ALTHOUGH the Black Box performance space in Galway city is almost a year old it has hardly been used as yet, and its potential as an innovative space for theatre and the arts has not been realised.
This is likely to change in its second year, however, as funds be come available to furnish it with the equipment it lacks, and to make it into a home for Macnas and other groups.
The Department of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht has promised £350,000, and Galway Corporation has undertaken to put up the rest of the estimated £500,000 cost.
It has yet to make any real impact on the city, but Macnas hopes to change all that in July, when it brings its annual parade at the Galway Arts Festival to the Black Box for a grand finale incorporating specially commissioned music.
The working title for this year's parade is Seasons, and Macnas intends portraying them through the eyes of four different cultures: Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt, one of the lost civilisations of the Americas, and a culture from the frozen north, either Viking or Eskimo (no prizes for guessing which culture will represent winter).
More than 50,000 people watched the parade last year, according to Macnas. It has suffered from its popularity in recent years, with congested streets a big problem for parents with small children.
This year's route is longer, to allow more people to see the show in comfort. Other changes such as moving it to the start of the festival are also designed to ease congestion.
But the Macnas team will have to pull out all the stops to impress this year. Unlike many of visitors who will be enthralled by the colourful spectacle, the city has become somewhat blase about the whole Macnas experience.
Meanwhile, a unique community arts project at the Black Box draws to a close this morning, when hundreds of "talking head" sculptures in cardboard and papier mache are collected by their proud creators.
Over the past two weeks about 700 children from schools in and around Galway have taken part in the project, which is described as the largest of its kind yet seen in the State. Loosely based on the idea of creating a "conversation piece," the large figures have been made and painted by children with the help of Belfast artist Ken Parker.
The results of their endeavours went on exhibition in the Black Box at the weekend. Much of the work had a freshness and vitality that was striking, with bright colours and features drawn by bold and confident hands.
Some of the figures were self portraits, while others represented important figures in their creators lives, such as Liverpool or Manchester United footballers and characters from The Simpsons.
Aliens were very popular, with either one or two antennae, as were devils and other horned creatures.
It would be a mistake to dismiss such figures as "children's art", according to Mr Parker. "There is a rawness to them and a creativity which I find truly amazing," he said. "There is a basic naivety about them which I always find appealing. It has been one of the main preoccupations in my work, to bring children's art into a public area where the general public can appreciate it."
Both primary and secondary schoolchildren, ranging in ages from eight to 14 years, took part in the project.
"There is not too much difference, funnily enough, between the secondary children's work and the primary. The primary children have almost a more spontaneous attack, getting in there and getting the thing made, whereas the older children tend to be that wee bit more hesitant, conscious of other things such as peer pressure. The younger children are more spontaneous and more natural."
Projects like this help children to broaden their artistic perceptions, by giving them the opportunity to create larger pieces than they might normally be able to do in a crowded classroom.
"Very many artists would be amazed at the pieces made here, said Mr Parker. "The natural creativity all artists are seeking is here. There is a natural uninhibited quality which is so rare".
"Dubuffet and people like that, who were into naive art and worked in that naive fashion themselves, would have been astounded at this.
The children's art project is just one example of the uses to which the Black Box can be put, according to its manager, Mr Michael Diskin.
"At an administrative level we re trying to show the potential of the Black Box," he said. "People are still puzzled about a space without anything specific in it: what is its function? Its function is multifunction, multipurpose.
"In the case of this particular project we wanted to reach out to the communities, to show it could be used for arts projects other than theatre arts, to use the sheer physical space which is its primary advantage, to make a particularly large piece of work."
During the Galway Arts Festival it will be the venue for several big international performances. "We're saying the spectrum of art in general, should go from a Polish ballet company to the sort of work Ken is doing inside. Within that building that is what we hope to do."
He accepts the place has hardly been used so far, but says it is now beginning to build up a head of steam. Recent initiatives include the children's arts project and a performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream by the Sligo theatre company, Blue Raincoat.
"There isn't the potential to put on huge big spectacle shows 52 weeks of the year. Obviously the impetus for the building came from the festival and Macnas, but they would be using it only occasionally as a performance space," he said.