Council pulls plug on Ormeau Baths: Last Wednesday, several hundred people from the arts community in Northern Ireland turned up outside the Ormeau Baths Gallery in Belfast to show their concern at its abrupt closure, reports Aidan Dunne.
The day before, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland had pulled the plug on the gallery, which was the North's primary venue for contemporary visual arts. While the council claims that its action was in line with a decision by the Ormeau's board, the move has to be seen against a background of acrimony between the council and the gallery. Citing financial irregularities, for example, the council had for some time provided grant funding on a monthly basis, a highly unusual arrangement.
The Ormeau had owned up to faults in its accounting in the past, though the errors seem to have been of a nature that is not exceptional in the labyrinthine procedures that are now part and parcel of arts administration. Local arts organisations point out that an impartial audit, conducted at the council's behest, had cleared the gallery of any implication of wrongdoing. Such an implication was particularly wounding given that the Ormeau, like many other publicly funded spaces, depended on commitment levels beyond the call of duty from its staff.
In any case, quite apart from financial issues, the council's expressions of dissatisfaction with the gallery's structures suggest a more pervasive antipathy. A council statement in response to criticism of the closure said it might provide "an opportunity to broaden the appeal of this particular gallery space to the wider public and to provide greater opportunities for artists".
The clear implication is that the gallery programme was not populist enough. Yet the vitality of any art scene depends on the coexistence of old and new, conservative and innovative. The job of the Ormeau Baths Gallery, in other words, was not to be the Royal Ulster Academy. Given its function, a certain edginess and a concomitant level of criticism were inevitable. In its 11 years it delivered a succession of lively and often provocative exhibitions and events, and it did so on a budget that was, in international terms, extremely modest. More conservative work had a natural home in the Ulster Museum. Now, as it happens, Belfast will find itself doubly deprived, as the Ulster Museum is due to close for a prolonged period for major refurbishment.
Wake-up call in the west
The man with the lampshade on his head and an old black telephone to his ear seemed somewhat perplexed at this week's public meeting on the future of Galway Arts Festival, reports Lorna Siggins.
"Can we not just come together?" performer Frank McCarthy asked the organisers of Project '06, a community-based initiative which is planning a "parallel" event in July. "I felt there was going to be an argument tonight."
"Hopefully not," responded the meeting's independent chairman, Ronnie O'Gorman, of the Galway Advertiser.
"Then tell me," McCarthy said, "who is going to chair the tribunal?"
There were small eruptions from time to time during the two-hour meeting attended by more than 300 people in Galway's Great Southern Hotel. Complaints about "elitism", over-priced tickets, unacknowledged submissions, a dearth of street events, a lack of sufficient provision for the Irish language and music and the "corporatisation" of the festival were voiced by a number of speakers.
Others, such as Galway city dancer in residence Tanya McCrory, welcomed both initiatives, and said that Project '06 could be "organic" rather than "political".
Tomás Hardiman, of Galway Arts Centre, who was asked at short notice to give a neutral view, said he did not agree with the suggestion that the festival had "gone a ledge too high". Hardiman believed it had a challenging role in securing international acts, noting that Galway Youth Theatre's decision to participate in Project '06 had "not ended up in a row" and welcoming the "groundswell of creativity" in the room which should be harnessed.
O'Gorman deftly dampened attempts to settle a few old scores. The festival's board had declined an invitation to the meeting, but sent a statement wishing Project '06 well.
At times, however, it seemed as if the fault lay elsewhere. Little John Nee recalled his arrival in Galway 20 years ago when there was "an excitement about the arts", Macnas was starting up, and he would hitch a lift down Shop Street in the back of Pádraic Breathnach's hearse.
The city had lost two of its leading street artists, it appeared to be "getting bigger" and the "identification with the arts" seemed to be "slipping away", Nee said. Town Hall Theatre manager Michael Diskin, speaking in a personal capacity as one of the Project '06 founders, said that the aim was to "let every artist put on a show" and said that he had stopped directing artists to the arts festival a few years ago.
"We want to meet you and to talk to you, and I can't understand how this can be portrayed in anything but a positive light," Diskin said. "We're not protesting, we're showing what can be achieved."
Fellow founders Pádraic Breathnach and Ollie Jennings were not quite so diplomatic. The festival was in receipt of considerable State funding and "if it had any cop, it would have organised this meeting", Breathnach said, to applause, adding that he was "too old to be part of a fringe". Two major organisations, the arts festival and Druid Theatre Company, were "like two cuckoos in a nest, soaking up money and taking up venues" and there would be "no more Druids, Macnases, Little Johns and Saw Doctors" unless young aspiring artists were supported, said Breathnach.
Saw Doctors manager Ollie Jennings felt it was "time for the arts festival board to come down off its high horse and meet us", while stating that 90 per cent of what the festival did was "great".
Former arts minister Michael D Higgins warned against visiting "a number of old chestnuts" and said it was both "possible and necessary to achieve excellence" - as in booking international acts - and to involve local artists. He said if he had to make a choice between "expensive international events and emerging creative talent", he would, however, choose the latter.
Higgins talked about the wider issue of public space and the "loss of the street" in cities across Europe. One now required "a €6 million insurance policy" to exercise one's right to be in the street, he said. It would be "very wrong" to present the Project '06 initiative as a "confrontation between the new, organised and professional and the founders", and yet the meeting should be a "wake-up call for respect and creativity in all its forms".
Felicity Stewart noted the absence of representatives of the city's new African and eastern European communities at the meeting, and suggested that they be invited to participate in Project '06.
Two motions put to the floor were carried by a majority - that Project '06 should take place in July (18th to 29th) and that the Galway Arts Festival should be asked to enter into dialogue with it to ensure a more inclusive festival in future years. See www.project06.com
Clear the throat - the closing date for the Yeats Aloud contest for second-level schools is next Friday, March 10th. The spoken poetry competition (organised by the National Library in association with Poetry Ireland) specifies that poems must be by WB Yeats (the recommended choice is The Song of Wandering Aengus). There are three levels - junior , intermediate and senior - and entry forms can be obtained from www.poetryireland.ie/education or www.nli.ie
Rough Magic invites submissions from emerging theatre artists for its latest artist development initiative. Seeds3 will support new directing and writing talent, but will also, for the first time, offer emerging designers, composers and producers the chance to participate in the programme.
The successful applicants will work together for 18 months, with mentoring by established artists, and will showcase work at the 2007 Dublin Fringe. The programme also involves international research trips, an international placement and experience assisting on Rough Magic productions. Each playwright will receive a full commission and will be mentored by an experienced director of new writing.
The international aspect of Seeds3 is expanded with help from Culture Ireland and partnerships with Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre and London's National Theatre Studio. Seeds3 directors will assist on one Traverse production, while the NT Studio will provide places for Seeds3 artists on its training programmes.
To coincide with the launch of Seeds3, Rough Magic has appointed Tom Creed (who did the director's programme in Seeds2) as the company's first associate director.
Artscape is edited by Deirdre Falvey