ARTSCAPE/Deirdre Falvey: The Arts Council is to review its multi-annual funding (MAF) scheme over the next six months.
The newly appointed arts programme director John O'Kane has written to the 70-plus recipients of MAF to set up meetings to discuss how it is working. This move follows what O'Kane describes as a number of problems which "have undermined the credibility of the scheme in the eyes of the sector".
These include the Art Council's decision last year not to actually make forward financial commitments to many of the organisations who were supposed to receive MAF at that time, which O'Kane says was "multi-annual funding in name only; it was a joke. It should either mean what it says or we should re-think it". This January, the council rowed back on a number of MAF commitments it had made, invoking break clauses in agreements, following the Government's cut to the AC budget.
In his letter, O'Kane says the scheme "placed an administrative burden upon the council's existing staffing structure, and the resulting inefficiencies inevitably impacted upon participating organisations". He comments: "it became an administrative monster, a Frankenstein. It was never meant to engender such a burden."
The review aims to improve the effectiveness of the scheme, which started in 2000, for both participants and the council. While it will not affect funding decisions made for this year, the council warns that an existing MAF agreement is no guarantee of one being offered in 2004 (most MAF in place comes to an end this year). O'Kane acknowledges there are likely to be fewer MAF recipients initially. He is adamant that the review is not related to the recent Government cuts in the AC budget and any changes are not contingent on the level of funding of the council. "I'm trying to do this in an open way. Many aspects of it are flawed and it's irresponsible to pretend it's not flawed. I want to sort it out. Everyone agrees in principle that MAF is a good thing for both organisations and the council, but the dogs on the street will tell you there are problems - that it's very ambitious, administratively inefficient. It needs to be corrected. My concern is that the credibility of MAF has been undermined by flaws."
He stresses that the council believes in MAF support for organisations. "It's a fact of life. Multi-annual funding isn't a luxury for arts organisations - you have to plan in advance to operate in the real world. The Arts Council wants to live in the real world."
Minister gets Act together
The Arts Bill is finally nearing its conclusion after a tortuous process, and will come before the Dáil next Wednesday, the Minister, John O'Donoghue, confirmed this week. He has accepted that the standing committees as proposed in Section 21 are not the way to deal with specific areas. Instead of permanent "standing" committees, the Act will allow for short-term committees dealing with particular issues important at a given time, a plan revealed in ArtScape(February 22nd). The Minister tells me the standing committee on traditional arts as proposed by the Bill would be a bad idea, and that it would ghettoise traditional arts, but that he would establish a short-term committee for the traditional arts under the terms of the Act. Other committees would follow. He also says he disagrees with the proposed committee on arts and innovation.
The Minister was talking after launching the new season at the National Concert Hall this week (see On the Town, above), which has a distinct focus on international celebrity performances, particularly in the Irish Times/NCH Celebrity Concert series, highlights of which include the return of mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli, violinist Maxim Vengerov, and pianist Alfred Brendel, as well as pianists Evgeny Kissin, Lang Lang, Simon Trpceski and violinist Midori. One of the most exciting concerts should be the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Grammy-winner Bobby McFerrin. Other orchestras featuring in the new Sunday Times orchestral series include the Northern Sinfonia, the Berlin Symphony and the Czech National Symphony.
NCH director Judith Woodworth revealed some of the behind-the scenes stories behind the season's line-up. Apparently, Bartoli indicated within weeks of last October's concert, when she had a wonderful response from the audience, that she'd like to return, while Brendel's manager telephoned out of the blue to say he had a gap in his schedule in March and would love to perform in Dublin again. Full details of the programme are on the revamped website www.nch.ie
And furthermore . . .
Why would a competitor at the AXA Dublin International Piano Competition look up to the heavens in perplexity before sitting down to the keyboard? asks Michael Dervan. Trying to remember which pieces to play? Making sure the opening of the first work is safely in the memory? Shying away from the terrifying sight of two rows of jury members? Seeking divine inspiration? No. It was to try to work out the source of the persistent buzz that afflicts the RDS concert hall this week. The hall's main lights are the culprit, buzzing away and captured clearly in the quieter passages of the CD recordings that are made for presentation to each of the competitors before their departure. One of the lights was actually flickering on and off at the start of the competition, and has had to remain out of commission since. The RDS is not proving an entirely welcoming venue for music-making this May. A side-door to the outside world blew open and flapped while one competitor was playing (this also happened during a Hugh Tinney recital a few years ago), and someone tried to prise open the door linking the concert hall to the RDS Library, again while the competition was in progress. The competition's director and jury chairman, John O'Conor, had a few quiet and presumably sharp words with the intruder. Mix in the squeaking and uneven platform that makes it difficult for performers to find quiet comfort with the piano stool, and it's easy to imagine that O'Conor's words to the powers-that-be at the RDS were probably sharper still.
Dr Cathal McCabe has been appointed as executive director of the Irish Writers' Centre, the national organisation for the promotion of writers and literature in Ireland, replacing Peter Sirr. McCabe, originally from Newry, has worked in Poland where he lectured at the Universities of Lodz and Gdansk and worked as assistant director of the British Council in Poland. Investment banker Pat Austin, former insurance ombudsman Paulyn Marrinan Quinn SC and barrister and lecturer Bernard Rogan have also been appointed to the board of the Irish Writers' Centre.
The Army Number One Band is on the march this week - in an uncommonly good cause. Under its conductor Mark Armstrong, and with guest tenor Emmanuel Lawler, the band is doing a gig to raise money for the refurbishment of an orphanage at God's Mountain, near Cluj, in Romania. The music will be of the rousing kind - the Dambusters theme and such-like - and the venue is Taney Parish Centre, Dundrum, Dublin, on Tuesday, May 20th, at 8 p.m. Tickets from 01-2985491 or at the door.
The Irish Chamber Orchestra, which recently appointed Mary Robinson as chairwoman, has announced a tour featuring international violinist and recording artist, Nigel Kennedy, starting at City Hall in Cork on July 11th and also travelling to Limerick, Dublin and Dingle. Kennedy will double as director and soloist in a programme of Bach concertos, which will also feature Fionnuala Hunt on violin and Cork-born oboist Aisling Casey. The mostly-Bach programme will be preceded by Strings A-stray by Elaine Agnew, one of Ireland's foremost composers.
Irish Theatre Magazine and City Arts Centre's Civil Arts Inquiry are hosting a day-long event on Monday on "Touring Theatre in Ireland Today". People from all areas of the theatre sector will discuss problems and realities of touring theatre in Ireland today, particularlygiven the perception that the current environment for touring is poor and we will see fewer and less adventurous productions touring in the upcoming months, following the recent Arts Council cutbacks and the economic downturn. Details at www.irishtheatremagazine.com/ home/ mayevent.htm
The Dublin International Organ and Choral Festival (DIOCF) is inviting singers throughout Ireland to come together next Saturday and form one of the largest choirs gathered in recent years for a performance of Handel's Messiah, to take place in St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, on Saturday, May 24th at 7.30 p.m. There will be a workshop/rehearsal in choral and vocal technique (2-5pm) with conductor, Mark Duley. Tickets (workshop and performance or performance only) 10, from the DIOCF, 43-44 Temple Bar, Dublin 2. Telephone: 01-633 7392; e-mail: organs@diocf.iol.ie