In early 2022, Elinor O’Donovan was living in Cork, working part-time as a receptionist, and dedicating the rest of the week to her work as a visual artist. “I was tentatively interested in doing what I do as a career,” O’Donovan told me. “I had had some funding from the Arts Council [of Ireland], so I had a little taste of knowing that it’s possible to make work and be paid as an artist.” O’Donovan was about to get more than a taste: in September that year, she found out she had been successful in her application for a basic income from the Irish government to sustain her art full-time for the next three years.
Ireland’s Basic Income for Artists Has Been a Runaway Success. Why Is the Government so Nervous About Expanding It?
It’s boosted the Irish economy by £88m.
