Weekly round-up: 27 April 2011

27 April 201127 April 2011

Though I’ve been occupied stuffing myself with Easter chocolate, basking in the spring sunshine, and feeling the glow of two long weekends with a royal wedding sandwiched in the middle, it’s time for another round-up…

Jazz-heads are gearing up for a few weeks of delectable treats — Improvised Music Company’s 12 Points! European Jazz festival begins at Project Arts Centre on 4th of May, while the long-running Bray Jazz Festival is this weekend! Lots of chatter meanwhile on Jim Carroll’s recent blogpost on issues surrounding jazz promotion & attendance in Ireland, followed by an article in today’s IT by Laurence Mackin on the changing face of contemporary jazz. Some of the best gigs I’ve been to in Ireland have been jazz — Tomasz Stanko, EST, Bobo Stenson, and Marcin Wasilewski are a few that spring to mind — and according to my extra-jazzy husband (who co-presents Jazz-o-rama on Dublin City FM), Phronesis is the hot ticket at 12 Points this year.

Mindfield (the ‘international festival of ideas’) begins this Friday in Merrion Square and runs through Sunday. Though to my mind a leetle on the pricey side (69 yo-yos for a full festival pass, or a tenner for each event) there are quite a few free workshops & family events. I’m a fan of the quick-fire Ignite concept of 10 speakers + 20 slides + 5 minutes, but there’s a whole range of interesting talks and hands-on events throughout the weekend.

Seriously digging the idea of Druid staging The Cripple of Inishman on, well, Inis Meáin. Locals have first dibs on tickets for the 26 July performance (sales opened yesterday to Aran Islands residents), with the remainder going on sale to the public on 23 May.

Yesterday’s Irish Times carried a special supplement featuring the programme for the Bealtaine Festival (‘Celebrating Creativity in Older Age’) which begins this Sunday. They’re also currently recruiting for Cultural Companions, a programme which matches seniors with folks interested in accompanying them to cultural events (applications are being accepted for North Dublin and Cork).

On the other end of the age spectrum, Sheila Wayman in the IT wrote yesterday about involving children in arts activities from an early age, citing the importance of introducing them to arts experiences outside of school structure. As the mama to a 18 month old little guy, I found the list of available activities very useful — with the baby boom in Ireland still in full flush, young families will be an important market & audience for arts organisations for some time…

I’ll be popping in to the Science Gallery’s new exhibition HUMAN+ tomorrow — Director Michael John Gorman recently penned a piece on the Guardian’s Science blog about the show that’s sold it to me!

The Galway City Museum is set to be re-furbished; it will be closed until early June to facilitate work, presumably in time for the Galway Arts Festival in July!

A quirky news item in the Independent last week noted that several roadside public sculptures from Kildare and Kerry have been stolen (presumably melted down for scrap). Obviously this is a distressing issue for the county councils and artists involved — though I must admit given the state of some of our public sculptures, these thieves might be doing us a roundabout favour (pun intended).

Temple Bar Cultural Trust is calling for interested participants for Culture Night 2011; deadline for expressions of interest is the 27th of May.

In an expected but warmly welcomed move, Arts Minister Jimmy Deenihan issued a call for interested applicants to apply for board positions at the National Concert Hall, IMMA, Irish Architectural Archive, Arts Council, and Heritage Council. This is part of efforts by the Department to increase transparency as regards governance and recruitment, and to avoid the sinkhole of political appointee-ism that’s plagued some of our cultural institutions. There’s no guarantee appointees will be drawn from this open application process, nonetheless it’s a great step in the right direction. Applications are due May 13th, so get cracking!

The Fundit website’s done extraordinarily well in its first month, raising about 40k! Quite a number of projects have reached their funding targets — but I’d love to see the Irish/Polish Film Project and the Open House Dublin Book Project make it over the line (their funding target has to be met for them to receive any moola) — have a look & consider sending a few euro their way??

The worst news of the past 2 weeks? The closure of the Lighthouse Cinema, after the failure to reach an agreement with the current landlords and the appeal for mediation rejected. I still have difficulty believing there’s no alternative in this case; it makes me physically sick to think of that wonderful facility lying empty. Will this be the final death knell for the Smithfield redevelopment dream?

Weekly round-up: 24 February 2011

24 February 20111 Comment

The Dublin Book Festival begins next Wednesday — a great line-up of events and talks! In my own small corner of the universe, I’m going to be giving away 50 copies of Toni Morrison’s Beloved as part of World Book Night: swing by Starbucks in Blackrock Village from 11 am on Saturday 5th March to snag a free copy, first come first served (just mention the blog!).
The Irish Museums Association’s annual conference begins tomorrow in Drogheda; do join us for 2 full days of presentations, visits and discussion amongst the Irish museum community.
Project Arts Centre is looking for a few good bloggers — dangled carrots include free tickets, opportunities to interview artists and performers, use of a spiffy blogger-phone (sounds positively Batman-esque), etc… apply for the My_Project scheme by 7 March!
The First Thursdays initiative by TBCT carries forward the enthusiasm of Culture Night into a regular late-night opening of galleries and arts spaces in Temple Bar. The Clyne Gallery, Exchange Dublin, Gallery of Photography, Graphic Studio Gallery, Monster Truck Gallery & Studios, NGG / No Grants Gallery, Project Arts Centre, Temple Bar Gallery and Studios will all extend opening hours until 8 pm during the first Thursday of every month.
Shona McCarthy has been appointed Chief Executive of the company managing (London)Derry’s City of Culture programme for 2013. First task: nomenclature decision??
Whilst on the subject of Northern Ireland — our annual MA trip this year is to Belfast, where we’ll be visiting a number of cultural institutions & meeting with managers and policy-makers. If you have any suggestions of groovy places/people to add to our itinerary, please email me!
The OPW has begun recruitment for its seasonal heritage guides at sites around the country; this is a popular summer job for many of our current and past students, and online applications will only be accepted from 24 February – 3 March, so get cracking!
They speak! Newly appointed Dublin Contemporary curators Jota Castro and Christian Viveros-Fauné have recorded an interview available on CIRCA’s website. A recent press release from the DC also notes they will be giving a talk at the Armory Show in NYC next week on the subject of ‘Biennials As Barometers of Social Transformation? Dublin Contemporary 2011: Art, Crisis, Change & The Office of Non-Compliance‘. One would hope a podcast will be made available??
Eamonn O’Doherty will be one happy camper: the Anna Livia fountain (the ‘Floozie in the Jacuzzi’) is finally being re-installed in Dublin city centre after more than a decade in storage; eyewitnesses from the National Museum noted it being lowered into position today in Croppie’s Acre. Hopefully she will receive better treatment than her last respite on O’Connell St, although over on the online Vulgo zine Ciarán Mac Gonigal gives a fairly pessimistic view of the state of Irish public sculpture.
Some really thought-provoking debate is over on Diane Ragsdale’s blog on the subject of ‘failing’ arts organisations and the theatre ‘oversupply’ issue raised previously by NEA chariman Rooco Landesman. I agree that it’s very easy to pontificate on the (somewhat specious) claim of oversupply, far harder to suggest ways this would actually be dealt with (if even proven!). On her blog, Shoshanna Fanizza examines the claim of oversupply against her own community in Boulder, Colorado. I can only imagine the wars that would be started should someone claim that Irish theatre is oversupplied (although recent funding decisions by the Arts Council certainly have had the whiff of rationalization, and one of the keynote address at last year’s Theatre Forum conference addressed this very issue of a sustainable theatre economy).

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…

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.

Internships a-go-go

10 March 200910 March 20095 Comments

Lots of opportunities available at the moment– a great way to gain experience while biding time on the dreary job market! And of course interning or volunteering simply is great fun and a way to see the workaday side of arts management.

Current opportunities on offer include: