FRONT ROW: If it were all left to Fine Gael, the arts would be on the pig's back. Well, that's what you'd expect them to say, I suppose, at a Fine Gael ardfheis. Dinny McGinley, the party's spokesman on the arts, spoke out against Síle de Valera, the Minister he shadows, with stinging words.
"Arts of all the parts of this portfolio have suffered most. Not only have they been, as the other parts, starved of vision, but they have been cynically abused by personal political opportunism and contempt: the Arts Council has been riven with disputes and disharmony and IMMA has been dragged into unseemly controversy. These sad facts are typical and inevitable where the arts are seen as being there to be exploited, not valued."
In the wake of the claims that people purporting to represent the Minister's views canvassed against the appointment of Dr Brian Kennedy as IMMA's new director - which eventually deprived Kennedy of the post - he spoke out against the Minister's handling of the affair. And he described the Taoiseach's statement that he wanted the Abbey to remain on the northside as a "grab for glory in his own constituency - over the heads of the Abbey board".
"In January," he went on, " Minister de Valera put herself before our President, insisting that she, rather than the President, should ceremonially open the new wing of the National Gallery. This month it's Michael Woods's turn to embroil the performing-arts academy in some squalid little glory run of his own. Whose turn is it next month?" He accused Fianna Fáil of having no policy "except ego" and "petty exploitation".
By contrast, a Fine Gael arts minister would herald a brave new world. "Fine Gael commits itself to an intensive review and public consultation to re-establish a rational and transparent plan for the arts. Fine Gael promises that under a Fine Gael government, the arts will never be used as a vanity prop by any politician.
"There is the particular matter of arts education in the schools. For too long, art and the arts in general have been seen as an optional extra. Under a Fine Gael government, we will devise an integrated programme that will get beyond this impoverished view of the arts, this impoverished view of Ireland and our young people, and provide an education in the arts fit for the next citizens of this modern European state. Fine Gael in government will ensure that every child, every citizen, is given the opportunity and encouragement to participate in some form of artistic expression, because it is their right and because it will make for a better Ireland."
Since the Taoiseach unceremoniously dumped the idea of the Abbey moving to Grand Canal Docks last year, nobody seems to have publicly asked what will become of that site. It is designated for cultural purposes, but the Dublin Docklands Development Authority seems to have no alternative plan for it. A spokesman last week said they were still looking for new ideas.
One player in the elaborate game of developing the Irish Academy of Performing Arts confided recently that he thought the academy should to go the docklands. Minister Woods's hasty reassurance that the project will go to DCU would seem to have put paid to that. Or has it?
Hot tickets
A very few tickets are still available for the National Gallery of Ireland's symposium tomorrow morning (9.30 a.m. to 1.10 p.m.) on Monet, Renoir and the Impressionist landscape. Leading academics will address the gathering on subjects relating to the theme. Tickets cost €10. Contact the gallery on 01-6615133.
Synge it loud
Fund-raising is going on to create an arts centre on Inis Meáin, in the house in which J.M. Synge stayed, learned Irish and wrote his superb work The Aran Islands. Treasa Ní Fhátharta, in whose family the cottage was for generations, is promoting these efforts, the latest of which is a literary event in London, Inis Meáin Day. This will include music and readings from writers, including Timothy O'Grady and Patrick McCabe, and take place at Camden Irish Centre on March 2nd. Contact Dónal on 00-44-20-83485016 for information.
