Cian O’Brien’s announcement that he’s leaving Project Arts Centre has prompted an outpouring of appreciation for his work as its artistic director. Always regarded as open, approachable and encouraging of emerging artists, he has steered the Temple Bar organisation through recession, referendums, the pandemic and the rise and fall of multiple arts companies and productions — not to mention successes such as Project’s part in Dublin Oldschool, the hit play that was turned into a film.
It was also O’Brien who, after being notified that the artwork breached the law, publicly half-painted over the Repeal the 8th mural that Maser had done on the front of the Project building, in the process creating a new piece of art on the wall, a commentary on activism at the time, and its various forms of censorship.
He leaves in June to establish Cian O’Brien Arts, a production, touring and consultancy company. “I’ve been in my role for 13 years. I feel like I’ve wrung everything out of it,” O’Brien says. “Project provides such brilliant opportunities to try things and do things, whether that’s doing Ireland at Venice for the second time, the Casement Project, all the craic we had with Dublin Oldschool, and then the day-to-day buzz of running a venue.”
The prospect of someone with O’Brien’s experience, and his network, striking out with a new company has been met with more than a ripple of approval. “It’s very difficult in the arts sector, when you’re at a certain level, to move on out of roles if you want to stay in Ireland,” he says. “My buzz, really from the beginning of my career, was producing work ... I want to produce large-scale arts projects across art forms,” as well as “loads of small projects”.
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O’Brien’s time at Project has offered a unique opportunity to see an incredible amount of work. But he also saw the gaps in infrastructure and process. One element of his new role, he says, will be as an international touring agent for Irish performing arts, brokering relationships between producers in Ireland and international arts scenes.
“Individual artists or producers kind of do [that work] for themselves,” he explains. “Let’s say for theatre and dance, Culture Ireland and Irish Theatre Institute offer artists opportunities to meet and network, to share information about their work. But that often happens at specific times — for example, tied into Dublin Theatre Festival or Dublin Fringe Festival. For artists who aren’t making work in those festivals, or for whom it’s a longer-term conversation, how do you create those opportunities?
“There are some companies touring all the time, like Dead Centre. Their work is on the road very often.” But elsewhere “there are so many opportunities that get missed because people don’t have the personal resources to make [international touring] happen when they’re trying to make the show happen and meet all the criteria around their funding and everything else. If there’s a way to broker those relationships, there’s an opportunity there to have an impact on creating further life for work. Then there’s thinking about how you tour sustainably, how you make work that can reach other people on the other side of the world, but doing it in the most sustainable way possible.”
O’Brien leaves on a high. This week Project has been hosting the inaugural Disrupt Disability Arts Festival. Its events later this month include Blister and the “blend of comedy and catastrophe” that is MotherKraft, presented by Regan O’Brien, and April begins with its co-hosting of Music Current Festival. Next month will also see Eimear Walshe represent Ireland at the 60th Venice Art Biennale, curated by Sara Greavu and Project Arts Centre.
How has the city changed since O’Brien took over from Willie White — at whose leaving party he performed as Mangina Jones, his Alternative Miss Ireland-winning drag alter ego? O’Brien outlines two versions of precariousness from recession to contemporary Dublin. “When I was starting in the role, the entire first half of the 2012 programme disappeared because of funding cuts. Immediately, you’re in a reactive position,” he says. “For me, you’re always working within a scarcity model in the arts, all the time, which is why there are so many similarities between people working in the cultural sector. We are all approaching the day-to-day challenges with the same mindset: we want to make it happen; how do we?
“At the moment the environment in the city makes it difficult to do things, but in other ways I think it is possible. Our programme is so busy. We have so much work happening. We have so many artists presenting their work, so many audiences coming to see it. That’s notwithstanding the vast challenges people are experiencing around housing and health.”
The State has reportedly never been richer, he says. “So how are we in this situation? How is that [wealth] disseminated down? Over the pandemic we were very lucky with Minister Martin” — Minister for Arts Catherine Martin — “who really delivered for the arts sector. She really did in terms of these significant increases in funding. That has had an extraordinary impact. So why does everything feel so in bits? I don’t have an answer to that.”
What would he say to his successor? “The advice I always give people is to trust your gut and answer your emails. The role is such a privilege. You can grab the bull by the horns; you can do things; the infrastructure is here to allow lots of different things to happen. It’s worth trying things. It’s worth trusting your gut. It’s worth going for it.”
