Leading light in Galway arts brands 2020 “a fiasco in the making”

Galway City Tribune – One of the architects of Galway’s high standing as a city of the arts and artists is fearful its reputation could be damaged beyond repair by the unfolding European Capital of Culture “fiasco”.

Páraic Breathnach, Macnas co-founder, Cúirt producer and one of Galway’s leading arts figures, said he and many other local artists are “deeply concerned” about the direction of Galway 2020, which has become a “total embarrassment” to the arts community.

Mr Breathnach, Managing Director of Galway Arts Centre, said there was a “policy of exclusion” of arts practitioners at the heart of Galway 2020, the organisation tasked with delivering the European Capital of Culture (ECOC) designation in 18 months’ time.

He said problems with Galway 2020 – including issues with Intellectual Property, funding and the loss of its Creative Director, Chris Baldwin – when coupled with the controversy surrounding the arthouse cinema, had sullied the city’s reputation.

“Galway’s standing in the cultural world has been damaged significantly by the Pálás Cinema debacle and the 2020 bid. It might be the end. It might be the killing of the golden goose. I’m afraid it might be,” he said.

“This is a fiasco in the making, and it’s a total embarrassment for the arts community in Galway, who up to now, up to the Pálás Cinema and 2020, had an impeccable reputation for running events and creating high-quality arts events – from nothing.”

With 18 months to go, when asked if and how Galway 2020 can turn it around, Mr Breathnach said: “Of course, they can turn it around, if they’re smart. The first thing you’ve got to do when you want to turn something around is admit you’re wrong. They’re finding it very, very difficult to admit that there’s been any wrong in the process. So, it’s hard to see them turning it around if they haven’t the humility to admit they’re wrong.”
To read the full interview with Páraic Breathnach, see this week’s Galway City Tribune. Buy a digital edition of this week’s paper here, or download the app for Android or iPhone.