🎶 “We’re one, but we’re not the same… we get to carry each other.” 🎶

Those lyrics — etched in gospel and grit, in Bono’s Dublin roar and Mary J. Blige’s Brooklyn soul — are more than a chorus. They’re a philosophy. And in this moment, as Ireland extends a Basic Income for the Arts, they become a living promise: that creativity deserves shelter, and artists deserve to belong.

This isn’t just a budget line — it’s a heartbeat. One that pulses through the stained glass of Evie Hone, through the defiance of Sinéad O’Connor, through the risk and reinvention of Róisín Murphy. It hums beneath every sketch, every song, every unfinished play finally given the time it deserves.

But listen deeper, and you might hear Luke Kelly, that fierce, fiery balladeer from Dublin, whose voice carried the weight of working-class dreams. He sang truth not just with lyrics, but with purpose — and this moment carries that same fire. The belief that art is not for the few, but for everyone. That dignity belongs on every stage, every street corner, every soul unafraid to sing.

And as One rises in the background, the message becomes clear: art is not a luxury. It’s what holds the pieces of a nation together when words fail. When trust frays. When joy feels far away. Whether in a backroom in Brooklyn or a backstreet in Dublin, creativity calls — and someone must answer.

The Basic Income for the Arts is that answer. It says: We see you. We hear you. We’re walking with you.

Let this song be the soundtrack to a quiet revolution — one not of arms but of open hands. One voice. One future. One love.

🎶❤️🎨🕊️☘️🍔☮️😊🔊 One - U2 Ft. Mary J. Blige

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In an age where art is too often seen as expendable, Ireland is setting a precedent that defies global trends.

With the extension of its Basic Income for the Arts (BIA) pilot until February 2026, the government has ensured an additional €8,450 per participating artist — continuing the €325 weekly payment that began in 2022.

Unlike traditional grants or performance-based subsidies, this income is unconditional — freeing artists from the demand to justify their worth through quantifiable output.

Around the world, few nations have dared to place such faith in creative workers.

This isn’t just income — it’s infrastructure for the imagination, and it signals a shift in how nations might invest in their cultural future.

📰📢 What’s New?

Launched during the cultural upheaval of the COVID-19 recovery, BIA was born from the 2020 “Life Worth Living” report, which called for bold, human-centered policy to sustain Irish creativity. The pilot initially funded 2,000 artists for three years. The government’s recent extension — announced by Minister Patrick O’Donovan — buys crucial time for a full review, as Budget 2026 is expected to propose a long-term successor.

The BIA is more than just policy scaffolding: it’s a prototype for how countries could value culture with the same urgency as technology or healthcare. A €25 million experiment has become an internationally watched case study. And it’s fitting that this experiment emerges from Ireland — the land of myth, music, and poetry, whose soul still echoes with the voice of Luke Kelly, our working-class poet and revolutionary balladeer.

💡🌱 Why It Matters

So, what has this meant for artists on the ground? According to the latest government impact report, over 70% of BIA recipients report improved mental health, while more than half have increased the time they spend on creative work. Freed from survival anxiety, artists are beginning families, securing stable housing, and finally planning futures beyond the next gig.

This is especially profound in a world where cultural labor is often seen as invisible. Unlike Germany’s project-based Kulturmilliarde or the short-lived Ontario pilots in Canada, Ireland’s model treats creativity as a public good — not a privilege for the elite, or a side hustle subsidized by day jobs.

Think of Paul Henry, whose misty Connemara landscapes helped define Irish identity itself. What would have flourished had he not faced economic obstacles? The BIA allows today’s artists to paint, compose, perform — not when they can afford to, but because they must.

🏛️📊 What’s Next?

The road ahead is pivotal. The Department of Culture is working on a rigorous cost-benefit analysis using a control group to measure the scheme’s impacts. Minister O'Donovan has committed to proposing a long-term replacement within Budget 2026 — ideally expanding eligibility and integrating BIA within Ireland’s broader welfare and tax infrastructure.

This policy moment demands courage. Could the BIA be a template for basic income in other fragile sectors — like care work or green transition jobs? Could Ireland become not just a cultural leader but a social policy innovator, grounded in empathy?

Let’s hope those crafting the future remember Evie Hone, whose radiant stained glass illuminated both churches and civic spaces. Her work reminds us that art isn’t separate from public life — it is public life.

🤝❤️ Rallying for Permanence

The National Campaign for the Arts (NCFA) isn’t waiting for the ink to dry. They’re mobilizing nationwide to demand that the BIA becomes permanent — and expands. They see it as a cultural rights issue, no different than clean water or education. NCFA Chair Maria Fleming describes it as “the scaffolding for a new Ireland — one where artists are not afterthoughts, but architects of national identity.”

Compare that to other nations: In the UK, arts funding for higher education has dropped by 50% since 2021, while the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts receives just $207 million — about $0.60 per American. Ireland’s BIA, by contrast, is a strategic and moral investment in what makes us human.

Would Róisín Murphy, our genre-breaking performer and sonic rebel, have risen so boldly without a society that nurtures experimentation? Imagine a generation of artists allowed the space to become themselves.

🌍🎭 Art at the Crossroads: A Global Snapshot

Art isn’t vanishing — it’s surviving. The 2025 Art Basel & UBS Report shows that though global art sales fell 12% to $57.5 billion, the number of transactions actually rose by 3%, pointing to a fragmentation of the market toward smaller, independent creators. But behind this shift is anxiety. U.S. artists operate without national health insurance or income protections, and only 12% live off their practice full-time. Meanwhile, cultural funding in Italy, Hungary, and other EU nations continues to shrink under inflation and austerity.

Ireland’s BIA stands out for its philosophical clarity. It declares artists as workers — not decor. It extends a kind of trust rarely found in neoliberal models of creative industries. And that’s something Luke Kelly would’ve understood deeply: art as work, and art as witness.

🇪🇺🧵 Europe’s Artists Push Back

Across the continent, artists are fighting for their right to exist. Berlin’s creative class is in open revolt over skyrocketing rents that have gutted studio districts. In France, performers under the intermittents du spectacle system staged wildcat strikes against pension reform, blocking theatres and concert halls in protest. The EU’s “New European Bauhaus” initiative is ambitious, but faces criticism for slow implementation and inconsistent funding mechanisms.

Ireland’s BIA moves at a different rhythm — one that starts with listening. With more than €45 million allocated across its lifespan, the scheme already has more momentum than many EU-led projects. It’s no surprise that officials from Denmark, Portugal, and Finland have attended briefings to learn from this model. Just as Evie Hone reframed sacred light through radical glasswork, Ireland is reframing artistic value — making it structural, not ornamental.

🎨🎤 When Art Speaks Truth to Power

Great art confronts. It doesn’t just comfort — it resists, exposes, and dares. Think of Banksy, the anonymous graffiti artist who has turned public walls into scenes of rebellion, satire, and aching humanity. His murals whisper truths no gallery could hold.

Ireland, too, has its truth-tellers. Few as searing as Sinéad O’Connor, who in 1992 tore up a photo of the Pope on live TV to protest clerical abuse. She was ostracized — until her act was re-evaluated as prophetic. Her pain was performance, and her voice, unrelenting. That’s the kind of courage the BIA shelters: not only nurturing beauty, but shielding the dangerous gift of honesty. It gives room for the next disruptor — maybe the next Róisín Murphy, unafraid of form or fashion — to thrive.

📣🚀 Make It Heard

This is not just Ireland’s policy — this is Ireland’s vision of democracy. Where the arts aren’t a side dish, but the main course of national identity. Where culture is policy, not performance. And where imagination is defended as fiercely as industry.

Other countries are taking note. OECD reports highlight the BIA as a best-practice case. Delegations from South Korea, New Zealand, and Estonia have studied its logistics. Not everyone will follow — but Ireland leads by example.

The takeaway is simple: trust artists, and they’ll return the favor in beauty, bravery, and belonging.

🖼️✨ Final Brushstroke

Art is how we grieve. It’s how we rebuild. It’s how we project joy into the future. With this extension of the Basic Income for the Arts, Ireland is saying that culture is not a luxury — it’s a cornerstone. That every time someone paints, sings, writes, or choreographs in defiance of insecurity, we all benefit.

So here’s to a country bold enough to say: You create, we’ve got you. Because to invest in artists is to invest in who we are — and who we might yet become.

#ArtIsInfrastructure 🖼️ #CreateWithoutFear 🎨 #BIA2026 ☘️ #IrelandLeads 📣 #CultureIsPower