Sir - Sylvia Thompson poses two questions about the operating policy of The Ark in her Comment Box piece in your edition of April 10th.
She asks why The Ark does not have a permanent exhibition. The simple reason is that we provide on a year-round basis high-quality cultural experiences for children aged between four and 14 years (which represents at least four distinct audience groups) across the full spectrum of arts disciplines. The kind of rotation of programme necessary to fulfil this brief makes it impossible to accommodate a permanent exhibition. Many of our programmes involve several spaces in the building - the theatre, the gallery and the workshop - and so this would also make it impractical to have permanent displays.
Ms Thompson's disappointment at our inability to offer a "drop-in" service to casual visitors from Ireland and abroad is, I hope, more than offset by the very high quality programming which is available to the thousands of children who visit The Ark each year.
Ms Thompson is also irritated by the fact that we do not generally allow casual visitors to "walk around and see what's on". Again, I would emphasise that the programming of The Ark involves a very concentrated commitment from the children attending and therefore people wandering through the various work spaces during a programme would be most disruptive to those who have taken the trouble to book their attendance in advance. She acknowledges this difficulty but seems not to take it on board, nor does she acknowledge the limitation on space within the centre. Her comparisons with the Irish Museum of Modern Art and the National Museum hardly seem appropriate in the context of space.
Ms Thompson's disappointments and irritations are not new to us. Several people in the past have raised similar issues. We take these concerns seriously and have commissioned independent market research with parents, teachers and children on these and other matters. The results of this research emphatically commend the programming of the centre and suggest in the strongest terms that no expansion of the work should be contemplated which would dilute the quality of the very personal encounter that children experience in The Ark.
To try to address this greater demand for the work of The Ark we set about creating a trust almost two years ago to raise funding for an outreach and development programme. This fundraising continues to be most successful and our initial four projects - in Temple Street Hospital, in Fatima Mansions, on the Internet and in touring programmes - are well advanced.
We do what we do well. The Ark is not a "drop-in" centre, nor do we have permanent exhibits, because the philosophy of the organisation is based on a belief in the rights of children to have varied and meaningful cultural experiences, rather than the ephemera which are so often the trademark of many other children's centres. We should not be blamed for being something which patently we are not. It's a bit like blaming a cow for not being a horse! - Yours, etc.,
Arthur Lappin, Chairman, The Ark, Eustace Street, Dublin 2.