A quick reminder to all interested parties that as part of the CULTMED project, CULTURELINK – The Centre for Research in Cultural Policy, Development and Cooperation is organizing the fourth lecture within the Culturelink Guest Lecture Series, which will be held on Tuesday, September 2, 2025, at 4 p.m. in the library of the Institute for Development and International Relations (IRMO). Irish lecturer and researcher in cultural policy, Paraic Mc Quaid, will hold a lecture entitled “Basic Income for Artists – assessment of the Irish Pilot”.
The lecture will look at the Basic Income for Artists (BIA) scheme implemented in Ireland in the context of cultural policy. In particular, it will attempt to shine a light on what set of political, economic, cultural and social circumstances gave rise to such a scheme, which raised considerable interest internationally. The lecture will present some analysis of the policy discourse surrounding the implementation of the scheme, analysis of the proposal documents, ministerial press releases, etc. It will look at the questions surrounding why artists should be singled out for such special treatment, and it will look at how the scheme relates to Universal Basic Income. In addition, the lecture will present an overview of the research that has been commissioned to assess the impacts of the scheme. Policy problems will then be explored, such as – how this scheme, if continued, would impact the Arts Council and other forms of artist financial support, how will means testing be applied, which government agency is best placed to administer the scheme? The lecture is based on an article co-written with Satu Teppo (University of Melbourne) for a special issue of the international scientific journal Cultural Trends in 2025.
The lecture will be held in English. You can apply until 1st September 2025, to kultura@irmo.hr.
Paraic Mc Quaid is a lecturer and researcher in cultural policy at the Institute of Art, Design and Technology (IADT) in Dún Laoghaire, Ireland. He is a Creation Bridge Lead for the Elevate Programme and programme chair for the Postgraduate and Master’s in Cultural Event Management. Paraic continues his practice-based research in sculpture and collaborative arts practice in parallel to his academic writing. Paraic was an expert assessor for the Creative Europe fund from 2013 to 2015 and has been an expert author for the Compendium of Cultural Policies since 2017. Paraic’s recent research has focused on Basic Income for Artists, Freedom of Artistic Expression and Arts and Climate Policy. In 2024, he presented papers at the Basic Income Earth Network conference at Bath University, the International Conference of Cultural Policy Research (ICCPR) in Warsaw University, and the International Cultural Policy Conference of the Compendium of Cultural Policies in Podgorica, Montenegro. In 2025, he had an article published by the Boekman Foundation on Arts and Climate Policy, and an article on Basic Income for Artists published in the Cultural Trends International Journal. More info at the following link.
