Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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325. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if there is an art camp programme established with State funding; if so, the cost of running the programme; the number of camps run under the programme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18190/19]

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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My Department does not operate an art camp programme.  Such activities may be eligible for support under Pillar 2 of the Creative Ireland Programme - 'Enabling Creativity in Every Community'. 

Funding from Creative Ireland is provided to local authorities.  In 2018, my Department allocated a sum of €2m and the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government a sum of €1m to all 31 local authorities (€96,000 each approximately) to enable them to support an extensive programme of activities, events and initiatives in each county.  This level of funding has been maintained for this year.

In total in 2018, over 1,300 different initiatives around Ireland were funded under Pillar 2 including arts projects, concerts, exhibitions, festivals, performances and workshops among many other activities. They covered areas such as architecture, biodiversity, crafts, heritage, dance, film, history, literature, music, photography, poetry, storytelling, theatre and the visual arts. 

There were two children’s art camps at the National Gallery of Ireland in 2018. The focus in 2019 to date has been on individual workshops, rather than camps.