5 Year Strategic Plan

The culmination of two years work resulted in the publication of the Strategic Plan 2008-2011, which was launched by Martin Mansergh T.D. Minister of State at the Department of Finance with special responsibility for the Office of Public Works and the Arts on September 11th 2008 at a special function held in Annaghmakerrig.

In his speech the Minister made the following comments:

The origins of this place go back to a single yet great act of generosity and vision. It was the entrusting of this home to the state by Tyrone Guthrie, with the express intent that it be used for the benefit of artists that made everything that has happened since possible…

The centre is situated in a border county. The first steps towards establishing this centre were taken in the mid-1970s. I cannot help but find that remarkable. It was a decade when the awful reality of violence was forcing people to retreat from each other- behind peace walls, watchtowers and checkpoints and into the illusory comfort of sectarian certainties and political dogma – a very different kind of retreat was being envisaged here in Annaghmakerrig.

There is something fitting about that. Because whereas the first was a retreat born of failure – of the will, of the imagination and above all, of the heart – the second was a bold assertion of the worth of these self-same things. The creation of this centre, this artists’ retreat, was a declaration that these things matter – the creative impulse matters; the life of the imagination matters; magnanimity matters. Above all, this is a place that reminds us that, when all rigid ideologies and grand strategies have been exhausted, it is to these we will always turn for solace, renewal and hope.

A PDF of the published plan is available for download.
TGC 5 Year Strategic Plan