Basic Income for the Arts in Ireland - What Can We Learn? (First Session Dec 2022)

Basic Income for the Arts in Ireland - What Can We Learn?
Wednesday 7th December 6:30pm - 8pm GMT, online.

00:00:09 Welcomes/Intro to event and UBI Lab Network / Culture Declares Emergency (Reinhard Huss and Mike Prior)
00:05:01 Definition/intro of UBI, Background/examples of UBI pilot schemes, and outline of Irish Artists Pilot (Reinhard Huss and Shane Finan)
00:17:02 Intro to UBI Lab Arts (Toby Lloyd and Andy Abbott)
00:26:33 Discussion with artists (Shane Finan, Rachel Botha and Alisha Doody)
01:12:44 Audience questions/discussion
01:24:18 Presentation of BI Ireland (Anne Ryan)
01:27:55 Closing remarks, date of next meeting

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UBI Lab Arts, UBI Lab Leeds and Network, and Culture Declares Emergency present…

Please join us for the first in a special series of discussions dedicated to reflecting on what we can learn from the Irish Basic Income for the Arts Pilot Scheme, as it unfolds.The Government of Ireland has agreed to set up a Basic Income trial that began in September 2022. 2000 artists and cultural workers will receive a weekly unconditional income of €325 weekly for a period of three years. This initial session will be an opportunity to learn about the background of the trial and hear directly from artists and artworkers involved in the pilot scheme. We will also offer some general context about Universal Basic Income, other pilot schemes, and the work of UBI Lab Arts and the wider UBI Lab Network in advocating for, and broadening and deepening the discussion about, Universal Basic Income. We will be joined by artists and artworkers from Ireland, including Shane Finan, Rachel Botha and Alisha Doody, who will give us personal insights into the way in which, in this early stage, the Basic Income trial is affecting them and their creative communities. We will hear both from recipients and members of the ‘control group’ who applied but will not receive the basic income and ask:

• How and why did you apply?

• What do you hope a Basic Income will help you achieve with your creative practice?

• How did you feel about the decision?

• How has the announcement of the participants in the project been received by the creative communities and general public of Ireland?

• What do you feel are the strengths and weaknesses of the pilot?

There will also be opportunity for questions and answers from the audience, and over the course of the series we hope to address wider questions including

:• How can a Basic Income (BI) support artists and their creative work which is often associated with a precarious financial and economic situation?

• How can artists help to make people aware and understand the concept and advantages of a universal basic income (UBI) for all residents in a society?

• How might the Basic Income for the Arts trial feed into a Universal Basic Income pilot in Ireland?

• How might the pilot help make the ‘creative case for UBI’ elsewhere and in particular how this Irish trial might help to promote the concept and advocate for Basic Income in the UK.

• What are the potential campaign synergies and opportunities for mutual support between UBI Lab Arts and Culture Declares Emergency?

[arteetude]

Thank you for setting this up, Reinhard. All shared interesting questions and concerns. I am as well in the Control Group and know nobody in my circle of artists who are either in the control group or the main group of the basic income.