ArtScape: As Budget day approaches, minds and strategies at the Arts Council are focused on the case to be made for a further substantial increase in Exchequer funding for the arts.
Minister for Arts John O'Donoghue did well last year in securing more than €72 million for the council, €10 million up on the previous year. The generous year-on-year increases of recent times have created high expectations throughout the sector - though the recent period of expanding largesse followed years of underfunding.
As part of its Partnership for the Arts strategy - supported by O'Donoghue - the council has set a target of €100 million by 2008, which suggests that this year it is aiming for a figure beyond the €85 million mark. Whether this will be achieved remains to be seen - and the Government Estimates on November 16th will give some indication - but already there is heavy demand on any extra money that might come the way of Merrion Square.
Even before the council considers grant applications for the next 12 months - last year the total applied for was twice what was available - several new initiatives already have a call on whatever extra revenue O'Donoghue wrestles from the Department of Finance.
First up is the €2 million promised for the recently announced national touring programme. Then there is the Abbey Theatre, which last year, in the wake of its financial difficulties and reorganisation, was given a guarantee of €25.7 million over three years. It received €7.2 this year and would be expecting at least a further €1 million this time around, to bring its revenue to more than €8 million for 2007.
When the council announced earlier this year its intention to channel grant aid to one-off productions in 2007, it drew a huge response which, even if only half the submissions were successful, would require funding of around €3 million. And the long-awaited new policy on supporting opera should not be forgotten either - if its aims are matched by funding, the cost for next year could add an extra €1 million to the €3 million given to opera organisations this year.
In addition, if the general funding programme for existing clients and arts organisations (which currently accounts for around €50 million of the council's overall funding from Government) were to increase by even a modest 10 per cent, this would mean earmarking €5 million for those purposes. O'Donoghue has a strong case to make for inching towards that €100 million target - and expectations are high.
New order of the Garter
Even getting into Garter Lane Arts Centre in Waterford's O'Connell Street is a pleasure, following the €1.5 million renovation at the theatre, which recently reopened with a production of The Salvage Shop, by Jim Nolan. The arched entrance has been floored and the covered laneway leads to a wide-stepped courtyard, writes Mary Leland.
Originally a Quaker meeting house dating from 1790, the building served different civic purposes, from courthouse to polling station, through the years until the theatre took over in 1988. The chandelier which came as a gift from Waterford Crystal for the original opening now glistens over the foyer and the sweeping stairway, where the elegant doors give on to offices, a new auditorium entrance and two technical suites, including the control room.
The three-sided auditorium has been turned around, according to artistic director Caroline Senior, so that it has greater flexibility, allowing front-on productions while keeping the former arrangements and increasing the seating capacity to a maximum of 200 on a steep rake.
Across the hall, the white-walled, parquet-floored gallery remains a gallery (and bar with catering facilities), while the ladies' toilets have been expanded into a suite of queue-defeating cubicles. A member of the board of the Ireland Newfoundland Partnership, Caroline Senior secured the Canadian design team of Diamond and Schmitt - which has just completed work on the $100 million (€78.33 million) opera house in Toronto - for the renovation programme, while the local project architect was Ken Wigham.
The bulk of the funding for this undertaking came from the Department of Arts, along with a grant from Waterford City Council, but while Senior says the theatre is still fundraising, it has secured a grant of €50,000 from the Arts Council to mount a new opera for children next year. With music by Marian Ingoldsby and a libretto by Ben Hennessy, Lily's Labyrinth will feature the PM Ensemble chamber orchestra from Wales. It opens on February 5th as part of Waterford's New Music Week.
Godot's missionary
"I feel like a missionary when it comes to Beckett," said Michael Colgan recently at New York University's Skirball Center, where the Gate production of Waiting for Godot opened, writes Belinda McKeon. The production arrived in New York after runs in Washington, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and will move on, after the current sold-out run, to Berkeley, Seattle and Los Angeles.
The New York audience gave a keen welcome to Godot - all six shows were sold out well in advance (a first for the Skirball, which runs a special fund to reserve 30 per cent of its tickets for students, at low prices) and the production was praised in the press as the saving grace of what had been too sparse a centenary celebration for Beckett. The audience on opening night included Dustin Hoffman and the man who first brought Godot to the US, Beckett's former publisher and agent, Barney Rosset.
Colgan revealed that the Beckett touring will continue after the US performances, with a mini-festival planned for the Sydney Festival (where Fergus Linehan is artistic director) in January.
The invitations to tour are coming "fast and furious", said Colgan. But what happens in Dublin remains his priority. "If you don't get it right on the Gate stage, it will all peter out very quickly, so you have to keep the attention on that."
Future plans for the Gate include another show from Selina Cartmell, who directed the current production of Festen. According to Colgan, a production of Ingmar Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage is also being considered, while David Mamet's 1976 play, American Buffalo, will be produced next year, directed by Mark Brokaw.
Young traditionalists
Siansa Gael Linn, the annual competition for young traditional music and singing groups, is now in its sixth year, and the closing date for 2007 entries is November 17th, writes Siobhán Long. Aside from its healthy prize fund and the fact that the competition is run as Gaeilge, Siansa's main aim is to provide help and advice to young musicians through workshops run by professional musicians.
Past adjudicators include Altan's Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh and Mark Kelly, Gerry "Fiddle" O'Connor and Charlie Lennon. Siansa is one of the few national traditional music competitions that exists outside of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, and its emphasis is on short programmes of music with new and imaginative arrangements.
Newly composed music or new arrangements of well-known pieces are accepted in the competition, though Siansa advises entrants not to attempt to replicate the musical arrangements of well-known traditional groups. Competition entrants must be aged between 12 and 19, and groups can have between five and eight members.
Siansa 2007's all-Ireland finals will take place in Mullingar Arts Centre on Friday, April 20th. Winners will receive €2,250 in prize money and will have their winning performance released on CD, along with those of second- and third-prize winners. Siansa's co-ordinator is traditional singer Niamh de Búrca. For details, contact Gael Linn at 01-6753303 or niamh@gael-linn.ie.
In an effort to change the international assumption that Irish crafts equal Aran sweaters, the Crafts Council of Ireland is making a big push to show the range and quality of Irish craft. The council is bringing a group of top Irish craftworkers over to Chicago's annual Exposition of Sculptural Objects and Functional Art (Sofa) for the first time.
Sofa, which opens at Navy Pier, Chicago, next Friday, is one of the key international fairs for applied art, and had more than 35,000 visitors in its three days last year. The curator for this year's Irish contingent is Brian Kennedy, who is bringing ceramicists and wood and metal craftworkers with him, as well as jewellery-maker Sonja Landweer.
Following Fergal McGrath's decision to step down from Druid next January, the Galway theatre company has advertised for a new managing director. For details of the post and applications (to be received by November 17th), contact chairman Seamus O'Grady, Druid, Flood Street, Galway (chairman@druidtheatre.com).