Aosdána
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Aosdána (IPA: [iːs ˈdɑːnə]; from "aos dána", Irish "people of the arts") is an association of people in Ireland who have achieved distinction in the arts. It was created in 1981 on the initiative of a group of writers and with support from the Arts Council of Ireland. Membership, which is by invitation from current members, is limited to 250 individuals; before 2005 it was limited to 200.
Some members of Aosdána receive a stipend, called the Cnuas, from the Arts Council of Ireland. This stipend is intended to allow recipients to work full time at their art. The value of the Cnuas in 2006 was €12,180.
The title of Saoi (lit. "wise one") is the highest honour that members of Aosdána can bestow upon a fellow member. No more than five living members can be so honoured at one time.
The process of induction relies entirely on members proposing new members [1]. Application by the artist himself is forbidden. Many artists feel that membership of a state-sponsored organisation might compromise them as artists. In an Irish Times article dated December 21, 2001, poet Thomas Kinsella said that on looking over the membership he felt his standards were higher. Brendan Kennelly, in the same article, said: "On an unconscious or subconscious level I might feel compromised [by membership].' Painter Hughie O'Donoghue said he would decline membership if asked because "the thing I need most as an artist is independence." Poet Eavan Boland said: "I was not then, nor am I now, comfortable with the idea of belonging to something where there are exemptions involved." Playwright Hugh Leonard said: I am not a member by choice. And if I did ask to get in they wouldn't let me. I don't like the idea of authors en masse... and there are so many people in Aosdána of whom I have never heard. the whole thing seems unforgiveably political... That thing of exclusivity and elitism I despise."
Journalist Bruce Arnold, chief critic of The Irish Independent, argued that "Writing, for example, is not really served at all by the archaic institution for conferring honours on artists, known as Aosdana, which really does little to help the other arts either."
The poet Pearse Hutchinson, on the other hand, a member of Aosdána, has described it as "a miracle and a godsend" that allowed him to continue writing at a time when he might have had to give up.
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