Front/row

The writer and director of Poetry Ireland, Theo Dorgan, has been contracted by the Department of Arts as an "independent assessor" of the submissions the Minister has garnered with a view to redrafting arts legislation. About 250 submissions were received by the deadline, which was October 20th.

It will be Dorgan's job to read the submissions carefully, extract the gist of them and append an analytical note. He points out that these notes will be available to the public under the Freedom of Information Act, and adds: "The whole process reeks of transparency." He considers that the appointment of an independent assessor reflects the department's commitment to "a thorough-going analysis", and offers the public "simple and very straightforward reassurance."

Asked why he thinks he was approached, Dorgan says he has absolutely no idea: "I asked them and they wouldn't tell me. Maybe they put all the names in a hat and pulled one." He is expecting to have his work wrapped up by Christmas. The first formal response by the Minister may come by next Spring.

He thinks the review is a serious attempt to find out "what people are doing, what do they need and what do they think the department should do". His contact in the department is assistant principal Seamus Lynam, while the secretary-general, Philip Furlong, is credited by many as being the author of much of the Minister's discussion document. Dorgan says he is impressed by how effectively members of the department work together.

IT'S a "critical juncture" in the development of Temple Bar - those are the words of Tambra Dillon, the new general manager of Dublin's "Left Bank".

Tambra Dillon was formerly vice-president of marketing and promotions at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York, which, she explains, acted as a catalyst in the urban renewal of Brooklyn: "It was the IFC in the Temple Bar picture."

It was romance which brought Dillon across the Atlantic. Since coming here a year and a half ago, she has worked as fundraising and marketing manager of the Dublin Theatre Festival and in information technology.

The "critical juncture" referred to is the definition of Temple Bar's role, now that its architectural development is about to come to an end. Dillon hopes to "facilitate strategic alliances within the arts", including some between Temple Bar's cultural institutions, and she wants to help market those institutions. She admits that she doesn't yet know exactly what kind of funding she will have to do this work, but she will be applying to the usual backers as well as engaging in private fundraising. "It's a moving target until the West End is finished," she says.

She intends to work with the traders' organisation, TASC, and Dublin Corporation to combat what might be described as the unsavouriness of the area. "Dublin has been so successful in achieving tourism targets," she says. "The question is: how do we deal with the good news?"

Rough Magic's hugely successful production of Richard Greenberg's Three Days of Rain opens tonight at the Project and runs for four weeks. Each Saturday at 2 p.m. during this period, the company is staging readings of major new plays from Britain and North America. This Saturday's offering, Hurrah at Last, is also by Richard Greenberg and is directed by Wilson Milam.

On Saturday, December 2nd, the play will be Blue/Orange by Joe Penhall, which was a hit at London's National Theatre. It is directed by playwright Conor McPherson, who will attend for the after-show discussion.

Shelagh Stephenson's The Memory of Water, directed by Mark Lambert, will be presented on Saturday, December 9th. This first went up at London's Hampstead Theatre. Finally, French-Canadian Michel Tremblay's play, Solemn Mass for a Full Moon in Summer, directed by Helene Montague, will feature on Saturday, December 16th. For information, contact the Project on 01-679 6622.

This initiative is an indicator of the substance of Rough Magic's new improved application for three-year funding, which the Arts Council is due to consider next month. The company's first application was rejected, and only a year's funding was granted. Executive producer Deborah Aydon describes the new plan as "quite different from the old one, focussed on new work - new work in an international context".

It's great news about the £250,000 sterling advance which Dublin writer Jamie O'Neill has been offered by Simon and Schuster for his thumping great wad of a novel At Swim, Two Boys, a gay love story set against the background of the Easter Rising. The publisher's press release could have been better phrased for Ireland, however. O'Neill's agent, Giles Gordon, is quoted as saying "English literature has a significant strand that is also Irish literature", while the editor of the book, Tim Binding, mentions "Ireland's fearless but foolish uprising." The main problem with the major British publishers nowadays, however, is that it's hard to get them to read new writing.

It was the Irish writer and editor, David Marcus, who introduced O'Neill to his agent. Envious writers everywhere will be interested to know that Marcus is looking for more new work to champion. His address is: PO Box 4937, Rathmines, Dublin 6.

THIS week, about 20,000 homes in the Tallaght area will receive a copy of a publication that falls well outside the scope of the usual pre-Christmas crop of advertising and promotional material. Paul Seawright's The Map, a 28-page, full-colour booklet, doesn't set out to sell anything. It's a collection of photographs exploring the fringes of the urban spaces at Tallaght, where masses of suburban housing and concrete block walls meet residual farmland and the foothills of the Dublin Mountains.

Seawright visited Tallaght by day and by night over a period of some months to find these images, and his work will form an exhibition next February at the Douglas Hyde Gallery.

His project forms part of an extremely ambitious series, under the general title In Context, commissioned by South Dublin County Council under the "per cent for art scheme". The bundle of projects also includes composer Stephen Gardner's Chiaroscuro for string quartet, which was premiered last week; a site-specific sculpture by Corban Walker inspired by the River Camac; and a 10-week film workshop by Alan Phelan.

County Council art officer Emily-Jane Kirwan isn't exaggerating when she suggests that In Context "is the most imaginative and original use of the per cent for art scheme to date."

Chris Smith, British Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, is giving a lecture entitled "The Future of Museums" at the Ulster Museum, Belfast, on Monday at 7.30 p.m. Admission costs £4 and the booking number is 028 90 383048.