IMMA's troubles

If the Irish Museum of Modern Art keeps shooting itself in the foot, it's going to run out of feet, writes Aidan Dunne. It is about a year since the institution first found itself in the headlines, when Declan McGonagle, its then director, went to court to stop the museum's board from advertising his job. Months of controversy and negotiation followed until, last April, having established his right to another five-year term, McGonagle resigned. The search for a new director inevitably began under a cloud, and it is unfortunate, to say the least, that it should conclude under a cloud, with the resignation on Tuesday of two of the board.

What makes this latest twist especially bizarre is that it came at the point when IMMA seemed to have acquired what it conspicuously needs: a capable director in place to keep it on track. And Brian Kennedy is such a capable figure, a formidable candidate by any standard, with a proven record of energy, dynamism, commitment, vision and organisational ability, both in the Republic, where he was assistant director of the National Gallery of Ireland, and in Canberra, as director of the National Gallery of Australia.

Either Kennedy was the preferred candidate or he wasn't. On the information available so far, it could be argued that the board had to make a clear decision, because the interview panel didn't - it recommended that the board widen the search for an appropriate candidate while continuing to consider Kennedy's candidacy.

A campaign to save the premises of City Arts Centre as a cultural facility will be launched tonight at a "convergence and carnival" event at the Dublin centre, at 6.30 p.m. The evening of dance, music and performance by users of the centre also aims to celebrate the staff, who are being made redundant this week. Tonight's event follows a public meeting at Liberty Hall last week, at which the centre's user group sought clarification of the board's new plans for the centre. The group wants to help shape the centre's future, and has asked to meet with the board's chairman, Niall O'Baoil, and the arts centre's incoming head, Declan McGonagle.

Prompted by global events of the past two months and the questions they raise about the capacity of art to deal with terrorism, war and atrocity, Conall Morrison, associate director of the Abbey, will be directing a staged reading of Murder, by the Israeli playwright Hanoch Levin, on Saturday December 8th.

The reading, by Tom Hickey, Derbhla Crotty, Cathy White and Nuala Hayes, will be followed by a panel discussion on conflict and art. Speakers include Fintan O'Toole, chief theatre critic of The Irish Times; Mary Holland, the Irish Times columnist; the artist Robert Ballagh and the playwright Tom Kilroy. All are welcome and the event, which starts at 2 p.m. at the Samuel Beckett Centre, in Trinity College, Dublin, is free.

The theatre director of the Pavilion Theatre, Karen Hebden, has announced her resignation after just over a year in the post. She and the board of the D·n Laoghaire venue have yet to issue a formal statement. The Pavilion, which has been staging in-house productions over the past year, will be managed by Phelim Donlon - who recently retired from the Arts Council - until a new appointment is made. Hebden's final production before she returns to her native UK will be the theatre's Christmas show, Quest 2: The Good People Try Harder, which she wrote with Stephen Edwards, basing it on the fairy tales of W.B. Yeats.

Edited by Helen Meany

arts@irish-times.ie