ArtScape:Galway City Council's plans for a "cultural quarter" near the Claddagh have been welcomed by members of the artistic community, but the applause comes with a loud cry of "encore", writes Lorna Siggins.
Late last month, city manager Joe McGrath confirmed that the local authority has bought buildings at 17-18 Lower Merchant's Road, beside the proposed art-house cinema at No 15 - and close to the waterfront museum at Spanish Arch.
The Solas art-house cinema, spearheaded by a group including Lelia Doolan, expects to finalise its plans shortly, McGrath noted, adding that detailed proposals on development of the "cluster", as provided for in the city plan, would be presented to city council members soon. Doolan, a film-maker, lecturer and environmental activist, welcomes the move. "It is a perfect location near the city museum/arts centre, and could create a focus for more arts groups, whose needs are well known."
These needs - space, space and more space - were highlighted most recently in the artists' presentation to CIÉ concerning its property-driven plans for Ceannt Station in the city centre. Artists have also been monitoring progress of the €2 billion Galway docklands redevelopment.
Aideen Barry, west of Ireland representative for Visual Artists Ireland and co-curator with Louise Manifold of last year's highly successful Tulca visual arts festival in Galway, says that arts infrastructure in the city has reached a critical stage.
The listed McDonagh's building on Merchant's Road, owned by developer Gerry Barrett, could make an ideal gallery, given its size and its Bauhaus interior. It could also be developed as a "hybrid" space that can accommodate everything from conservatorial music to dance to performing arts, Barry says.
On a more practical level, the lack of workspace is causing considerable concern. . Out on Liosban Industrial Estate, a "cultural quarter" of sorts has developed off the Tuam road, but rising rents are forcing Artspace, which marked 25 years as a co-operative last summer, and others to look further to the county.
"With 100 arts graduates coming out from Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) every year, and with artists moving to the west from Dublin and Cork, pressure on finding workspace is intense, but rents are prohibitively high," says Barry. "When I travelled to Iceland and to Banff in Canada last year, it reminded me once again of just how synonymous Galway is with the arts on an international level. Without the right support for arts infrastructure, we could lose it all."
A seat to call your own
The Wexford Festival Opera will move back to its old location but into a new opera house for this year's festival, writes Michael Dervan. The taxpayer has funded the bulk of the cost, by contributing €26 million, and a high-powered committee has managed to extract some large sums from wealthy patrons. But the target of €33 million has yet to be met, and the festival is now inviting members of the public to get their names into the picture at €850 a throw. This is the cost of endowing a seat with your name - or that of a friend or relative of your choice - in the new theatre (pictured above, right).
The festival is promising that the new 780-seat auditorium will have "the highest possible acoustic standards and a range of additional features to make it one of the most innovative, unique and adaptable performance spaces in the country". Multiply the seat-endowment price by the capacity and you get the answer to the question "what's in a name?". In this particular case, a possible €663,000, if all the seats end up with their specially-designed plaques.
Cash boost for Belfast festival
It is shaping up to be a happy year for the Belfast Festival at Queen's, with the announcement by Edwin Poots MLA, Northern Ireland Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure, of a grant of £300,000 (€401,000) to be spread over the next three years, writes Jane Coyle. The money will be allocated in three annual tranches: £125,000 (€167,000) to this year's festival, with £100,000 (€134,000) in 2009 and £75,000 (€100,000) in 2010. It not only injects a renewed sense of security for the festival's continuation, but also gives much-needed encouragement to the commercial sector and other major funders, such as the Arts Council and Belfast City Council, to follow suit in increasing their support.
The Department's commitment acknowledges the efforts made by the organisers to put in place a three-year business plan, aimed at securing the long-term future of this prestigious but cash-strapped international arts event.
The Minister praised artistic director Graeme Farrow and his team for the high quality of the 2007 programme, which did excellent box office business and made a little money go a long way.
"The festival makes a significant contribution to the cultural and economic life of Northern Ireland and I have every hope that the corporate sector will play an increasing role," he said.
Queen's University welcomed the Minister's support, maintaining that the investment underlines the Northern Ireland Executive's recognition of the significant contribution made to the economy by the festival. "Belfast Festival at Queen's puts more than £6.5 million (€8.7 million) a year into Northern Ireland businesses, benefiting a number of sectors, including tourism and hospitality," said a Queen's University spokesman. "The university now hopes that other funding partners, who benefit directly from the festival, will recognise the substantial opportunities provided by a properly funded international festival and respond accordingly."
Time to ban food in theatres?
Oh no our portion sizes aren't too big . . .
oh yes they are. With the panto season in full swing, parents are under increased pressure to buy overpriced and oversized soft drinks bottles, chocolate bars and packets of sweets on top of the overpriced tickets and light-up toys that never seem to last, writes Sylvia Thompson. The resulting problems include tooth decay, obesity and a lack of ability to concentrate on the show for those eating and those sitting nearby.
But, while going to the panto might be a one-off night out for the audience, think of the performers in other long-running shows. One adult at Alice in Wonderland at the Helix said she strained her ears to hear the dialogue above noisy sweet wrappers.
Is it time to ban eating sweets inside theatres? Surely our children can have their snacks during the break? And what about popcorn-strewn cinemas?
Comedy writer and director Graham Linehan is the focus of Tuesday's Arts Lives, the first documentary of seven in RTÉ's new series. It is described as an intimate profile of Linehan's working life, and will be of interest to fans of his nattily structured and very funny TV comedies, including the exquisite comic gem that is The IT Crowd (can we have another series soon please, Channel 4?), Father Ted, which he co-wrote with Arthur Mathews, and Black Books (co-written with its star, Dylan Moran). Other subjects coming up in what has been an excellent series include singer and performer Nóirín Ní Riain, author John Banville, singer Ronnie Drew, writer Patrick McCabe, pianist John O'Conor and poet Paul Muldoon. www.rte.ie/tv/artslives
New year, new resolutions - like doing that art course you always meant to get round to. The National Gallery of Ireland's art studies course, The World of Art, starts with a talk by UCD's Dr Christine Casey called The Craftsmen who Built Georgian Dublin (Thursday, 6.30pm). The 10 lectures, by a range of speakers, ends with Sean Scully on March 13th. Season tickets cost €80, single tickets cost €8.50 (from the Gallery Shop). Details from the gallery at 01-6615133.