Extra NCH space means controversial tennis court plan can be scrapped

A development which could have far-reaching consequences for the arts in Ireland occurred during Micheal Martin's last days as Minister of Education. Funding came through for the relocation of UCD's engineering and medical faculties to Belfield, freeing space in Earlsfort Terrace for the expansion of the National Concert Hall.

This means the concert hall's planned second performance space can be housed in what is now the medical library. This can now surely replace the ill-advised and ill-fated plan to restore and convert the derelict glass-roofed real tennis court - a proposal which incurred the displeasure of real tennis enthusiast HRH Prince Edward, as you will remember. It is exciting, too, that there is a plan to use the rest of the site to create a hub of arts organisations in Earlsfort Terrace. No one yet knows what exactly this will amount to, not least because, as one of al Martin's parting shots before taking up the health portfolio, the revelation was, well, a bit ahead of itself.

It was an Abbey Theatre production of O'Casey's The Silver Tassie that prompted English composer Mark-Anthony Turnage to embark on his new opera of the same name for English National Opera (ENO). Unusually for an opera, the work will already be well tried out when it has its premiere at the Coliseum in London on February 16th. In composing his first full-length opera, Turnage had the benefit of trying out his ideas in workshops with principals, chorus and orchestra at the ENO Studio, the first time this luxurious necessity has been afforded an ENO commission. The experience did lead to changes, from occasional cuts to lightening of the orchestration. There aren't many composers who can say well in advance of an operatic premiere - as Turnage did in a recent interview: "I've now heard the entire opera played and sung."

Why does the Irish Government oppose Irish artists' right to artists' royalties - a percentage fee paid when their visual art is sold on? The right - known as the "droit de suite" - already exists in 11 of the 15 EU member states, and in at least 15 other countries. The US federal government also plans to introduce the right.

The right could be introduced in the context of the Copyright and Related Rights Bill, but the Government is against it for a series of reasons which all seem unconvincing. The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment says successive Irish governments have been against it - but this isn't true, because the Arts Plan 1997-99, which was adopted by Government, supported it. It also argues that few artists would benefit substantially from it and that the art market is local - but why then legislate against those who would benefit? It warns that trade might then go to countries which do not have a droit de suite, but as we have seen, the droit is fast becoming the norm in the civilised world - although not in the UK, despite the objections of 20,000 artists.

The Arts Council of Northern Ireland has announced that it has commissioned an independent review of its five-year plan, To The Millennium. This review will differ in two major ways from the independent review of ion's the our own Arts Council's five-year plan: it was commissioned by the council, not the arts ministry, and it will be led by a major player in the arts world, rather than by professional evaluators. Anthony Everitt is visiting professor of performing and visual arts at Nottingham Trent University and was secretary-general of the Arts Council of Great Britain for four years. He will work with evaluators Annabel Jackson Associates. If the team reports by April it will certainly have completed its report faster than the Coopers & Lybrand/Indecon team which worked in Dublin. This team engaged in a lengthy public consultation process which attracted paltry audiences around the country; Everitt/Jackson have probably been wise to limit themselves to private consultation and an all-day public meeting at the Posthouse Forte Hotel, Dunmurry, on March 6th.

What happened to Druid's Synge Festival? As we announced with due pomp and circumstance in this newspaper, the company was due to stage all of his plays in 1998, and open them on Inis Meain. Barely a whisper has been heard of the festival since. Druid's artistic director, Garry Hynes, says that the success of new work, specifically that of Martin McDonagh, overtook the plan; this year too, new work is being given priority with Marina Carr's On Raftery's Hill due to go up in May, and Billy Roche's On Such As We scheduled for later in the year. McDonagh's Beauty Queen of Leenane is limbering up for a tour of Ireland and the UK at the Gaiety Theatre from February 22nd - after a gala preview in aid of the Irish Cancer Society.

The Synge Festival will now open on the Aran Islands in Spring 2001, and Hynes is looking for private and public sponsorship for the event.

The National Children's Hospital, Tallaght is running a special art exhibition from Friday, February 18th until Sunday 20th, featuring works by artists including Markey Robinson, Fergus O'Ryan, Desmond Carrick and Nancy Larkin. The funds raised will go the hospital's appeal fund - phone 01-4142375/4 for information . . . If you're interested in joining Alleycats amateur theatre company in Cork, turn up at the Cork Arts Theatre on Monday at 8 p.m. . . . Liz Roche, artistic director of Rex Levitates Dance Company, has won the Peter Darrell Choreographic Award and as part of the prize has choreographed a new piece for Scottish Dance Theatre, which was premiered in Dundee this week and goes up at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre tomorrow night.

Edited by Victoria White, who can be contacted at frontrow@irish-times.ie