The Arts Council of Ireland has apologised “unreservedly” after it sent correspondence to over 100 artists telling them that they had been awarded grants of €25,000 each.
The Arts Council yesterday made a regrettable error.
We issued letters to 141 applicants for the Next Generation Artists award, incorrectly indicating that an award would be granted.
We then emailed all affected to inform them of our error and we apologised unreservedly. 1/3 pic.twitter.com/xpfComqVe1— The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon (@artscouncil_ie) June 29, 2023
The grants were part of the Next Generation Artists scheme and 141 artists were told they had been selected to receive the money only to be informed that this was a ‘clerical error’.
Today the @artscouncil_ie emailed me saying I had been awarded €25k through the Next Gen award. They then emailed to say "ignore that, it was an error." I am beyond heartbroken. I thought I'd finally escaped poverty. I had hope. @praxis
— Trudie Gorman (@Trudie17) June 28, 2023
Poet Trudie Gorman who believed she had been awarded the €25,000 said “We can[‘t] make even one tiny mistake on your applications, but the @artscouncil_ie council are allowed make one massive one and it’s grand.”
“I don’t even have language for the devastation I’m feeling.” she said
Gorman is organising two masked gatherings so the disappointed artists can “grieve” together.
Tomorrow at 4pm at @projectarts
and Monday at 6pm at @dublinfringe we'll be coming together as the artists affected by the Next Generation error to support each other. #nextgenerationerror #141artists #artscouncil https://t.co/3FVl6yXmmJ— Trudie Gorman (@Trudie17) June 29, 2023
Slamming the Art Council’s apology she said, “A blanket generic apology is absolutely not good enough.”
“The grief I’m feeling is immeasurable. There needs to be personalised apologies to every individual artist and supports and compensation put in place for every one of us.”
Others took to Twitter to express their disappointment with one commenter saying, “This has to be one of the most catastrophic mistakes I’ve read about in a long time,” adding, “I hope you do the right thing and help those you’ve wounded.”
Another commenter asked, “What efforts will be made to compensate those who may have made professionally or financially impactful decisions following the incorrect confirmation?”
“WTAF?! Like the process isn’t tortuous enough and the rejection not sufficiently soul-destroying already!” said another.
The Arts Council said it apologises “unreservedly” saying their “mistake” has “understandably caused upset and disappointment”
“Supporting artists is the core goal of the Arts Council and we sincerely apologise to the artists we let down on this occasion,”