How 'Arts West' was lost

A few weeks ago, the independent monthly Arts West appeared for the last time, to the great surprise and greater disappointment of its loyal readers and contributors. The news was conveyed in a letter from the editor, Ian Wieczorek, on page three of the April issue.

"As with many artistic endeavours that go to the wall, the reason is financial," he wrote. "Over the years, Arts West has always managed to approach 'break-even' status in terms of visible income/expenditure." This was at a cost, however: unpaid effort and dedication.

For some time, Wieczorek explained, he had been trying to change the situation and excise "voluntary" from the editorial vocabulary. He had hoped to hire production staff and to take a step back. The only realistic way this could be achieved was through external funding. An application to the Arts Council was turned down, "with no explanation", he says.

Sitting in a Galway cafe in the middle of the Cuirt International Festival of Literature last month, Wieczorek was philosophical about the rebuff, while puzzled by the fact that the publication had met five of the Arts Council's eight criteria, in his opinion. By rights, he would have been "working" in Galway that week: organising reviews, planning his next edition. Instead, he was trying to get used to the idea of having time on his hands again.

A microbiologist by training, Wieczorek founded Arts West seven years ago. Frustration drove him to it. He hadn't anticipated the level of arts activity in the region, yet he found it difficult to get information on events at a time when local radio was just developing.

"The only way you might find out that, say, Druid was performing in Kiltimagh was seeing the poster while driving through the town the week after it was over," he says.

One day he approached Marie Farrell at Linenhall Arts Centre in Castlebar and suggested there should be a Time Out for Mayo. "Why not do one, then?" he remembers her saying. He had experience, having been involved with "small-scale independent comics" in London. "I had an idea of what was involved." The magazine began as Mayo Arts Bulletin in 1994, and grew from there.

It "wasn't the flashiest-looking publication around", he says, but he believes a readership of up to 2,000 was attracted by "enthusiasm, sincerity and critical acumen". He had read too many uncritical previews of plays, always patronisingly enthusiastic and devoid of critical judgment when the venue was outside the Pale. He felt the performers, and punters, deserved better. There was a need for informed opinion, he says, in a shared forum.

The publication became a forum for emerging talent in every sense. More than 50 contributors have been generally brilliant, Wieczorek says, dealing with themes ranging from the state of the visual arts and contemporary classical music to amateur drama, arts festivals and the development of the arts in the west. "And hopefully with a clear eye!" he adds.

The question-and-answer format of many of the interviews allowed artists to communicate without misinterpretation, while the listings section was always comprehensive and reflected a level of activity far beyond Galway's apparent dominance. Wieczorek is loath to single out an issue or contributor, given that Arts West was never intended as a personality-driven venture.

He is worried about the vacuum that may be left, and is clearly moved by the number of letters, messages and e-mails he has received since taking the hard decision. "All I know is, I can't be the tree trunk any more." The lively western-based Magpie magazine, backed by the Galway Advertiser, carries a listings section, along with reviews and previews, but Wieczorek would never have regarded it as a rival. The readership is different.

Ironically, Magpie celebrated an "almost third" birthday at the Asgard bar in Westport just over a week ago, even as the final copies of Arts West were disappearing from view. Wieczorek hopes to write more, and is part-time public-relations officer for Linenhall Arts Centre.

The Arts Council told The Irish Times it very much regretted that Arts West was ceasing publication. "It does a very good job in supplying information about what's going on in the arts in the west of Ireland. The application for funding of £15,000 was the magazine's first submission," its spokesperson said, adding that the organisation would be happy to discuss "alternative sources of support" with Arts West's publishers.

A comment in the final issue by Ger Reidy, the Mayo poet and Arts West contributor, captures the significance of the magazine's closure for many. Reidy agreed last year to take over Force 10, the annual journal founded by Dermot Healy in Sligo, rather than see it disappear.

"For decades since the foundation of the State, people from Mayo have always had to block Dublin streets in order to be listened to. Usually, Dublin for most people from the west was, and still is for some, an inconvenience on the way to London or New York. So why, on recently hearing of the demise of Arts West, am I not surprised?

"Appearing regularly for 79 issues and never receiving any funding from any source outside sales and advertising, it had a relatively objective voice, a rare thing in the world of the arts.

"So must we block streets to highlight lack of support, even basic acknowledgment? No, artists are like republican parties - wherever there is a gathering of two or more there is a split - and Arts West will leave the stage like it entered, without a fuss, almost apologetically, like the sound of an exhibition being taken down without a review, the sound of the speakers being loaded in the Hiace van at dawn without remark.

"We can return confidently to the tied-up swings and the sound of the caretaker rattling his keys before he turns the lights off, just like the old days, listening to silence - but this time it will be ringing."