Project 06, the "parallel" arts programme held in Galway last summer, has urged the Galway Arts Festival (GAF) to incorporate such a module into this year's official event, writes Lorna Siggins. The estimated cost would be €50,000 and would, according to the Project 06 group, "enliven and enrich" the official festival - which is marking its 30th anniversary this July.
It has also recommended that GAF undertake a review of its festival board, and reform it in line with current practice and governance of non-profit and voluntary organisations. And it has appealed to GAF not to "penalise" any of the Galway artists and arts groups that participated in Project 06.
The three key recommendations are made in a report by the Project 06 organisers published this week, in which it assesses the genesis of the parallel programme, its impact and its legacy.
Formed as a "one-off, one-year" event after a series of meetings in Galway during late 2005 and early 2006, Project 06 was spearheaded by Saw Doctors manager and GAF founder Ollie Jennings, Macnas founder Páraic Breathnach and Michael Diskin, manager of the Town Hall Theatre (who is moving to the Lyric Theatre, Belfast).
As the report states, there was a perception among artists in the city that they were being "ignored" by GAF, and that "ordinary Galwegians" were also experiencing an increasing sense of "alienation" from it. The final Project 06 programme involved 167 events, making it "the largest open-submission arts festival ever organised in Ireland", according to the organisers, who worked on a voluntary basis.
The event received a €10,000 grant from the Arts Council for administration costs, largely spent on the colour programme, while a €3,000 grant from Galway City Council was spent on a public insurance policy for the events. A raffle and private fundraising fetched €18,000, with three individuals contributing cheques of €1,000 each. Much of this latter amount went towards the Project 06 parade.
The Galway Advertiser contributed an eight-page supplement and advertising, and private businesses gave use of yard space for building the parade floats and an office in High Street, and also sponsored an opening street party on July 16th.
The report criticises GAF for failing to engage in dialogue with Project 06, and rejects the GAF proposal that it should develop as a "fringe" event. Galway is a "small town with limited physical resources in terms of arts buildings and venues", the audience is small and selective, and a fringe would "always be dwarfed in terms of venues, finance, audiences and publicity by the long-established and powerfully financed" GAF, it says.
The report's main recommendation takes on a new urgency, according to Ollie Jennings, with this week's confirmation by Macnas that it would be staging an exhibition rather than a parade at this year's GAF. The street theatre group had hoped to mark its 21st birthday this year by staging two parades, one during GAF in July and the other at Halloween, but got Arts Council funding only for one. It has opted for Halloween this year for "artistic reasons", and will alternate between GAF and Halloween in subsequent years, according to Macnas general manager John Ashton.
Cork is religious about culture
With its embarrassment of landmark religious buildings, Cork City Council is seeking a good tenant to take care of its latest cultural acquisition, St Luke's Church, writes Mary Leland. The church, bought from businessman Pat Dineen for €690,000, the amount Dineen himself paid on its deconsecration in 2003. Now the council is prepared to match his generosity by asking only a nominal rent from an organisation willing to keep the massive building aired, heated and occupied until its full creative potential can be decided.
That may take some time, as the council is also dealing with its property at Christ Church, another important Church of Ireland building (reputed to be the site at which Edmund Spenser married his second wife Elizabeth Boyle, a relative of the Great Earl of Cork and of scientist Robert Boyle), which has been used as the city's archive resource.
Years ago it had been intended that this church, with its beautiful galleried interior, would become the recital venue for the adjacent Triskel Arts Centre, but it is only now that the archives have moved to a custom-built centre in Blackpool that the church is once again under consideration. It is to be the permanent home of the Ceol exhibition, which the council has acquired but for which the Christ Church floors and crypt spaces need to be refurbished.
Not much refurbishment is needed at high-spired St Luke's. The site originally housed 8th-century seamen's thanksgiving shrines above the city docks and was later rebuilt as the chapel-of-ease for St Anne's Shandon (to which its congregation has now returned). Frequently in the headlines as the home of the Knitting Map project for Cork 2005 and easily accessible by bus, St Luke's stands at the hillside junction of Montenotte and Summerhill. Its large crypt offers ideal rehearsal and office areas, with the arched interior spacious enough for 550 auditorium seats; confident that these will be filled, the council is also trying to figure out how to provide parking.
The Ireland Romania Cultural Foundation is offering a scholarship to a young Romanian concert pianist to work with John O'Conor in preparing to enter an international piano competition. O'Conor was in Bucharest recently to meet the four young Romanian pianists who have been shortlisted for the scholarship. With so many talented young pianists trying to break into the concert circuit, one of the most effective ways to gain attention and bookings is to win one of these prestigious events.
O'Conor, aside from being known to young Romanian pianists through his recordings and as a teacher, is also a frequent judge at international competitions.
The four sessions on offer with him at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin will give the chosen pianist a head start in selecting repertoire and learning the best way to present to the judging panel. The scholarship is one of the connections being promoted between Ireland and Romania this year to mark Romanian accession to the EU.
Éigse Carlow looks like it may dance in additional directions, with the appointment of Marina Rafter as director of Éigse Carlow Arts Festival.
A founder, with Catherine Nunes, of the International Dance Festival Ireland, she was general manager and executive director there and previously worked with Dance Theatre of Ireland.
At Éigse, as well as continuing to improve its strong visual arts programme, she hopes to expand other areas of the festival programme, developing and improving particularly on the art forms of dance, music and performance. Rafter plans to programme international and national work across the art forms for the the festival, which runs from June 8th to 17th.
Dublin Theatre Festival has added an extra Sunday night to this year's festival, which marks its 50th anniversary. Details of the festival, now from September 27th to October 14th, haven't yet been announced, but already Loughlin Deegan, incoming artistic director and chief executive, has launched a new "student friends" scheme. For €45 students can get discounted tickets to plays throughout the year, a ticket during the festival, membership to the festival club and invitations to receptions during the festival.
Says Deegan, "The Dublin Theatre Festival is committed to making theatre more accessible for all walks of life, hence we have introduced the new Student Friends deal, which will allow students who are passionate about drama to drink deep from the festival's programme and to enjoy theatre all year around without breaking the bank."
As Gráinne Humphreys takes over at the artistic helm of Dublin International Film Festival, Sarah Bannan, a New Yorker who has lived here for 10 years, working most recently as local arts development manager at the Arts Council, moves to the Irish Film Institute to take over from Humphreys as head of education.
The IFI believes the role is crucial, and that promoting film culture in the educational system is vital for a national cultural institution for film.
The one-off grant from DCAL (the British Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure) to keep the 2007 Belfast Festival at Queen's afloat, or at least get the ball rolling and gee up other funders, mentioned here last week, was £150,000, not euro.
Oh, the curse of being out of step with the rest of Europe.