According to the IrishTimes.com [this article is now behind a paywall], Gabriel Byrne will be doing something new later this year.

FUNDING: COMPANIES WILL have to be more involved in the arts to make up for the absence of Government funding, Minister for the Arts Jimmy Deenihan has said.

Speaking at the Global Irish Economic Forum on Saturday in Dublin Castle, Mr Deenihan indicated that the arts budget was to be cut over the next four years by 15 per cent. He said the funding would have to be made up elsewhere.

Cultural ambassador, actor Gabriel Byrne, has agreed to chair a seminar on business funding for the arts to take place in Ireland.

Mr Deenihan has commissioned a report, chaired by Ulster Bank Ireland’s head of business and commercial banking John McGrane, to look at how business and philanthropy can fund the arts. The bank sponsors the Dublin Theatre Festival.

The Minister said soliciting money from businesses for the arts was a “big ask” but there was a receptive audience out there.

Cultural Ambassador Gabriel Byrne at the Global Irish Economic Forum in Dublin, October 2011

3 Comments

  1. The only work of art here is him :)

  2. I really hope that companies will stand in line to sponsor the many great Irish artists and their projects.
    And they will get something back, because there are so many talented artists that companies could be proud of supporting.

  3. Kim Serrahn

    What better way to spend their money then on the arts and who better to get them to do it. Mr.B hit them hard and fast (that way they won’t know what hit them).

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