Siobhan Cleary's Hum! for two actors and string orchestra is premiered tonight on Inishbofin at the start of a nationwide Irish Chamber Orchestra tour. The piece, which will be heard in Westport, Sligo, Kilkee, Limerick, Killorglin, Cork and Dublin, promises to explore "the human need for communication and the means by which this is achieved" . . . The nominees for the 1998 Kilkenny Irish Beer Cream of Irish Awards were announced yesterday - John Boorman, Paddy Breathnach and Neil Jordan (film), Kila, Sinead Lohan and Quadraphonic (contemporary music), Barabbas, Conor Mc Pherson and Conall Morrison (theatre), James Hanley, Maurice O'Connell and Jason Roche (visual arts), Jason Byrne, Dylan Moran and Tommy Tiernan (the Dermot Morgan Comedy Award), Matt Kavanagh (of this newspaper), Vincent O'Byrne and Billy Strickland (photography) - the winners will be announced on October 1st . . . A day of "celebration and creativity" and the presentation of a Strategic Development Plan for 1999-2003 will accompany the Annual General Meeting of CAFE, Creative Activity For Everyone, at the City Arts Centre in Dublin this Saturday . . . Quadrant, the Belltable Arts Centre's annual showcase exhibition featuring the work of at least four young artists. The closing date for submissions is Friday, October 23rd, and artists should be under 30 years of age before the end of December 1998 . . . This year's Cork Arts Fest, which runs from 14th-22nd November, takes as its theme the emerging links between the arts and new technologies, with IMMA's Virtual Realities as its key visual arts exhibition . . . The National Sculpture Factory has announced its inaugural Fellowship in Sculpture, sponsored by First Active (the new name of the First National Building Society) has been awarded to Carol Kavanagh, who will receive a £2,000 bursary towards materials and will be taking up her residency in the Factory later this year . . . Issue Two of The Stinging Fly, the Dublin literary magazine established to promote new Irish and international writing, is now on sale in Waterstone's Books Upstairs, the IFC Bookshop and Eason's, priced £2.00. Submissions, which may include short stories, poems, extracts from plays, novels or screenplays, are now being sought for Issue Three. The deadline is Friday, October 2nd . . .