galway City Tribune – More arts organisations with major events in the Galway 2020 programme are expected to follow Druid Theatre in pulling their Capital of Culture project due to a ‘budget bloodbath’, lack of clarity and creative and organisational leadership.

The budgets for each organisation, agreed in principle earlier this year, have been slashed to such an extent that, according to sources, the programme of events in 2020 will be unrecognisable to what was submitted in the Making Waves bid book that won Galway the Capital of Culture designation in 2016. The cuts in some cases are as much as 80%.

And in a further blow to Galway 2020, it was confirmed yesterday that former EU Commissioner Máire Geoghegan Quinn has quit its board . . . the latest in a succession of high-profile resignations.

Druid Artistic Director Garry Hynes has confirmed that the world-famous theatre company’s flagship Galway 2020 production, Middle Island, would not proceed due to “loss of time, significant budget cuts and communications issues”. Druid said it would work with Galway 2020 on devising another, smaller-scale project.

Several other organisations are considering exiting the stage, also, because they simply cannot deliver on the proposed productions with slimmed-down budgets and a lack of leadership and artistic direction from Galway 2020.

“The budgets were lean anyway; it’s not like they were fat budgets and you can cut. A reduction of 10% or 20% is unsustainable, never mind cuts of 50%, 70% or 80%. Organisations are asking is their project viable now,” said one source.

The Galway City Tribune has established that Babaró is facing cuts of 72% to the budget it had agreed for its project in the 2020 programme.

Tulca, the festival of visual arts, has been slashed – down by €800,000 from what it had originally anticipated, to just €200,000; Music for Galway will have to produce its 2020 programme with €0.5 million less – a cut of almost 38%; Blue Teapot Theatre Company has been reduced by 37%. Galway Film Fleadh has also been badly hit, down by around a third.
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