Cork 2005: In the morning there's a meeting with the ambassadors of Malta, Hungary, Cyprus; lunch-time means the Slovenian Charge d'Affaires, and in the afternoon the Czech ambassador arrives.
Just another day at the office for John Miller of the Cork Vision Centre, home of the "Enlargement" programme for Cork 2005.
Some of these meetings are collective and although they, and others like them, usually take place during hurried visits to Dublin, Miller feels that an interesting facet of his project has been the way in which the diplomatic focus has shifted to Cork as each of the EU applicant countries presents a month-long national cultural snapshot for the European Capital of Culture.
It's six months along now, and Miller takes stock as he prepares to introduce the Slovak exhibition which opens tomorrow. The headline for the Enlargement project is "Bringing the New Europe to Cork". So far Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Slovenia, Lithuania and Poland have been featured in a series of exhibitions and performances emanating not from Cork or Cork's idea of what those countries have to offer, but from the countries themselves.
From Tuesday Slovakia leads the way for Cyprus, the Czech Republic and Malta, with a representation from Ireland itself closing off the year.
A Dubliner who came to Cork as regional director of Concern, Miller was appointed CEO of the Cork Civic Trust in 1997. The award-winning restoration of St Peter's Church in North Main Street as the Vision Centre, in collaboration with the City Council, is one of the Trust's major achievements. This building, administered by Lorraine Cahalane, is now the focus of the enterprise which was originally supported by MEP Pat Cox and then enthusiastically endorsed by Cork 2005.
The Enlargement project could be seen as an expansion of the Trust's own agenda, to keep a research and monitoring watch on heritage areas such as Shandon, or the old Waterworks complex, or Blackrock Castle.
It could also be seen as a model of responses to heritage awareness: "There's been a steady progression through the doors," says Miller. "It has been amazing. This was very much an experiment, with the challenge of keeping it fresh over 12 months. We've had very good media coverage because no one month has been the same and people are hungry to see what's coming next. Our 5-6,000 visitors a month represents a 24 per cent increase in normal activity, and we think that by the end of the year 75,000 people will have been in here."
In bringing what is called the "New Europe" to Cork, the Vision Centre has successfully presented a view of the most contemporary artists working in a variety of media, from photography to food, from sculpture to music and dance. There has also been the parallel appeal of the "Translations" series, in which Cork-linked poets translate the work of poets from applicant countries, work, which is then published by the Munster Literature Centre.
Agnes Biro, Slovak Secretary of State for Culture, performs the opening of the Slovak exhibition It Happened Elsewhere tomorrow at the Vision Centre. The Slovak Ambassador Jan Gabor will preside on Thursday at the opening of an exhibition dedicated to Alexander Dubcek at the Cork Public Museum, and July 21st sees the publication of Forty Four, poems by Dana Podracka, translated by Robert Welch.
