Education report on runway ready for lift-off

IT WAS FINALLY published this week, but the report of the Special Committee on the Arts and Education seems to have been dogged by bad timing all along, writes Deirdre Falvey.

Completed, as requested, by May 2007, an election and two changes of minister conspired against it and it sat unloved on desks for more than a year. Now, when Points of Alignment (the report's title) is at last published, everyone's in a sweat about the state of the economy.

While there has been negotiation in the background between the arts and education departments for a while, the arrival of a Freedom of Information request may have sped up its publication.

The report looks at strategies to ensure that artists have a role in schools and that schools can access art (theatre, galleries, and so on). But it doesn't deal with curricular issues (how art might be incorporated in the regular curriculum) as these weren't in its terms of reference. This may be surprise or disappoint some, but committee chairwoman Mary Nunan points out in the report that its tight focus is a critical strength of the report. Its five linked recommendations, which could have a profound effect if implemented, include a national arts-in-education development unit, increased resources for existing programmes and the creation of an arts-in-education website.

These are modest enough proposals, which in theory should make them achievable. At the start the strategy would need a minimum of €2 million to €3 million a year in additional funds, but at this week's launch, Minister for Arts Martin Cullen stopped short of a commitment.

Now that the report is in the public domain (download from www.artscouncil.ie) and has been unanimously adopted by the Arts Council, the fact that both Cullen and Minister for Education Batt O'Keeffe have welcomed it doesn't guarantee its implementation. Action may be slower than hoped or, as the Arts Council's Martin Drury puts it, the runway before take-off may be longer than envisaged.

Kilkenny line-up

Deluges notwithstanding, the Irish festival season continues apace. As the Cork Midsummer Festival wound down, the Junction in Clonmel began yesterday, and Kinsale opens next weekend. Galway is gearing up for its mid-July opening: the crates with Joni Mitchell's artwork arrived this week and Macnas are making plans for their night-time parade (10pm on Sunday, July 20th). For those who recall the magic of its previous night parade, this will be something to look forward to.

Meanwhile, the 35th Kilkenny Arts Festival (August 8th to 17th) announced its programme this week in the elegant confines of Dublin Castle. Its line-up was curated by its panel of experts under the management of new chief executive Damian Downes.

Minister for Arts Martin Cullen spoke at the launch, pointing to the festival's increasing international perspective and its unusual presentations, including a symposium on the role of the GAA in creating modern Ireland.

Colm Tóibín, who also spoke engagingly, has curated the literary strand, mixing international and Irish writers, including Chinese/American author Yiyun Li, Sebastian Barry, Anne Enright, James Ryan and Lebanese writer Rabih Alameddine. There will also be a lecture, America at War, by veteran New Yorker war reporter Jon Lee Anderson. Tóibín has also put together a season of films as a tribute to Donal McCann. while 3epkano perform original soundtracks to silent classics The Cat and the Canary and Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans.

3epkano, led by Matthew Nolan, have also curated Wired, a new strand of contemporary music in the festival, featuring gigs by Mercury Rev, Lisa Hannigan, and Spiritualized at St Canice's Cathedral. Jazz, world and trad highlights (programmed by Gerry Godley) include Toumast from Mali, ice instrumentalist Terje Isungset from Norway, Greek singer Savina Yannatou, and Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill.

Classical music (put together by the Dresden Group and Susan Proud) features countertenor Andreas Scholl as well as concerts by the Dresden Group (an ensemble of top German classical musicians brought together for Kilkenny), guitarist John Williams and Malcolm Proud on the recently restored 1853 Bevington organ at St Canice's.

Belarus Free Theatre, which produces work by banned Belarussian playwrights, debuts in Ireland with three plays. Tom Creed's theatre line-up also includes Beckett's The End by Gare St Lazare Players and Ouroboros's Translations.

Hugh Mulholland has chosen visual art that explores spectacle and the relationship between art and the space it inhabits, with artists Mary McIntyre, Richard Mosse, Mark Garry, Keith Wilson, Phyllida Barlow, Dougal McKenzie, Simon Patterson and, in a co-commission with the Butler Gallery, Brian Hand.

Children's events lined up by Emer McGowan include clown Jamie Adkins's new show, Circus Incognitus, Moussa's Castle from Scotland and Snow White from Denmark. See www.kilkennyarts.ie.

Carr play for RSC

Marina Carr is the latest Irish writer to have a new play premiered outside Ireland, writes Jane Coyle. The Cordelia Dream has been commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company as part of its Complete Works Festival and takes as its starting point the universal themes of King Lear.

Directed by Selina Cartmell, it is intended to fit in with the RSC's current aim to "connect contemporary people with Shakespeare and engage with the world as we know it, mining Shakespeare for inspiration but also drawing from contemporary writers and artists to re-examine his work".

Described as "a ferocious two-hander", Carr's play focuses on a long-awaited conversation between a musician and his rival, a younger woman, who question the hatred that has fuelled their desire to outdo each other in art.

Artistic director Michael Boyd says the play will be "cross-cast from the Stratford ensemble", with the two characters played by David Hargreaves and Michelle Gomez, currently appearing in Conall Morrison's controversial Taming of the Shrew at Stratford-upon-Avon.

The Cordelia Dream will preview from December 11th in the beautifully restored 19th-century Wilton's Music Hall in the City of London, known in its heyday as "the handsomest room in town".

Together with a second new work, Adriano Shaplin's The Tragedy of Thomas Hobbes, it will play in rep with Hamlet, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Morrison's Shrew, which is to transfer to the RSC's winter season in London.