1,000 signatures reached
To: Dublin City Council, Minister for the Arts and Culture (Catherine Martin TD), Directors of Temple Bar Cultural Trust
Protect Arts in Temple Bar from Commercial Interests - Support the Icon Walk - Save the Icon Factory
We want The Minister, DCC, and the Directors of TBCT to address the imbalance in activities and protect the Art and Culture projects of Temple Bar.
We ask you to remember the ethos behind the Temple Bar project:
“The company’s vision is to bring residents, artists, tourists, businesses and cultural programming together in a specially developed City Quarter for economic and cultural impact.” (Temple Bar Cultural Trust, published accounts 2018)
With respect we asked the Minister, DCC, and all responsible parties to enforce their own stated policies, to support local businesses, artists and other stakeholder aggressively, to remember that Temple Bar was not envisaged as a wholly commercial activity, but as a cultural quarter.
Why is this important?
** The Balance is Wrong! **
Current evidence proves that it is next-to-impossible for non-commercial activities to survive in Temple Bar with artistic and cultural endeavours being pushed to the side. We believe that there is a lack of balance between all stakeholders and there is an over emphasis on money making activities, to the detriment of the Temple Bar area.
Temple Bar area has been designated and developed to be a cultural hotspot for Dublin, with supposed encouragement given to small businesses, art and culture projects, and the repopulation of the area. However, the dominance of large (super) pubs and the increasing number of restaurants (incl. fast food) has led to many Dubliners avoiding the area as its largely regarded as a drinking and clubbing area with a reputation for anti-social behaviour and drug use.
** Our Story (Who Are We?) **
We are the Icon Walk project (a registered charity) based on Aston Place in Temple Bar. We are an artist collective. The Icon Factory and Aga Szot Studio are part of our activities and are responsible for much of our fundraising. We have a new landlord that seeks vacant possession of the premises, to make way for a proposed restaurant. We will fight in court, and even if we win, it may be a pyrrhic victory. We wish to preserve the Icon Walk and to do this the Icon Factory needs a permanent home. Otherwise all we have brought to the area will be gone.
To find out more or if you think you can help us, please find us at www.iconfactorydublin.com, or on social media (search Icon Factory Dublin). We are looking for potential sites (if required), and also we will have to fundraise to go to court.