A pilot scheme offering some artists €300-plus a month for three years is being made permanent. But should something so fundamental be run like a lottery?
I
won the lottery. Out of around 8,000 artists, my name was randomly chosen to be one of the 2,000 who the Irish government would pay a basic income. This pilot scheme was a test of whether a policy of supporting artists would pay off in terms of creative work, wellbeing and, calculated down to the cent, the money that society would make back.
For three years, we were paid €325 a week with no strings attached, other than filling out a survey. We could continue earning and applying for artist grants. I am a freelance writer who, like most artists, has always had to work outside my creative focus to afford to live, constantly worrying I will never be able to afford a home myself or to start a family. As such, the basic income was life-changing.
Only months into the scheme, I found out I was pregnant. The basic income helped me decide to have my baby, knowing I could continue creative work and keep my small studio space in a light-filled warehouse in the heart of Dublin. The Back Loft, one of the few affordable spaces left for artists, is a strong community of visual artists, musicians, writers, tattooists and knitters.
