Business to Arts welcomes the launch of Culture 2025 – A National Cultural Policy Framework to 2025 by Minister Josepha Madigan TD and the Department of Culture, Heritage & Galetacht on Jan 10, 2020.

Culture 2025 sets the direction for Government policy across the cultural sector, including the arts, the Irish language and the creative, heritage and audiovisual sectors.  It details the Government’s aspirations for these areas and how these aspirations can be achieved.

Key actions contained within Culture 2025 include:

• Increasing access to and participation in the arts and boosting our creative industries;
• Working collaboratively to enable the creative potential of every child and young person;
• Investing in our Gaeltacht and supporting the Irish language;
• Supporting traditional culture and securing global recognition for unique Irish cultural traditions;
• And protecting and promoting Ireland’s natural habitats and biodiversity;

Business to Arts welcomes the Government’s commitment to double the amount of public funding for arts and culture by 2025 to €576m.

We also welcome the Government commitment to “encouraging strong, mutually beneficial links between the business and arts community.” As part of this commitment, Government states it will “examine ways to further promote private investment across the cultural sector.” The overall aim of this policy is to ensure that both public and private sector funding for the cultural sector rests on a solid base, which will enable the Sector to protect and harness our cultural heritage.

You can read Culture 2025 – A National Cultural Policy Framework to 2025 here.

For further information see

Culture 2025 – Discussion Document (Published in 2015) 

Progressing Philanthropy in the Arts in Ireland – read Andrew Hetherington’s opinion piece in VitalSigns_2019 (P.17)

Arts, Festival and Music Sponsorship Market in Ireland – read our 2019 research report here

We are delighted to announce that Tony Lawless has been appointed to the board of Business to Arts.

Tony Lawless is Managing Director of Irish Life Corporate Business. Irish Life Corporate Business is the Group Pension market leader in Ireland providing pension and protection benefits to over 500,000 employees and is part of the broader Irish Life Group with over 3,500 employees in Dublin.

Tony began his career with Irish Life over 25 years ago, and has carried out a number of key Senior Management roles with a particular focus in sales, marketing and product areas.

Tony graduated from Trinity College Dublin with BBS Degree and an MBA from DCU, and is currently on the board of the Life Assurance Association.