Letterkenny's impressive new arts building places Donegal in an international context rather than on the periphery, writes Aidan Dunne
Following its 10-year genesis, Letterkenny's Regional Cultural Centre, wedged into the slope behind An Grianán Theatre, has that new-building air of being a mirage. In fact, it is still a not-quite-new building, but a work in progress, due to open officially towards the end of the year. It initially opened its doors, however, during the Earagail Arts Festival, with the exhibition currently on view - Painting in the Noughties - and documentary displays on the design and construction of the centre.
"Letterkenny, situated on the River Swilly," reads an old AA Gazetteer, "is conspicuous on the hillside for many miles." Returning today, the writer would find the town even more conspicuous, with a greatly expanded population and sprawling development. One of the most dramatic innovations has been the creation of a new, lower road, Pearse Road, paralleling Main Street and chiefly consisting of nondescript retail units. There is a haphazard quality to the way Pearse Road has developed that seems, fairly or not, typical of the growth of Letterkenny in general.
The Regional Cultural Centre looks all the more mirage-like, given the frankly poor architectural quality of most of the surrounding development in the town. Designed by MacGabhann Architects, the structure is sleek and surprisingly unobtrusive given its scale and its glass, silver and gold exterior. It houses a substantial gallery space. From the beginning, notes programme director John Cunningham, a gallery was at the top of the list of priorities, in contrast to the early days of regional arts centres where for the word "gallery" you could safely read "theatre foyer". In Letterkenny, the theatre was already taken care of by the adjacent An Grianán.
Still, though it is, as Cunningham says, "the heart of the building", the gallery is but one of the impressive array of facilities. It also incorporates a fine auditorium, recording and rehearsal studios, and several substantial workshop spaces, including a fully equipped film and digital media department. It's no wonder that Cunningham, progressing through the various new rooms, looks slightly dazed. He and the centre's director, Sean Hannigan, both closely involved in planning the new centre, have been used to operating from far less august quarters in the Letterkenny Arts Centre, lodged in the basement of Letterkenny library.
The Arts Centre was established in 1995, and Hannigan was appointed manager two years later. Cunningham, who is originally from Ardara, became involved as a freelance curator under an Arts Council bursary scheme, and he served as acting director during Hannigan's leave of absence from 2003 until earlier this year. Working with limited facilities, the centre performed remarkably well.
IN FACT, THErecognition that there is a need for the Regional Cultural Centre is due in no small measure to the ambitious level of programming and projects built up by the Arts Centre over the years.
The workshops are absolutely integral to this long-term strategy.
Both Hannigan and Cunningham have long believed that, as the latter puts it, "You don't put things on the wall and wait for the audience to come to you. You have to engage with them, show them that there is something there for them." That's a matter of education, often practical education, relevant to all age groups. Hence various initiatives that come under the general heading of "community arts". As well as the obvious, such as workshops involving secondary school students, these include such projects as photojournalist Richard Wayman's Cith is Dealán, a photographic portrait of Ardara, commissioned under the Per Cent for Art Scheme by Donegal County Council, and a book of favourite Donegal recipes, Ó Lámh go Lámh, compiled as part of the Bealtaine Festival, which "celebrates creativity in older age".
It's also been noticeable, however, that the Arts Centre has, refreshingly, pursued an ambitious international exhibitions programme. Donegal is relatively isolated, geographically and politically, and, despite the region's strong indigenous cultural identity, cultural isolation has to be seen as an issue. Hence, Cunningham has long argued the importance of an international context rather than the default position of viewing the county as being by definition on the national periphery. One major sculpture show was titled Death by Geography. It and several other exhibitions have introduced the local audience to some of the highest profile names in modern and contemporary art, from Picasso to Damien Hirst, and a growing County Art Collection incorporates some of those high-profile names, including, for example, Jeff Koons.
AND SO TO Painting in the Noughties,an ambitious survey of British and Irish abstract and semi-abstract painting since the turn of the century. The starting point for the show was, Cunningham relates, an encounter with Sean Scully's Wall of Light, Yellow,which prompted him into a reconsideration of his views of abstract painting as being, well, abstract, in the rather forbidding and narrow sense of the term: remote from the human, flat, formalist and self-regarding.
In a sense, the exhibition offers a comparable reconsideration of abstraction as effected in the work of a generation of artists who matured after the bitterness of the modernist/postmodernist debate had ameliorated somewhat.
They are able to take on and explore the possibilities of abstraction without a partisan identification with Clement Greenberg's critical theories or a dismissive attitude to narrative content. Scully, as a firm believer in the humanism of abstract painting, but also a firm believer in abstraction, occupies a pivotal position in this debate. He is joined in Letterkenny by a formidable roll-call of artists. We have Cecily Brown's lush, lyrically expressive brand of semi-representation. Mark Francis is also essentially a representational artist.
Equally, though, there are exponents of strict, programmatic processes, including Callum Innes, Alexis Harding, Jason Martin and Peter Davies. Howard Hodgkin, Ian Davenport, Richard Gorman, Ronnie Hughes, Chung Eun-Mo and John Cronin all demonstrate the continuing viability of what might be termed mainstream abstraction. Patrick Michael Fitzgerald tests the language of abstraction, and Gavin Hogg, Paul Mosse, Richard Smith, Bernard Cohen and Michael Kidner extend it in various, often ingenious ways.
THERE IS NOuniformity in the show, but each participant makes a fairly strong individual case. As a showcase for the space, though, it is less than ideal. Cunningham observes that the idea was "to challenge the space". Effectively that translates as overcrowding it slightly, even though it is really substantial. Works are simply lined along the walls, with one or two hung outside in access areas.
In a way, what happens is that the collection of works, individually impressive, never quite becomes an exhibition per se. The pieces are left to their own devices, which, while not wholly negative, is a bit disappointing.
As for the space, though, it clearly has great potential. In talking to MacGabhann Architects, Cunningham says, they essentially gave them a collection of "boxes" - rooms - and invited them to arrange them in an architectural sleeve. That sleeve takes the form of an interlocking series of wedge shapes, so that the building seems to emerge organically from the site. But, significantly, the integrity of each interior space has not been sacrificed to outward form. It's an impressive building and, more importantly, should prove to be a highly important one in terms of the cultural development of the region.
• Painting in the Noughtiesis at Letterkenny Regional Cultural Centre until Aug 31