ArtScape:Arts Alliance Galway (AAG), the new grouping of more than 50 arts organisations, writers, artists and musicians, has gone into battle over CIÉ's controversial €1 billion proposals for Ceannt Station. This week it issued a strong statement calling for a halt to the plan, and for a public forum on the western capital's infrastructural needs, writes Lorna Siggins.
With this move, the group is effectively marking a new era of unity within the arts sector in the city. Project 06's name may not be on the statement - the alternative festival was, after all, a one-year initiative - but some of its participants are among the signatories.
AAG, which was formed in late summer in response to CIÉ statements about its projected redevelopment of the prime city-centre site around the bus and train station, has already met representatives of the transport authority. It describes CIÉ's proposals as "culturally bankrupt" and is particularly critical of its plan to allocate 490sq m of the 5.97-hectare site to a "cultural facility". This proportion accounts for just 0.2 per cent of the site, compared to the 25 per cent allotted for car parking, according to the alliance. While CIÉ has described the development plan as a new "transport hub", transport elements will cover just 9 per cent of the total acreage, says AAG.
After its meeting with CIÉ on August 7th, the alliance was given just one month by the transport authority to prepare its own submission for a "viable and sustainable" cultural building.
"Despite repeated requests, we have been unable to obtain the commissioning brief," states the alliance. "This failure by CIÉ to respond is unacceptable behaviour - we want to be consulted, not insulted."
CIÉ says it has held public consultation sessions in Galway about the plan, which comprises an "urban quarter" with some 800 residential units, including social and affordable housing, new squares and pedestrianised "zones", urban, retail and commercial facilities, bars, restaurants and hotels, and cultural and community facilities.
AAG says its own scrutiny of the plan shows that the "cultural facilities" consist of the "use of a small 'goods shed' (a listed structure) as a public art gallery". It points out also that property developer Sean Dunne has included an extensive cultural dimension in his own plans for Dublin's Jurys Hotel.
"In Cork, developers of the Grand Parade site have gifted a €50 million library to that city. In Galway, we get a former keg store, one-third the size of the proposed nearby creche," the alliance states. "Given that the Ceannt Station site represents the largest development opportunity for any city-centre site in Europe, it will, in its usage, define Galway for arrivals and departures for generations to come. The present scheme fails to capitalise on the potentially pivotal role of the Ceannt Station area as a world-class transport hub" and there is "no integration of local buses, light railway or tram systems and no provision for future expansion of services".
Fortune comes in threes
The theory that success breeds success is one that Belfast's Lyric Theatre would clearly subscribe to. Flushed with critical acclaim for its current production, The Hypochondriac, and preparing to close the door on its crumbling building in Ridgeway Street, the company now has another cause for celebration, with no fewer than three nominations in this year's Stage TMA Theatre Awards, writes Jane Coyle.
The London-based awards, which have been running since 1990, recognise excellence in UK theatre outside the West End. Northern Ireland successes in the past have been rare, but include a best supporting actress award in 1997 for Pauline Flanagan in the Lyric's production of Jennifer Johnston's The Desert Lullaby.
This year's nominees include Rachel O'Riordan in the best director category for her all-male production of Much Ado About Nothing; Ferdia Murphy for the design of Dancing at Lughnasa; and Paul Boyd's Pinocchio in the children and young people category.
With a view to the new future of the Lyric, executive director Michael Diskin was upbeat about the positive signs the nominations sent out. "These nominations are testament to the revitalised artistic programme at the Lyric and clearly illustrate the growing recognition of the Lyric as a major theatre company outside of Northern Ireland," he said.
Winners of the awards will be announced on Sunday, October 21st, at a ceremony at London's Hampstead Theatre.
Children welcome
Arts and entertainment events for children have been booming in recent years, proof that there is a real hunger - and market - out there for creative play and performance for younger people. And proof also that the arts and education committee's work and proposals need to be moved along with urgency, so that all children have access to music, art, theatre.
In terms of one-off events, there's a new addition to the growing band of children's arts festivals. This year, for the first time, the Pavilion Theatre in Dún Laoghaire, under new artistic director Martin Murphy and with the support of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, is setting up the Flip Flop International Children's Theatre Festival.
Flip Flop, a six-day event next month, includes performances by Ukrainian clowns Mimirichi, masked German duo Habbe & Meik, Danish musical storytellers Corona La Balance, and Ireland's own Monkeyshine Theatre with some topsy-turvy fairytales. There are workshops on clowning, dance, music and storytelling in local libraries (free) and in the Pavilion Theatre, plus a children's fiction slam event for unpublished authors on Sunday, October 21st.
Lots of the events are free, while others are a reasonable €5 (or €7 for adults). Flip Flop runs from Saturday, October 20th, until the following Thursday. For booking and details, call 01-2312929, or go to www.paviliontheatre.ie.
Also in Dún Laoghaire, there was further recognition this month of the increasing prominence of jazz on the official cultural scene, with the unveiling of Métier as the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown Jazz Ensemble in Residence, writes Ray Comiskey.
The county council has a good track record in supporting music in general and jazz in particular, and this is the first time that the concept of an official ensemble in residence, usually associated with classical music, has been applied to jazz. Significantly, the initiative is also supported by Music Network.
Métier, a quintet, features bassist and composer Ronan Guilfoyle, from Newpark Music Centre, as artistic director. It also includes some of the finest young jazz musicians in Ireland, in Michael Buckley, Justin Carroll, Sean Carpio and the Australian, Paul Williamson. According to Guilfoyle, an indefatigable spreader of the jazz gospel, it is envisaged that the ensemble will bring in several notable guests for a planned series of four concerts in the coming months, among them the celebrated French cellist, Vincent Courtois.
Métier open their residency with a concert at Cabinteely House next Thursday, October 4th.
DruidSynge was a huge undertaking on every level, and who knows if Druid's complete Synge cycle will ever be staged in its entirety again. But the release of DruidSynge on DVD is an opportunity to relive the experience, as well as providing a resource for the academic and theatre worlds.
Druid, Wildfire Films and RTÉ have combined, with the support of Culture Ireland and the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland, to put together the DVD package, which includes: John Millington Synge's entire theatrical canon in performance by Druid; a documentary, Mighty Talk, cutting between rehearsals, opening nights in Galway and Edinburgh, and performances at Dun Chonchuir on Inis Meain; an RTÉ documentary, Playboys and Rebels, on the controversial original production of Playboy of the Western World; and a discussion between Garry Hynes and Synge expert Ann Saddlemyer.
The DVD package will be a unique record of the conception and creation of a theatre event, with Wildfire's 600 hours of performance and documentary footage shadowing the DruidSynge project from day one of rehearsals to the end of the final performance three months later.
The DVD box set DruidSynge: The Plays of John Millington Synge is available nationwide, or online at www.rte.ie/shop, from Wednesday, October 3rd, €29.95.