Funding for music schools

It's a busy time for the Music Network, writes Michael Dervan. The Musicwide scheme, already re-shaped earlier this year, has just added an international dimension in partnership with the Department of Foreign Affairs. One of the first fruits of Musicwide International will be appearances by the Callino String Quartet and pianist Finghin Collins at the Bergen International Festival in Norway. And Music Network has also been awarded funding from the Minister of Arts & Hertiage, Sile de Valera, to carry out a feasibility study in the area of music education. The study aims to devise a model for the creation of local schools of music on a one-per county basis. One of the first steps will be an assessment of current provision of instrumental and vocal tuition in Ireland, and it's hoped to create an online database of teachers out of this research.

The study, which will involve an investigation of international models, is aimed at devising " a public partnership funding model involving both local and national authorities" to illustrate "how local municipal schools, one per county, could provide a systemic 'first tier' in instrumental tuition, complementing existing and planned provision at other levels". The study will also attempt to outline a model which ensures "consistency in establishing and applying minimum teaching standards".

Questionnaires have already been circulated to begin the consultation process, and a press campaign is planned for September, inviting submissions from all interested parties. The target date for completion is summer 2002. Contact Music Network at 01-6719429.

Pamela Smith has been appointed to the new role of opera specialist by the Arts Council, continues Michael Dervan. Although her name was not being mentioned on the grapevine in advance of the job interviews, she is well qualified for the task of producing a policy and action plan for opera. She has worked as the music and opera officer for the Arts Council of Northern Ireland for six years and was actively involved in the last two opera reviews commissioned by ACNI.

It's actually been ACNI which has made the most radical decisions about opera funding in recent years, not least when it decided to cease funding Opera Northern Ireland, the main provider of full-scale opera in Belfast. This decision was made in the light of an opera review which recommended research on the feasibility of an all-Ireland opera company. Although this idea was initially welcomed by the director of the Arts Council, Patricia Quinn, it was in fact the Dublin council which withdrew from the joint process that would have been necessary.

Given that the idea of an opera house for Dublin has never quite died, and the current Government's appetite for landmark projects hasn't yet been sated, it's surely high time that the creation of a permanent national opera company finally made it to the top of the Arts Council's agenda. Incredibly, the summary of the Arts Council's last opera review issued at a consultative session for the current Arts Plan, revealed that the council hadn't even considered the idea.

It takes courage for an actor to walk onto a stage and start performing, writes Mary Russell, but for members of the Palestinian Al-Kasaba Theatre it takes courage even getting to their workplace, since the theatre is situated in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Actors have been shot at, detained at Israeli checkpoints for hours or simply refused permission to proceed. Nevertheless, the company has continued to perform, and its audience has continued to turn up.

Al-Kasaba was set up 30 years ago by director George Ibrahim, and last week, at London's Royal Court Theatre, in between performing their show Alive from Palestine, Ibrahim and his actors discussed their ambitions. Central to Ibrahim's thesis is the belief that the rest of the world does not really appreciate what life is like for Palestinians. Alive from Palestine - with tragedy shading into humour - sets out to address this. Hussam Abu Eisheh, playing the part of a father talking to his son in London, tries to reassure him that everything back home is OK. "We're fine, your mother's fine. That noise? Oh, that's just a missile coming in through the wall. It's normal but, listen, don't worry, it's gone out through the other wall so we're all fine."

The Royal Court's involvement with Al-Kasaba goes back 10 years, and grants from bodies such as the British Council have enabled each company to exchange ideas, theatres and directors. One ardent supporter of Al-Kasaba is Vanessa Redgrave who, at last week's seminar, called for a cultural boycott of Israel.

Al-Kasaba theatre's website in Ramallah is: www.alkasaba.org

The "Per Cent for Art Programme", funded by the Department of the Environment and developed in partnership with Artworking, is often harnessed by local authorities to develop visual art projects. On Tuesday, the launch of a new collection of stories, Loose Horses, at the County Library in Tallaght, showed that these funds can as easily be deployed for local writing projects. Commissioned by South Dublin County Council (SDCC) and devised and co-ordinated by novelist Lia Mills, the Loose Horses collection includes eight stories, all set in the SDCC area. Half are written by established writers (Mills, Eilis Ni Dhuibhne, Pat Boran and Ivy Bannister); the others by local writers whose work was chosen through an open competition. The stories will be distributed free in pamphlet form around the area, broadcast on Tallaght Community Radio and available on the Internet (http://homepage.eircom.net/~loosehorses).