ENCATC calls for Applications
The European Cultural Foundation, the Riksbankens Jublileumsfond and the European Network of Cultural Administration and Training Centres (ENCATC) call for applications for the 5th Cultural Policy Research Award 2008. The winner of the CPR Award 2008, worth Euro 10,000, will be publicly announced on the 16th of October at the International ENCATC Annual Conference taking place in Lyon, France.
Over the weekend the Irish Times reported on fears over the Feis Ceoil’s future, following a budget crisis and the need for resources to maintain and grow the competition:
Over the years, the Feis Ceoil has grown from its starting point of 32 different competitions categories to the 177 it now boasts. Choirs, orchestras, ensembles and soloists on all manner of instruments from eight years old upwards have been steadily convening in halls and venues in and around the RDS in Ballsbridge since last Monday for this annual event, which has expanded to such an extent that it now spans a full fortnight […] the Feis Ceoil has only faltered on one occasion, when it was cancelled six years ago during the height of the foot-and-mouth crisis.
“Apart from that it has always gone ahead,” says Carmel Byrne, who has been the Feis Ceoil administrator for the past 10 years. “Through wars and the Easter Rising, and the Talbot Street bombing and everything, they still went on with the Feis.”
Now it seems that an event world wars couldn’t hold back may be threatened instead by lack of funds, even as its popularity thrives and the number of entrants increases on an annual basis. It is its exponential growth that may even bring about its downfall, explains Deirdre Kelleher, who has been on the Feis Ceoil’s board of directors for three decades. “The Feis Ceoil has expanded and there are more people, therefore more usage of halls, therefore more time spent,” she says. “The artistic cost of living has caught up with us.”
With a €100,000 budget shortfall due to the departure of Siemens, their sponsor of 22 years, the Feis is appealing to government and private sponsors to keep the competition going. A petition to government has been launched by the Feis; details are available from their website.
Last week’s Ticket carried a story about the impending launch of the new Light House Cinema, on May 9th:
The new Light House at Smithfield is a custom- built, four-screen cinema with a 614-seat capacity – 277 in the largest auditorium, and seating for 153, 116 and 68 in the others.
“The four screens will allow for enormous flexibility in terms of programming, delivering a greater choice and diversity of films to invigorate the cultural cinema landscape in Ireland,” promise Neil Connolly and Maretta Dillon, who also ran the original Light House on Middle Abbey Street until it closed in 1996. The new venue promises “stunning, imaginative architecture, making Light House at Smithfield the most unique of cinema spaces”.
Says architect Colin Mackay: “The organisation and distribution of screens will allow patrons to walk over, under and around the forms, affording an alternative and dramatic cinema experience.”
The old Light House Cinema on Abbey Street closed in 1996; this new addition to Dublin’s cultural landscape is bound to be a popular one, and will hopefully breathe some life into the Smithfield development, which has had its share of difficulty creating a sense of community and activity around its swish new buildings.
Apologies for the gap in postings– and with so much going on! An Oscar for Once, a turkey headed to Serbia, and a new series on the arts in Ireland in The Irish Times… it’s all heady stuff 😉
Last thing first: the recent series about the arts in The Irish Times has dealt over the past few weeks with the value of the arts and inclusion issues, drawing quotes from various figures working in Irish arts organisations. Yet the series has, to me, felt pretty unoriginal and written in ‘student essay’ mode… this discourse about the social value and instrumentality of the arts is one that has long been in the public domain, and is discussed with more sophistication and nuance elsewhere (see Demos, the Journal of Cultural Policy, or the research going on at the Centre for Cultural Policy at the University of Warwick, for starters). While the series perhaps offers a useful summary for the general reader, I was hoping for more critical insight than has been offered…
Meanwhile the flap over Eurovision and Dustin the Turkey continues… I quite enjoyed Fintan O’Toole’s take over the weekend:
A culture that was genuinely smart wouldn’t be so uptight about the terminally uncool. It might recognise that when there’s Arvo Pärt in Drogheda two weekends ago and a book club festival in Ennis today, serious art is hardly under siege. But the persistent need to sneer at Daniel O’Donnell or make a feck of the Eurovision exposes the anxiety within the clever, clued-in, media-saturated world.
(speaking of which, buzz about Arvo Pärt was amazing, and I’m sorry to have missed it.) The turkey metaphor is, indeed, too rich a field to go unplundered… and I’m disappointed as well, as an avid fan (no irony required) of the Eurovision. Take away the Baudrillard, thank you very much, but you’ll have to pry the ABBA albums out of my cold, dead hands…
The Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism yesterday unveiled the ‘Arts and Culture Plan 2008’ which includes details of funding available from the Department for 2008. The pledge of an additional €40 million towards increasing arts access and participation is included in Thursday’s announcement, along with a full listing of other allocations and initiatives.
Access is clearly the dominant issue: the extension of opening hours for National Institutions has been made a precondition of their increased funding; a new ‘National Cultural Day’ has been mooted; and the document states that as the Arts Council reviews its progress under the current ‘Partnership for the Arts’ plan ‘The Minister will issue a policy instruction to the Arts Council to request that … a strong emphasis is placed on the development of audiences, access to the arts, contemporary dance, choral music, access to musical instruments and actor training.’
The second major theme is probably investment into infrastructure and capital projects, including: support for the National Concert Hall extension, Abbey Theatre relocation, Collins Barracks extension, National Library extension, refurbishment of the Druid in Galway, extension to Gate Theatre, establishment of Irish Chamber Orchestra headquarters, new opera house for the Wexford Festival Opera, five new centres for Comhaltas Ceoltóiri Éireann, the refurbishment of the RHA, revival of the Smock Alley Theatre in Temple Bar, and of course the ACCESS programme.
Wherefore art thou Irish construction slow-down? Apparently not in the arts sector.
arts management ireland 