What's missing from the Irish arts
Regular TV show, anyone?
Recommended listening for while you’re reading: Irish pianist and composer Daniel Luke:
One of the highlights of my creatively-satisfying-yet-occasionally-terrifying portfolio career is writing a weekly arts column for the Sunday Times. It’s been going a year now and as it’s a privilege to have a voice in the media, especially when you’re writing about the arts, I want to use the space to interrogate issues, tease out debates, shout out work that’s being done that doesn’t get enough attention, and highlight people who are doing great stuff.
The two columns that received the biggest responses online so far were about putting arts bulletins on the radio and the need for a magazine arts show on RTÉ Television. I knew there would be interest in both of these, but I was blown away by how strongly people feel - just look at the comments on this post about an arts TV show:
I know that behind the scenes people have been pitching ideas to RTÉ for new arts shows for years, but after the column I got messages from others saying they’d unsuccessfully tried too.
I also know from talking to an independent TV producer about the challenges that arise when it comes to a show like this, and how there’s a certain reticence around how much of an audience a magazine arts show can get. (I’ll get to this in a minute.)
To explain ‘magazine’ - basically it means the show would cover lots of topics in different ways. Think: a panel doing reviews and previews of shows and upcoming events; ‘packages’ (pre-recorded videos) where interviewers go to different places around the country; interviews; live performances; debates, etc.
And new exciting things I haven’t thought about! Basically, similar to shows like The Works and The View back in the day - but updated for the 2020s.
This commenter on my column also made a great point about cross-broadcasting such a show:
Note: Filming in a studio with a panel of people: cheap. Sending a crew up the country for a few days to film: more expensive.
I know that RTÉ is experiencing financial (and other) issues, so this isn’t the ideal time to be asking for a new show.
Or isn’t it? When is the right time? Isn’t the arts as vibrant as ever right now?
It seems completely bizarre to me that such an arts show doesn’t exist on RTÉ TV - but before I get more into why, I must highlight the bilingual arts show Imeall on TG4. I also have to highlight the sterling work of presenter Sean Rocks, who has been behind the mic on RTÉ Radio One show Arena from Monday to Friday for many years, and is adept at fielding interviews on every arts topic possible. (I’ve been reviewing for the show for many years). Without Arena, Imeall and shows like CultureFile on Lyric FM, which is particularly good at covering esoteric and underground arts in Ireland, we’d be truly lost on national broadcast media when it comes to the arts.
There are also many other people doing great work in independent media - for example digital radio stations, without whom many artists would never get featured on air at all. But at the same time, it’s important to call out the glaring gaps on our national broadcaster.
On the topic of independent media, many (many) years ago I was a presenter on Community of Independents, a show on the community channel DCTV that focused on the independent music scene.
Can’t believe that baby-faced youngster is me! And yes that’s the Bernard Shaw, now partly-demolished/derelict.
Just look at what great stuff can be created by volunteers on their own time (the team who produced this show were and continue to be a talented bunch):
The lack of an arts TV show is such an obvious gap that it’s just normal now. Arts critic Cristín Leach also wrote about the topic in 2022 for the Sunday Times when she was its arts columnist (and no doubt others have written similar pieces before).
But why is no one paying attention?
There are many reasons we need the show, and why I think it’s bizarre it doesn’t exist.
Firstly, a show like this boosts the arts by directing audiences towards work made by artists in Ireland. Bigger audiences means a more sustainable career for people.
Making the arts visible is so important! It’s not just because it’s nice to look at visual art, or go to a show, but because art interrogates ideas and reflects issues in society. As we know from reading music reviews, listening to Arena or reading art criticism, artists often take personal or local or global ideas and explore them through their work. Or maybe they’ve just made amazing art for art’s sake. Let them talk about that, too.
And if it turns out lots of artists are making art - of any kind - about similar topics, well, then we have a trend. And this tells us even more about what’s happening in our country.
Look at the latest folk revival in Irish music, featuring artists like Lankum, Lisa O’Neill, Ye Vagabonds, etc. This tells us so much about younger generations’ relationship to Irish language and culture and how it has evolved, and from this we can extrapolate ideas around where this comes from and what it tells us about Ireland today.
Not that everyone will be happy about an arts show covering social or political issues, though… (to which I can just say: lol.)
And as writer, researcher and producer Sheila De Courcy pointed out in my Instagram comments, arts shows act as archives for future generations.1 How will we know what art-makers were doing during this era without the media, and especially the national broadcaster, covering it across all formats?
I’m a big believer in ‘if you build it, they will come’. I know an audience is out there for an arts TV show. But a key point is - if you build ‘it’ somewhere hard for people to get to, only some people will turn up.
So you make it easy for an arts TV show to survive: you put it on at a time people are likely to tune in. Sorry, but I am not usually watching live TV at 10.45pm, which is a common time for arts shows.
RTÉ has a brilliant social media team at its fingertips already, to help it spread the word.
There’s so much potential here. A ready-made audience. Oodles of art to discuss and debate. A diverse, exciting arts and cultural scene nationwide. Loads of new voices that need to be heard. Covering the arts in the media isn’t a zero-sum game - there’s room for all sorts of coverage, but a big gap when it comes to a dedicated magazine-style show on RTÉ.
The other, related, column that got a huge response was the one about arts bulletins. We have regular sports bulletins across the national airwaves, but why not the arts? This also seems like a no-brainer, and I suspect that part of it is down to tradition and part of it is a bit of reverse snobbery.
I don’t mind hearing about managers of sports teams that I don’t support… so why can’t people also be told about upcoming shows, or awards Irish artists have won, or interesting things happening artistically around the country? RTÉ already has an excellent and experienced Arts and Media Correspondent in Evelyn O’Rourke - it would be great to hear even more of her on Morning Ireland.
What does it tell us about how the arts are valued in Ireland that some people think ‘oh gosh yes - absolutely we need sports bulletins, but I couldn’t countenance an arts bulletin’? Or ‘let’s have loads of food shows around primetime - but a regular arts TV show - no thanks!’. That is nonsensical to me. We can and should value sport, food and the arts, and understand they all play a massive role in Irish culture.2
For something to succeed, it needs investment. It needs more than being shoved into the corner of a schedule (no disrespect to the shows that are on at that time, of course).
I could get very down about all of this and presume it’s because the arts isn’t valued enough and that the powers-that-be in RTÉ simply don’t care.
But I won’t. Instead, I think it’s a confluence of reasons coming together - money, tradition, no thinking outside of the box, fear of trying something new, lack of flexibility on the TV schedule, preference for other shows that are ‘dead certs’ like The Traitors - that has led to this situation.
Unfortunately, with the current financial issues at RTÉ I fear we’ll be waiting for even more years for anything to change. What a sad state of affairs.
Some recent and upcoming work…
NEW COURSE ALERT: I’m running a Start Your Newsletter course with the Irish Writers Centre, starting 17 June.
You can read my Sunday Times column about the arts TV show online (the column is in Culture magazine every Sunday, next to the TV reviews)
Here’s a recent interview with Simone Rocha for the Sunday Times
I interviewed Candace Bushnell for the Irish Examiner
I stayed on Trinity campus overnight and wrote about living my Normal People dreams for the Irish Examiner
A piece I wrote about going to California and falling in love with it was published in the Irish Times
I interviewed author (and former classmate of mine!) Catherine Ryan Howard about her new thriller for the Irish Examiner - she was very honest
From April but evergreen: Why Irish libraries are so damn great (for the Sunday Times)
If you haven’t checked out the RTÉ online archives, you’re missing a treat.
A world where we realise people and culture are multifaceted… imagine that!