Weekly round-up: 26 January 2011

26 January 201126 January 20111 Comment

RTE Radio 1 is featuring an interesting series of radio programmes discussing the relationship between Irish theatre and social events from the early 20th century to the 1960s. The first few episodes can be played back via RTE’s Radio player, and there’s also a Facebook page and Twitter feed for the series.
Don’t let the tourists be the only ones there! Temple Bar’s Tradfest kicks off today, with a great series of gigs, street performances and other events– the Singers’ Club sounds particularly groovy!
Designer David Smith (Atelier) has just become the first Irish person elected to the prestigious design body Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI); his studio’s work would be well known throughout this country and internationally — congratulations!!
Here’s another one for the creative industries crowd, and the people who love them: ‘Moot VII’ at the Butler Gallery in Kilkenny on 4 February will feature a roster of speakers discussing intersections between creativity, innovation and business.
The Arts Council of Northern Ireland has launched an effort similar to the Republic’s National Campaign for the Arts to address their own looming budget crisis: ‘Fair Deal for the Arts NI‘ is asking citizens to write their representatives and sign an online petition against the proposed 23% cut in the arts budget. As the NCFA has demonstrated, effective campaigning can go a long way towards protecting support for the arts & culture; only 20 days are left in the public consultation period, so if you live in the North please take action!
Colm Tóibín’s stepping into Martin Amis’ shoes as Professor of Creative Writing at University of Manchester — sounds like a great gig if you can get it!!
There’s a whole slew of upcoming conferences in Ireland and the UK on the subject of new media technologies and the cultural sector– first up is ‘Mobile for the Cultural Sector‘ in London, focusing on the application of mobile technologies in the arts, from 8-9 March.
Take a moment and let this news sink in– next week more than 600 arts organisations are likely to receive funding rejection letters from the Arts Council England. Sounds like many are bracing themselves for a worrying period of programme (and organisational) reassessment…

IMA Annual Conference: The Way Forward: Sustainability and the Museum

24 January 2011

This year’s Irish Museums Association annual conference (25-27th February 2011) is now accepting registrations (full disclosure: I’m on the organising committee)! Our theme this year is ‘The Way Forward: Sustainability and the Museum‘, and we’re delighted to be headed to Drogheda, where we’ll be hosted by the Droichead Arts Centre.

We’ve a great series of events lined up– as always, Fridays will feature a selection of members’ papers (see the call for papers here) and an interactive workshop (Annette Nugent leading the group for a session entitled ‘What can the museum sector offer the visitor, and how can museums grow their visitor base?’).

Saturday will see a full roster of speakers take the podium, including:

RACHEL MADAN (Greener Museums and author of Sustainable Museums: Strategies for the 21st Century)
EAMONN McENEANEY (Director, Waterford Museum of Treasures)
OLE WINTHER (Head of Museums Office, National Heritage Agency, Denmark)
SAMUEL JONES (Policy Fellow at the UK’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Head of Culture at DEMOS)
STUART McLAUGHLIN (Chief Executive, Business2Arts, Dublin)
IZABELLA CSORDÁS (Head of Visitor Services Department, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary)
GRAINNE MILLAR (Head of Cultural Development, Temple Bar Cultural Trust, Dublin)
DR HUGH MAGUIRE (Director, Hunt Museum, Limerick)

The Millmount Museum, Highlanes Gallery, Beaulieu House and Battle of the Boyne Visitor Centre will all be welcoming conference delegates for special receptions and visits. We are offering a special 40% off concession rate this year as well.

Full details of the conference programme can be found on the IMA website. Hope to see you there!

Weekly round-up: 17 December 2010

17 December 201017 December 2010

Last digest before Xmas, folks! And it’s a doozy…

Jim Carroll in the IT wants to know your cultural highlights of 2010. No doubt the Rubberbandits will make multiple appearances (2 million+ views on YouTube? no. 1 on iTunes? Giant response from Liveline appearance? Willie O’Dea & Limerick never had it so good.)
The Science Gallery is cited in today’s Times Higher Education as ‘a refreshingly upbeat public venue, with a strong focus on collaborative art-science projects that encourage audience participation (it also has the best cafe of any science centre in the world)’. Nice one, MJG et al.
Druid & NUI Galway have announced a new partnership training future theatre professionals.
Check out the website for the Monet exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris, winner of best interactive site at the Eurobest Awards. In a word: wowsa (nice use of Mussorgsky’s ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ for the soundtrack, by the way!)
More censorship woes back stateside, where MOCA in LA has painted over a commissioned mural deemed offensive.
Coming to another wall near you– the Dublin Docklands launched its ‘Art Park’ project, to be coordinated by the Sebastian Guinness Gallery, featuring large-scale nightly projections/screenings on the wall of the new Dublin Convention Centre. Proposals for projections, exhibitions, and other arts/cultural events in the new park are being solicited.
Ok, so it’s a week old by now, but in case you missed it Gerry Smyth in the IT provided an excellent overview of how the budget cuts will affect the arts, and some musings on why cuts weren’t as savage as they might have been.
In other funding news… the draft budget for Northern Ireland was announced on Wednesday, with a 9.3% cut forecasted for DCAL. No details yet, and more will emerge following public consultations through February.
‘Tis the season of university commencement… I’ve read this piece a few times and still find it clear-eyed and moving– Theo Dorgan challenges current new university graduates to imagine a new Ireland, in spite of the havoc that’s been wreaked on their futures.

Season’s Greetings to all my readers!! Thanks for granting me the gift of your eyeballs over the past year.

Weekly round-up: 17 November 2010

17 November 201017 November 20101 Comment

Lots of gloomy news this week– but some bright spots for the arts:

Opera Ireland went out on a high note (excuse the pun!) with its production of Tosca– also the first opening night of opera to be streamed live online in Ireland.
Our own college council meeting has been postponed pending budget announcements; devastating budget cuts for UK colleges of the arts (and the Open University) makes for glum reading.
Further on the subject of UK arts cuts– the Guardian’s helpfully collating articles that deal with the impact and extent of cuts to the arts– from the slash and burn of Somerset’s county council that eliminated 100% of arts funding, to the better news of Scotland’s relatively light cuts to its arts budget.
The Department of Tourism, Sport and Culture announced the recipients of its cultural technology grants. Lots and lots of iPhone applications funded, with the largest grant (€180,000) to the Foynes Flying Boat Museum to develop a 3-D hologram ‘tracing the history and development of Irish coffee for flying boat passengers at Foynes’: seriously?!
The Irish Museums Association is sponsoring a one-day seminar at University of Ulster (‘Practice Meets Theory‘) for students and professionals interested in museum studies. Attendance is free!
Bucking the trend of the unpaid internship– the Jerwood Charitable Foundation in the UK is offering a series of creative bursaries in association with selected arts and cultural organisations – the selection of opportunities is quite juicy!

Wednesday round-up (27 Oct 10)

28 October 201028 October 2010

Ok, so technically it’s Thursday, but the baby’s gotta eat sometime.

Here’s what’s caught my eye this week:

Locally, Professor Michael Shanks from Stanford University’s visiting UCD– as the blurb goes: ‘His lab at Stanford, Metamedia, is pioneering the use of Web 2.0 technologies to facilitate collaborative multidisciplinary research networks in design history, media materialities and long-term historical trends.’ He’s giving three seminars, the last two of which on 18 November (Museum Design and the Humanities / Design and the Humanities) may be of interest to readers here? Click here to download more info.
As Sue Sylvester opined in last night’s Glee, ‘art’s gotta push boundaries’: see some folks doing just that at a gathering of top Irish performance artists on November 4 at Kilmainham Gaol.
Did you know next week is Design Week? No? Get thee to the website…
The RHA is hosting a swanky evening fundraising do next Friday.
Dnote’s launched a Cultural Map of Dublin (iPhone app to follow, huzzah!)
Do you dream in 140 characters? Business to Arts is looking for a social media intern to join their team.
And finally: can Beckett Bran be far behind? Americans for the Arts cook up a new ad campaign: