Cultural missionary man

In the last three years, Culture Ireland has being promoting Irish arts with all the zeal of a missionary, and it is matching support for established acts with riskier projects, its chief executive, Eugene Downes, tells Peter Crawley

EUGENE DOWNES DOES not instantly strike you as a born proselytiser. His speech is calm, measured and polite. His approach is non-confrontational, with perhaps even a gentlemanly streak of deference. And though he will readily discuss the work of Irish writers, artists and companies, he is cautious not to broadcast any particular personal tastes. Yet, for all that apparent reserve, he is a man on a mission.

In fact, Culture Ireland, the state agency that promotes Irish arts internationally (or "the best of Irish arts and culture" as its literature sometimes puts it), which Downes helped to create and for which he has served as chief executive for just over a year, was founded on such principles. "One of Ireland's great assets in intercultural relations has traditionally been its missionary network," states its Government-approved strategy. "Much of the missionaries' work forged deep links which have endured. The network is still a key resource, particularly in terms of deep knowledge of other cultures."

It is part of Culture Ireland's remit, as Downes sees it, to fill the gap that the declining missions have left; not, admittedly, by spreading religious dogma through the world, but by using Irish culture as a conduit for Ireland's continued engagement with the world, artistically, politically and even economically.

"You think of President Mbeki of South Africa," Downes says as a summer drizzle falls outside the window of the Dublin hotel where we meet, "who regularly quotes Yeats in his speeches. Obviously it's hardwired into his cultural world view, because he was educated by Irish missionaries. And as missionaries retire and in many cases are not replaced, we have to find very different ways of making those same cultural contacts and sustaining and reinvesting in that awareness of Ireland and, above all that, understanding of Irish culture and Irish life." Such ambitions for a policy of funding Irish artists to travel to key international festivals - the most visible aspect of its activities, although certainly not the extent of them - might reflect a Governmental understanding of the strategic importance of a focused global arts mission.

With its high international regard, Irish arts and culture can open other doors for trade missions and political engagement and, tellingly, Culture Ireland's roots lie in the Cultural Relations Committee of the Department of Foreign Affairs. Downes, whose professional background is a mixture of a life in the arts and diplomatic relations, is well placed to broker between the two.

The son of an art historian father and a musician mother, Downes remembers a childhood immersed in arts, "but more broadly in a sense of Ireland being so much a part of Europe, artistically and culturally . . . So I'd always had that sense that, actually, the arts were never something that could be held within a national boundary."

After studying European and Classical literature in Trinity College, he joined the Department of Foreign Affairs, working for a time on the Northern Irish Peace Process, before travelling to Moscow as cultural attaché, a formative time, once he adapted to the Russian winter.

"I felt it more powerfully in Moscow than anywhere else," he says, "the way in which the different art forms were so intimately connected. That for me was what always excited me most about the arts. The moments that I'll never forget have been the moments that fused art forms, particularly opera."

Downes, who had toured with Russian opera companies and performed in small roles, abandoned Foreign Affairs "irrevocably" to pursue singing professionally, but later resigned himself to having too many outside interests to commit to it. He hosted an opera show in the early days of Lyric FM, despite having no previous experience in broadcasting - "I think our listeners were kind to us," he recalls fondly - and then developed a consultancy practice which lasted seven years, during which he was contracted by the Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism, in 2003, to review the performance of Irish arts internationally and to draw up recommendations.

Those policy recommendations led to the formation of Culture Ireland in 2005, which, with its respect for disparate art forms, promotional savvy, focus on "proven excellence" and non-prescriptive approach to funding (grants are disbursed in considered response to open-call submissions) seems to reflect Downes's personality. (He advised on both the formation of the board that would later appoint him CEO and the five-year plan approved by Government.) Still, although he acknowledges that the organisation has united his various career threads, he does not see himself as the architect of Culture Ireland.

"No, I certainly wouldn't go that far," he says carefully. "I was perhaps one of the people toiling on the building site." More than once, Downes will refer to bringing arts and culture into the mainstream of "Ireland Inc" and, to that end, Culture Ireland itself has quickly become a conspicuous brand name with an international impact, throwing its might behind everything from literary showcases in Delhi to Oscar bashes in LA.

With its funding now at €4.75 million for 2008, it has supported projects in more than 60 countries across five continents in the last three years, with its principle focus on bringing "outstanding artists" to various "global capitals": international springboards to facilitate career breakthroughs, such as New York's Association of Performing Arts Presenters conference, the Venice Biennale and Biennale Architecture, the Frankfurt Book Fair and - as a cartel of Irish theatre and dance companies currently storms Caledonia - the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

EDINBURGH IS AN interesting test case for the efficacy of Culture Ireland's investments. In 2006, 10 productions were funded to travel to the largest performing arts festival in the world in what was characterised as an "emerald invasion". Last year, only five companies made the trip, with Druid's The Walworth Farce, at the Traverse, proving most successful. This year, there is a heartening collaboration with Dancebase to present a triple bill of Irish dance performances at the festival, together with two more dance productions and a number of smaller projects, from companies such as Fishamble, Djinn and Dragonfly.

However, the lion's share of Culture Ireland's funding goes to Druid's production of The New Electric Ballroomand the Abbey's much-feted Terminus, both at the Traverse. Each of those productions received in excess of €80,000 - representing more than half of Culture Ireland's spend at this year's festival, and it hardens the perception that the organisation is pouring its resources into safer bets.

Likewise, last month's New York appearances by the Abbey's Kicking a Dead Horseat the Public Theater and the Gate's programme of Beckett monologues at the Lincoln Center were a publicity coup for Culture Ireland. However, neither production could be easily claimed as a breakthrough for artist or company. The Gate already enjoys a high reputation abroad (the Abbey is playing catch-up) and neither Beckett nor Shepard have been crying out for a career boost.

Downes points out that Culture Ireland has also lent support to smaller companies undertaking riskier enterprises - such as Pan Pan Theatre Company's 2006 foray into China with The Playboy of the Western World, or Semper Fi's residence in the Bethesda public restroom of Central Park, New York with Ladies and Gents. Meanwhile, by working with more famous or established acts, there is a benefit by association for Culture Ireland itself. "We're not just seen working with smaller companies," Downes explains. "We're an agency that makes those connections between Ireland, the great names of the Abbey and the Gate, Beckett and Sam Shepard. It's not inward-looking and that helps to build our profile and carries a message that Irish creativity can present absolutely world-class work."

As an organisation still in its infancy - Downes sometimes refers to it as a "start-up" - Culture Ireland needs to develop clout, both to serve its clients and itself. It is competing for international attention with such giants of cultural promotion as the British Council and the Goethe Institute, Downes admits, as well as smaller organisations such as the Swedish Institute and the Danish Institute. "We have to work that network very vigorously in the early years, across art forms and across geographical territories, to create some sense of Culture Ireland as a player," he says.

"It's a slow build. It's a steady build. But even in three years we've made significant progress." Still awaiting its establishment as a statutory body - the Government approved the proposal last year - Downes is not currently pursuing such autonomy. "At a time when there's belt-tightening, we're actually very lean," he says, "partially because we benefit from sharing [the Department's] administrative services."

Madeline Boughton has recently joined the executive as director of projects and promotions, bringing its number to just three, while an independent board, chaired by professor Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, shares in making funding decisions. "Our priority for next year," says Downes, "particularly with general budgetary tightening, is to focus on our activity - on the programmes, on the work."

Culture Ireland has displayed a similar canniness in getting that work seen. Beyond subsidising the travel costs of artists and production tours, it brings key international programmers and presenters to Irish festivals. (Downes partly traces the success of John Carney's Onceback to the Galway Film Fleadh, where the director of the Sundance Film Festival, brought there by Culture Ireland, first saw it. Whether or not this entitles Culture Ireland to a percentage of its Oscar is a matter for Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová to decide.)

Culture Ireland has also recently invested in mounting showcases, funding the revival of significant works at "hubs", such as this year's Dublin Dance Festival and the upcoming Dublin Theatre Festival, for the benefit of visiting international programmers and second-chance audiences.

Such undertakings, more so than the headline-grabbing tours, better support Downes's assertion that Culture Ireland likes to take risks on projects. When I suggest that he operates with a diplomat's caution, he doesn't recognise the description. "The reason I left Foreign Affairs," he says, "was partly because of impatience with diplomatic protocol. I think if we're doing our job and actually engaging with the arts world, so much of it is about taking a risk, taking a punt on an artist or a show or a project and trying to do some honour to the artists who have held nothing back. I'd like to think we can do some justice to that."