Please attend: NCFA Hustings meetings on 14 February

Okay, never mind the fact I had to look up the word ‘hustings’ (my fellow Americans, it is synonymous with election ‘stumping’) — if you’re in Dublin, get thee down to Project Arts Centre on Monday, 14 February to remind election candidates that the arts matter!

 

THE ARTS AND THE ELECTIONS

On Monday 14 February – Valentines Day – the National Campaign for the Arts will be holding three election hustings meetings around the country.

Please come and show your support in Dublin, 10.45am – 12.15  Project Arts Centre, Temple Bar.

This is an opportunity to hear the political parties explain their arts and culture policies and for you to put your questions to them. A new government Is imminent. That means new policies and new priorities – with no guarantees of continued investment in the arts.

We are delighted senior politicians from the 5 parties have confirmed they will
attend the Dublin meeting:

1. FF – Mary Hanafin TD, Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport and Deputy Leader of FF
2. FG – Jimmy Deenihan TD, FG Frontbench Spokesperson  Culture, Tourism and Sport
3. Green –  Paul Gogarty TD, Spokesperson on Education, Tourism, Culture and Sport
4. Labour –  Ruairi Quinn TD, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party
5. Sinn Fein – Aengus O Snodaigh TD

It will be chaired by journalist Myles Dungan.

This event will be FREE ADMISSION with limited capacity, tickets will be distributed on a first-come first-served basis.

NB Let the canvassers know that the arts are an election issue for you. Ask them about their arts policy and tell them about the value of the arts.

www.ncfa.ie

Here are the times & locations of the other three regional meetings:

Cork: 10.45am – 12.00 Crawford Art Gallery
Galway: 10.45am – Radisson Blu Hotel
Limerick: 10.45am – Belltable Arts Centre

Weekly round-up: 10 February 2011

  • Anyone looking for a good intern? Some of our MA in Arts Management & Cultural Policy students are still seeking 8 week work placements this spring/summer in cultural organisations of all stripes (in Ireland/the UK/Europe/US). If you have a special project underway in need of assistance, and/or would like to welcome one of our students into your organisation, email me with details.
  • In a similar vein, the Digital Hub has also issued a call for interested organisations and companies to participate in its ‘Best in Show’ competition, which judges student work & offers placements in Digital Design, Film/Video, Multimedia,Animation, and Audio/Music.
  • Lots going on infrastructurally in the North: the new arts centre in Downpatrick, Co Down has broken ground, and the Lyric Theatre in Belfast’s major new theatre by architects O’Donnell & Tuomey is set to be finished in May; a slew of new jobs have also just been advertised for the venue. I heard a presentation a while back by the architects on the proposed design, and the final result looks to be fab.
  • The Arts Council of Northern Ireland continues its campaign (‘A Fair Deal for the Arts‘) to protect the cultural sector from devastating cuts in the forthcoming budget; a recently published report on the effect of the economic downturn on its regularly funded organisation details the damage that’s already been done.
  • The Department for Education in the UK has published a report on Music Education in England; one would hope its impact will be greater than the much-lauded but little-implemented Points of Alignment (2008) report in Ireland.
  • Culture Ireland’s ‘Imagine Ireland‘ year-long programme of events in the US has received lots of press recently, but on Monday the Irish Times had an interesting profile of the lesser-known Solas Nua center in Washington D.C., dedicated to showcasing contemporary Irish art.
  • The Contemporary Music Centre’s been busy: next Tuesday (the 15th) they’re hosting a day to introduce their ‘Artist in the Community‘ scheme to aspiring composers and musicians; and the 23rd of Feb and 30th of March sees their Nights of New Music programme at the National Concert Hall.
  • An upcoming one-day workshop.seminar on academic blogging is coming up on 4 March at TCD: Honest to Blog: A symposium on web legitimacy is part of an ongoing series on the subject of blogging in the humanities.
  • I’m loving LeCool Dublin’s coverage of arts events and their snazzy website; worth a look-see if you’re not familiar with it already.
  • The National Campaign for the Arts has created a new Twibbon to add to Facebook/Twitter avatars & show your support during the general election campaign.
  • Not arts related, strictly speaking, but one of the best articles I’ve read on the Irish economic crisis was recently published in March’s Vanity Fair.
  • World Book Night is coming up! One million books will be given out during the first week of March in Ireland and the UK, and I’m thrilled to be one of the lucky folks chosen to give out 48 copies of Beloved by Toni Morrison! I’ll be posting details of my master giveaway plan next week if you’re interested in snagging a copy.
  • And just to keep your day sweet… all hail John Mackintosh, the Toffee King. I can assure you in advance you will like it. It is delightful.

Weekly round-up: 4 February 2011

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Blowin’ in the wind this week:

  • As seen in the last post, the Dublin Contemporary‘s appointed 2 new curators; its site has just come back online again as of today, with further details of its theme and what the heck they mean by ‘The Office of Non-Compliance’, whose explanation still sounds a bit Cheneyesque to me.
  • The director job for the National Concert Hall was featured in The Irish Times today.
  • Many were dismayed this week (not least the staff) to hear of the closure of Waterstone’s Dublin branches. I can only hope great indies like the Gutter Bookshop, Winding Stair and The Company of Books continue to thrive.
  • The new Google Art Project has been wowing everyone in these parts– more fun than ArtStor, but can the Irish museums play too? Pretty please??
  • The Model: Sligo has a great new Jack Yeats exhibition ‘The Outsider’ on show, and a talk tomorrow (5 Feb) with Brian O’Doherty and Hilary Pyle that I wish I could attend!
  • Business to Arts has published a useful evaluation of its own ‘New Stream’ project, aimed at improving development skills in the arts sector through a series of workshops and professional development activities. Our own Pat Cooke provides some of the feedback on the programme.
  • Arts Audiences has launched details of two audience development schemes: Building Your Audience focuses on cultural tourism and assisting arts organisations with attracting domestic and international visitors (in partnership with Failte Ireland), while Media Mentoring offers the opportunity to match orgs with a mentor from Google who will provide advice and guidance on using new media to best advantage. Both schemes are currently open for application by organisations large & small!
  • The Moderns has continued to attract high visitor numbers (though some mixed reviews) but an announcement that the catalogue will be AGAIN delayed until March (when a significant part of the exhibition will be closed) was deeply disappointing (and frustrating for those of us hoping to use the exhibition for teaching purposes!)
  • Alain de Botton’s provocatively titled missive ‘Why are museums so uninspiring?’ set off lots of debate & discussion in the blogosphere; personally I think Charlotte Higgins from the Guardian had the most spot-on response (and interesting comments, too).
  • In the US, NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman sparked more debate over his comments that suggest American theatre was in a state of oversupply and under-demand, and should be adjusted accordingly.
  • The Observer on Sunday had an interesting piece on the death of the critic in the face of social media, but it still sounds like the funeral may be premature.

Dublin Contemporary appoints new curators

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Following the recent news of Rachael Thomas’ departure from the Dublin Contemporary project, news of new curatorial appointments has come from a press release distributed today:

New York-based curator and writer, Christian Viveros-Fauné, and Franco-Peruvian artist and curator, Jota Castro, have been appointed joint Lead Curators of Dublin Contemporary 2011, one of the most ambitious art exhibitions ever staged in Ireland. Dublin Contemporary will take place for eight weeks from September 6th to October 31st 2011 and will present the work of Irish-based artists, alongside leading artists from around the globe.
Viveros-Fauné and Castro are very ambitious for Dublin Contemporary and will be presenting the work of some renowned international artists alongside artworks by outstanding Irish artists. They will present a programme of exhibitions that relate to the theme of Terrible Beauty—Art, Crisis, Change & The Office of Non-Compliance. Taken from William Butler Yeats’s famous poem, “Easter, 1916”, the exhibition’s title was inspired by Yeats’s response to political events in Ireland and is intended to highlight art’s potential for commenting on current events in Irish life.

Sounds like it’s been given a complete overhaul, including the title (now in its third version, although I think including the phrase ‘the office of non-compliance’ weakens the theme). Both of the curators would be fairly unknown in these parts, although with very interesting CVs. The press release makes no mention however of the other ‘curatorial voices’ previously involved with the DC, including Oliver Dowling et al. The DC’s site is currently down with a note it will be relaunching today. The press release reiterates that a programme will be announced in March.

Weekly round-up: 26 January 2011

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