ArtScape: It's nail-biting time again for arts organisations around the country as they await word on funding for 2006 - and the nail-biting might spoil the Christmas dinner this year as the Arts Council has decided to delay its announcement of grants until late January.
While the council is seeking €79.3 million from the Government in the forthcoming Budget, this week it was revealed that overall the funding applications for next year - the deadline was eight days ago - amount to more than twice that figure.
Last year the council secured €61 million, with an extra €500,000 provided this year for the traditional arts, which - under the new dispensation for that sector - will be allocated a significant portion of whatever Minister for Finance Brian Cowen provides for the arts in December.
Olive Braiden, chairwoman of the Arts Council, acknowledged that the council has been fortunate in recent years with the extent of its annual increases from the Exchequer. In a pre-Budget presentation of funding requirements for 2006, she pointed out that "the return on the historic public investment in the arts is not being fully realised because artists and arts organisations are working well below their optimum capacity". Detailing the recent grant applications, she said that more than 430 arts organisations had made submissions for 2006. These included production companies, arts venues, festivals, resource and service organisations, and 87 first-time applicants. The total cost of these applications, if granted, would exceed €80.5 million. However, in addition, 34 local authorities are seeking more than €4.6 million. To continue to meet demand for the bursaries, awards, projects and schemes which the Arts Council supports would require a total of €120 million.
Simple mathematics suggest a lot of disappointment in the New Year.
Backing for walls of sound
The National Concert Hall's ambitions for a "state-of-the-art" performance centre and other new venues at Earlsfort Terrace when UCD relocates to Belfield received strong public support in a recent poll. The Minister for Arts John O'Donoghue is seeking Cabinet approval for the project, which would involve refurbishment of the existing hall and the building of multi-purpose performing arts venues on the site. A Lansdowne Market Research survey found almost two-thirds of those polled supported this development while, according to the NCH half of those interviewed were more likely to visit the concert hall if the proposed developments were to take place.
NCH director Judith Woodworth welcomed the survey which, she said, "strongly supports the business case for this project". The redevelopment blueprint includes a new 2,000-seater auditorium, refurbishment of the present auditorium, and a third hall with a capacity for 400 seats.
While the research was positive about the potential audience for classical music (one in four adults expressed an interest and one in five of those have attended a classical concert in the past two years), many wished to see more traditional and world-music events. This demand for greater musical diversity will be shared by a number of independent music promoters who are keen to have input into a new concert hall. And then there is the opera house debate . . .
Calling all playwrights
Excellent news this month for playwrights, with the announcement of a major new writing prize, writes Rosita Boland. The Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester is launching the Bruntwood Playwriting Competition (named after its sponsors), which is worth a total of £45,000 (€66,200). The winner will receive £15,000 (€22,000) plus the opportunity to see the winning play staged in the Royal Exchange's 770-seat main theatre. Second prize is £10,000 (€14,700) and a production in the theatre's studio space. Third prize is £5,000 (€7,360), and there is also an award for a playwright aged under 26 and provision for developing a talented writer through a year-long residency.
The hardest thing for a playwright starting out is probably not the actual writing of a play, but getting it staged. The costs of producing a show by a new playwright with even a small cast is sufficiently high to make theatres extremely cautious about staging new work. The Royal Exchange prizes and the opportunities it offers will be welcome incentives to many writers starting out.
The competition is open to playwrights both new and established, and all entries will be judged anonymously by a panel of judges which will include actress Brenda Blethyn, playwright Kwame Kwei-Armah and former British arts minister Chris Smith.
The good news for Irish writers is that the competition is open to Irish citizens. If an Irish playwright does win the competition, it would not be the first time that new Irish theatre is staged first across the water. In the recent past, various Irish playwrights have opened shows first in London - Tom Murphy's new play opens in the Royal Court next month - rather than in an Irish theatre, a trend which tells us something about the confidence that British companies have in Irish writing and, perhaps, vice versa.
The competition opens on November 3rd, with application forms and information available at www. royalexchange.co.uk/playwrighting from that date. It will close in April and winning entries will be staged during the inaugural Manchester International Festival in 2007.
Action on arts education
When the Minister for Arts John O'Donoghue set up the special Arts Council Committee on the Traditional Arts, he indicated that, in future, such ad-hoc committees would be the norm. So, in the course of his speech at last weekend's ardfheis, he announced his intention to establish an Arts and Education Committee.
The last Arts Plan - ditched by the current council - took particular cognisance of the deficiencies in arts education and the need for initiatives to promote stronger links between the arts and education.
Many cultural institutions already have well-established and innovative outreach programmes, but would welcome opportunities to develop these - and those cultural organisations which would like to emulate these programmes would be happy to do so if given the resources.
O'Donoghue said it was vital that the arts are embedded in our education system at both primary and pre-primary level and added that the proposed committee would be asked to "make recommendations on what actions, not words, are needed to achieve this".
The Department of Education will not only have a vital role on the committee but will have to make commitments in the form of the "actions" referred to by O'Donoghue.
As part of his research for the project, Maguire worked with six residents and staff of the Fairgreen hostel near the square. He draws on memories and images of survivors, of friends and families, to try and convey the hopelessness of homelessness in a thriving west of Ireland city.
Maguire's Fairgreen project work, funded by Galway City Council, opened yesterday in Galway Arts Centre, Dominick Street, and today another 17 contemporary artists unveil their own "exploration" for Tulca.
An industrial premises, Barons Self Storage in the Riverside Industrial Estate off the Galway-Tuam road, has been transformed into a "holding station" for art, entitled Interim.
It promises audiences a "sensation of limbo" when passing through the corridors and chambers of the 100,000 sq ft (9,290m) storage unit. Students from the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) join the group in this exhibition, which involves both established and emerging artists.
Among them are IAT (Anne Cleary and Denis Connolly), winners of the EV+A 2005 contemporary art award, and Sally Timmons, founder of the Dublin-based art initiative, Via. Galway participants include Aideen Barry, Ben Geoghegan, Austin Ivers and Barry Prendergast, who are joined by Greg Pond, Lain York and Rob Smith from the US.
Tulca, which is curated by Michael Dempsey, has its formal opening in the Nun's Island Studio on Tuesday. A series of live arts events curated by Áine Phillips is due to take place in the studio throughout November, and a full programme of Tulca activities is available from various venues, including the Galway Arts Centre, and on www.tulca.ie