ArtScape Anyone using or even passing by Heuston Station lately cannot but have noticed the enormous development fast taking shape along St John's Road, writes Aidan Dunne.
The development is directly adjacent to the Royal Hospital Kilmainham and, as part of the scheme, the Irish Museum of Modern Art (Imma) has been guaranteed 4,000sq m of space in what is termed the Heuston South Quarter. This site was earmarked for a new Imma gallery.
As Imma's director Enrique Juncosa has pointed out, the museum needs a new, purpose-built gallery space to accommodate both its growing collection and the kind of exhibitions that it wants to feature in the future. The provision of such a space for temporary exhibitions would have the benefit of freeing up the galleries in the Royal Hospital building for showing a greater proportion of the permanent collection. It is generally recognised, for example, that there is no gallery in Dublin where residents and visitors can see a representative collection of Irish art from the mid-20th century onwards.
The idea as originally mooted was that the 4,000sq m would abut the Royal Hospital's formal gardens. Recently there have been suggestions that another alternative has come into play: that the new gallery be built in another part of the Royal Hospital site. Such a move would see Imma retain a stronger sense of individual identity, rather than having a major part of its exhibition space integrated to a greater or lesser extent into the Heuston South Quarter.
A spokesperson for Imma was unable to deny or confirm the suggestions, but it is noticeable that the plan as originally announced has more or less slipped off the radar over the last year. In the meantime, the spokesperson says that "a sub-committee of Imma's board has been established to examine all aspects" of the development, "in conjunction with the OPW's Development Control Plan for the RHK site". Whichever option is pursued, strategic funding for the project would be put in place under the Development Control Plan. As part of the process, meetings are also ongoing between Imma and the Department of Arts.
Imma is currently enjoying exceptionally high visitor numbers by virtue of a particularly attractive combination of exhibitions, including Georgia O'Keeffe, Alex Katz, Thomas Demand, and sculptures by Joan Miró and Alexander Calder. The forthcoming Lucian Freud exhibition, which will open on June 6th and run throughout the summer months, is also expected to generate considerable public interest.
No smoking at Lughnasa
Sometimes an insurmountable problem can yield unexpectedly intriguing results. The new smoking ban in Northern Ireland has had some unintended consequences for the Lyric Theatre's production of Brian Friel's Dancing at Lughnasa.
In two scenes, one of the five sisters, Maggie, smokes a cigarette - indicating a frisson of liberation and big-city cosmopolitanism in the 1930s setting, and so is an integral part of the play. But while herbal cigarettes are allowed on stage in the Republic, the UK ban is much stricter: "smoking refers to smoking tobacco or anything that contains tobacco, or smoking any other substance". Director Mick Gordon tried using a magician's cigarette, which looks reasonably realistic, and has red ember, but not the crucial smoke when Maggie exhales and pronounces that she is in "heaven!".
There was a possibility of a performers' exemption, but the re-establishment of the Northern Ireland Executive on May 8th meant any exemption to the smoking order became a matter for the Stormont Assembly. Then a little political lobbying was tried: a formal amendment to the order would take far too long for the production.
So Gordon approached Brian Friel, who remarked he had already come across a related problem in a recent production of Faith Healerin Newhaven, Connecticut, where a prolonged smoking scene resulted in a partial audience walk-out. The following day, a fax arrived from Friel's home in Donegal with a revised set of stage instructions for the two scenes. Those keen to know will have to wait until the opening on June 1st to see what changes he made, but the Lyric, where Michael Diskin has just taken over as artistic director, says a packet of Woodbine cigarettes still features in the list of props for the show and that the theatre will comply with the letter of the new law. See www.lyrictheatre.co.uk.
CityArts opts for Bachelors life
CityArts (formerly CityArts Centre) is no longer just a figment of the imagination. The arts centre, which has been without a home but still involved in a variety of projects since selling its Moss Street premises some years ago, this month acquired a new city centre building in freehold, at 15 Bachelors Walk, overlooking O'Connell Bridge. The sale will close before July 30th on the landmark, river-fronting four-storey-plus- basement building, and will then be refurbished. Many will hope the new premises can be a much-needed art and performance space in Dublin - in recent years, despite the development of high-profile larger venues, a series of smaller performance spaces has closed, including the Crypt, CityArts itself and the Bank Of Ireland Arts Centre, and Andrews Lane is to close shortly also.
CityArts says that "this evocative, historic building will provide not only a window to CityArts' citywide and international programmes, but also a local base for action with and within local communities in the northwest inner city", and so they're exploring, with Dublin City Council, ways to connect with the evolving cultural plans for the Smithfield Plaza nearby.
CityArts chairman Declan Gorman said this week that the move "signals the beginning of a further proud and important phase in the 34-year history of CityArts. Not only does the Bachelors Walk building offer an exceptional, central, high-visibility open-door base from which we can now manage our many community-based and public art projects in Dublin, but it symbolically connects us back to our north city origins. Between 1973 and 1987, CityArts (known then as Grapevine Arts Centre) operated out of a range of similar buildings on Mary Street, North Great George's Street and - for a long period - North Frederick Street". CityArts' programmes, policies, partnerships and plans are at www.cityarts.ie.
• When Organics became the first jazz group to receive Music Network's Young Musicwide award a few years back, it resulted in a debut CD, New Light, tours and other performance opportunities. They're still happening - next month they play at the Glasgow International Jazz Festival, with the support of Music Network and Culture Ireland. Now, writes Ray Comiskey, Music Network is looking for applications from young Irish jazz musicians for its Young Musicwide Award 2007. Designed, as before, to help such musicians at the beginning of their professional careers, the award is open to jazz ensembles of any instrumentation up to a maximum of five people. The winners will benefit from public performance opportunities, organised publicity, professional support and advice on career development, workshop opportunities, a promotional CD, a showcase concert in Dublin and, after two to three years, the possibility of an invitation to join the Musicwide programme proper. The closing date for the receipt of applications is June 15th.
It's a not-to-be-sneezed-at initiative and an indication of the growing official acknowledgement of jazz . But it's a pity ensembles are limited to five people. That effectively rules out, for example, three of the most innovative groups on the local scene: Dylan Rynhart's Fuzzy Logic, the Kai Big Band and - stretching the definition of jazz more than a bit, admittedly - Nick Roth's Yurodny. Could the Celtic Tiger economy not help Music Network to stretch the budget a bit more?
Ever busy, even on election day, Minister for Arts John O'Donoghue on Thursday sanctioned additional funding of €50,000 for the Galway Arts Festival (in addition to the €128,000 given under Fáilte Ireland's Festivals and Cultural Events Initiative in March), which will go specifically towards its public street arts.
Dublin-based theatre company Tall Tales has a two-day workshop for female playwrights at Bewley's Café Theatre on June 23rd and 24th, facilitated by Roxana Silbert of British theatre company Paines Plough. The workshop is in conjunction with the launch of Tall Tales' Txts, a season of three lunchtime plays by Iseult Golden, Elizabeth Moynihan and Deirdre Kinahan, which will run for three weeks each at Bewley's Café Theatre from June 18th to August 18th.
Details from Eileen Sheridan on 01-4100801, e-mail talltales@oceanfree.net.