FREE to all - Please RSVP

UBI Lab Arts, UBI Lab Leeds and UBI Lab Network, in association with Basic Income Ireland present:

Please join us for the seventh in our special series of discussions dedicated to reflecting on what we can learn from the Irish Basic Income for the Arts Pilot Scheme.

The Government of Ireland is running a Basic Income pilot that began in September 2022 and was supposed to end in August this year. It has now been extended for 6 months and will end in February 2026. 2000 artists and cultural workers receive an unconditional income of €325 weekly for a period of three and half years. This seventh session will be an opportunity to check-in with some of the artists involved in the pilot scheme and learn from them about how it is affecting them and their creative communities. What will be the impact of the end in February 2026? We will also discuss the announcement of the Irish government to start a new permanent scheme in September 2026 because of the success of the pilot. However, it is not clear what will be the design of the new permanent programme and how many Irish artists will benefit and for how long. You can watch the recordings from our previous six sessions here:

We will again be joined by artists Alisha Doody, Shane Finan, Lauren Conway and Tadhg Ó Cuirrín, who will give us personal insights from the perspective of recipients and members of the ‘control group’ who applied but do not receive the Basic Income for the Arts (BIA). We may be joined by other Irish artists from different fields of the Arts and the National Campaign for the Arts (NCFA). NCFA has advocated for a permanent programme which includes all artists. BI Ireland will provide us with an update about their work, the actual political context in Ireland, the evaluation and the future of the BIA scheme.

Following a brief refresher about Universal Basic Income, other pilot schemes, and the work of UBI Lab Arts, the wider UBI Lab Network, and Basic Income Ireland we will open up a discussion with the artists. There will also be plenty of opportunity for questions from the audience.

The Irish Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media has released five reports assessing the pilot. You can find the info about the pilot and the evaluation reports here.

The session will take place on Zoom. Places are free but booking is required.