BBC Northern Ireland: Request For Feedback From the Arts Community

Announcement:

Request For Feedback From the Arts Community

The Audience Council would like to hear the views of practising artists, administrators and those with a specific interest in the arts about the BBC’s coverage of the Arts in Northern Ireland, at network and local levels.

Council is hosting two meetings in coming weeks. The first will be held in Armagh on April 25th. If you are a practising artist or have a specific role in the arts and would like to meet Council, to express your views, please let us know.

The second meeting will be held in Belfast, and Council welcomes artists, administrators and members of the public to come along to this meeting, to talk about their views.

For information about the events in April and June, please contact the Trust Unit NI office:

Patricia Davey
Accountability Manager
BBC Trust NI

telephone: 028 9033 8854
email: patricia.davey@bbc.co.uk

or

Jhoanna Sto. Domingo
Team Asst.
BBC Trust NI

telephone: 028 9033 8856
email: jhoanna.sto.domingo@bbc.co.uk

Everybody Loves Sean

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Writing in Saturday’s Irish Times, Fintan O’Toole weighed in again on the spat between Garry Hynes (of the Druid Theatre) and the Abbey, over a proposed cycle of Sean O’Casey’s three Dublin plays (celebrating the centenary of 1916 in 2016) that’s soured the relationship between them. In an earlier interview with Hynes which appeared in Thursday’s IT, the basis of the dispute was outlined:

According to Hynes, she approached the Abbey’s director Fiach MacConghail in 2006 with the idea of undertaking this project as a co-production. “I approached the Abbey and suggested that this would make an ideal co-production project. The Abbey has resources beyond what we had, and a relationship with the writer. Druid had the expertise and the proven ability to deliver on major projects of this kind and it seemed to me that that was an ideal and potentially very exciting co-production for the two organisations. It seemed to make complete sense to me, but the Abbey rejected the proposal.”

Just before Christmas 2007, according to Hynes, she discovered that the Abbey had in fact gone much further. Druid, which had been in discussion with the O’Casey estate on the rights to the plays, was told quite suddenly that the Abbey had taken the rights to both The Plough and Juno , making the Druid project impossible.

“We were gazumped by the Abbey. It was pretty disturbing. We were in the middle of negotiation. We were very much taken by surprise to find that the Abbey had purchased the rights to two of the plays, therefore making our plans untenable. And they had done that in the full knowledge of our plans.” Abbey director Fiach MacConghail accepts that he had some discussion with Hynes on the O’Casey project, but strongly rejects any suggestion that Druid was “gazumped” (see panel). What is clear, though, is that a potentially very significant project is now impossible and that Hynes’s own relationship with the Abbey, where she was artistic director in the early 1990s, is completely severed as a result.

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Fionnuala Croke appointed chief keeper and curator at the National Gallery

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On Saturday the National Gallery of Ireland announced that Fionnaula Croke– a twenty year veteran at the Gallery– would be taking over the reins from Sergio Benedetti as head curator:

Ms Croke, who takes up her post this month, will have overall responsibility for managing the permanent collection and exhibitions at the gallery.

She told The Irish Times her main priority would be to enhance the permanent collection through acquisitions, research and the publication of gallery catalogues. The National Gallery gets €3 million a year from the Government to acquire new works.

The gallery is also planning a €45 million refurbishment of its older buildings and the construction of a new wing, which will be used to provide further gallery space.

From Churchtown in Dublin, Ms Croke joined the gallery in 1987 as a research fellow, and subsequently became curator of French paintings.

In the 1990s, she was also responsible for administering exhibitions and in 2000 was appointed head of exhibitions in anticipation of the opening of the Millennium wing of the gallery.

The Art of the Steal: the saga of Larry Salander

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I found this article from Portfolio chronicling the downfall of the New York art dealer Larry Salander an astonishing read. As the tombstone goes:

The Salander-O’Reilly gallery was set to open a jaw-dropping exhibit with works by Titian, Botticelli, and Caravaggio when a New York judge padlocked its doors amid allegations that its owner, Larry Salander, is behind one of the largest art frauds in history. Now plaintiffs including Wall Street financiers, the tennis star John McEnroe, and Sotheby’s auction house are trying to find out how more than $100 million went missing.

The extent of Salander’s financial wheeling and dealings is extraordinary, as are the sums of money involved… Salander’s original motive was to jolt contemporary art buyers away from a price feeding frenzy over the likes of Damien Hirst or Jeff Koons, and back towards reinvestment in Renaissance and Baroque art– itself a gutsy and laudable (if somewhat unrealistic) aspiration. Unfortunately it would seem that this grand gesture has instead fallen victim to old-fashioned greed, self-delusion and fraud:

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Minister for the Arts announces launch of ‘Oinseach’

Today Seamus Brennan, Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism announced the launch of the ‘Oinseach’ pilot scheme, the long-awaited programme that will offer funding for arts managers seeking assistance for further professional development. The scheme is open (but not limited to) funding for the following activities:

  • Attendance at international professional conferences
  • Financial assistance for arts managers below established income levels
  • Support for magazine and journal subscriptions
  • Subsidy for attendance at major cultural festivals and events

For more details of the announcement click here.