A bunch of new building projects means Dublin's cultural scene is set to change beyond recognition, writes Arminta Wallace
Fancy a night out on the town in Dublin? Okay. Let's hop on a boat going down river, grab a bite to eat in one of those glass-and-steel waterside restaurant complexes and take in one of the three plays currently running at the National Theatre? Or maybe we should head upriver instead - take the kids on board the Asgard at Collins Barracks before a brisk trot around Exploration Station, the new children's museum at Heuston Station and a movie at one of those glitzy new cinemas up there . . .
In case you haven't noticed, the arts scene in Dublin is taking a seriously futuristic turn. A massive capital investment programme is due to deliver a fistful of brand-new, purpose-built performance and exhibition spaces over the coming decade or so, while many of the more familiar hangouts are undergoing refurbishment which will - in a matter of months - render them unrecognisable. Highlights include a three-venue Abbey Theatre on George's Dock, a three-venue National Concert Hall in Earlsfort Terrace, a 2,000-seater commercial theatre on Grand Canal Square and a totally refurbished Gaiety.
There are plans for an interactive children's museum and there's encouraging talk - though at this stage, it seems to be mostly talk - of a City Museum, a Civic Theatre and a City Library. And Dubliners are already enjoying the benefits of a new extension to the Hugh Lane Dublin City Gallery, new exhibition spaces at the Lab on Foley Street, new dance studios at DanceHouse and - it sounds almost ancient by comparison - the Millennium Wing at the National Gallery.
The author of Dubliners would be hard put to spot his city's "pale globes of light" amid the blazing glamour of this little lot. But it's not, those working in the arts will say, before time. Our extraordinary international reputation as a haven for art and culture has never been backed up by the reality on the ground - particularly in our capital city. The only thing that's spectacular about our theatres is how shabby they are; at the National Concert Hall, meanwhile, lack of capacity means that high-profile concerts are sold out in advance too often for comfort.
With the city's population expected to reach 1.8 million by 2011, it's clear that what we need is action. Enter the Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism (DAST). Minister John O'Donoghue emerged from the recent spending estimates scrum clutching €216.56 million for arts funding over the next 12 months - an increase of more than eight per cent on last year's arts budget - and the department's Access programmes, the second of which is coming on stream shortly, have contributed in no small measure to the development of a plethora of new cultural facilities in Dublin and around the country.
Some say this largesse is simply Celtic Tiger spin-off, a rising tide lifting even the arts boats. But there is also a growing body of opinion, not just among arts practitioners but in the wider world of economists and sociologists, that "the arts" are good for us. A healthy cultural scene, according to this view, operates in a multi-layered way. At community level it contributes to social cohesion and social inclusiveness. At national level it shines as a beacon abroad, bringing large quantities of tourist dosh into the economy.
Where does Dublin fit into this grand plan? "Dublin is a young, vibrant city which is already attracting an awful lot of people from right across the world," says Minister O'Donoghue.
"I would anticipate that because of the attractiveness of Dublin, because of its vibrancy and, I suppose, because of its youth, it's going to be a very exciting place to live in the future. What we're seeking to do is pre-empt that growth by increasing the number of cultural centres which are available in the city. This is certainly a golden period of construction where the arts are concerned. But while the infrastructure which we're putting in place now is important for tomorrow, it's even more important for the day after tomorrow. If we're to maintain our own national identity in a Europe which is ever more integrated, we're going to have to ensure that we have the outlets to give expression to that identity - that unique Irishness. And I believe these institutions will do precisely that."
AT THE NATIONAL Concert Hall in Earlsfort Terrace, the future is approaching at a rate of knots. With the former University College, Dublin site now in State ownership and the few remaining university departments in the throes of moving out, a steering committee comprised of representatives from the NCH, the OPW, the National Finance Development Agency and the Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism has been appointed to get the €175 million show on the road.
"We plan to develop an iconic, state-of-the-art 2,000-seater hall and a 400-seat multi-purpose hall, as well as the renovation of our current hall, which will probably lose some of its seating and drop to 900 to 1,000 seats," says NCH artistic director Judith Woodworth.
Feasibility studies have indicated that all this is manageable on the Earlsfort Terrace site, though certain details - including planning issues - have still to be ironed out. Then the Public Private Partnership procurement process can begin, with the project going out to tender internationally. "We need to get an agreement on design first of all," says Woodworth. "That's the thing that's taking up a lot of our time and thinking at the moment."
No wellies or yellow hats in sight just at the moment, then? "No," she says, "although I recently visited the Festival Hall in London, where they're doing a complete redevelopment, stripping the building to fix the acoustics. The NCH chairman, David Byrne, and myself wore our hard hats, and clambered all over scaffolding - to get some practice in."
On South King Street, yellow hats will be moving into the Gaiety Theatre in force in the New Year. The building's interior is to be refurbished to the tune of €9.5 million, €7.5 million of it from the Exchequer. The improved facilities will allow the theatre to accommodate a full-sized symphony orchestra and the dilapidated backstage areas will also be thoroughly overhauled.
Due to the Gaiety's status as a listed building, the project is said to pose "a number of significant engineering, architectural, design and conservation challenges" but it is hoped that the work will be completed by the end of next year.
The new Abbey Theatre complex, to be built on George's Dock, will take a little longer. "The international design competition will take place almost immediately and I would anticipate that we would have the result some time around May," says Minister O'Donoghue. "That means that the decision will be made next summer. The site will be put out to tender by spring 2008 and the contract awarded by mid-2008. Construction will commence either late in 2008 or early 2009 and the construction period will be 18 to 24 months."
The separate design element is, in this case, clearly holding the whole process up - but the Minister is adamant that the building will, in the end, be worth the wait. "I felt it was better in this particular case that we hold a separate international competition," he says. "First of all it's of immense importance in terms of our own cultural identity - but what's also important is the fact that while this generation of Irish people is perhaps the most creative and imaginative that we've had, this creation and imagination is not given expression to in any piece of public art."
This is what he hopes the new Abbey will do - but does he himself have any image of what kind of building he would like? "No." he says. "I mean, I wouldn't be qualified to say. I think it's best to leave it to the experts and see what the best architects across the world come up with."
One way or another, they will most likely come up with another addition to the Dublin skyline, which is set to change dramatically over the next decade as we acquire our tallest-ever building - the U2 Tower, a 130-metre-high apartment block scheduled for the bottom of Sir John Rogerson's Quay - and the much-hyped 2,000-seat Grand Canal Theatre designed by the US architect Daniel Libeskind. Not only will the latter provide Dublin with a West End-style theatre for large imported productions, it will - says arts manager with the Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA), Mary McCarthy - act as a magnet to draw people into a new area of the city.
"Most of the spaces in Docklands at the moment are not public spaces," she says. "I think this will be a place where people will gather. You can see how it's shaping up already, and it's going to be stunning. We're quite excited about the Abbey Theatre, and the Point is being redeveloped as well. So there'll be a collective of performing arts centres which will drive audiences and will create its own dynamic in the area."
Such, in truth, may turn out to be one of the most significant aspects of the current spending blitz - the development of a number of loosely linked neighbourhoods to replace Dublin's old, highly compact city centre. Ahead of the posse in this regard was Temple Bar, regarded internationally - so the cultural development director of Temple Bar Cultural Trust, Gráinne Millar, told The Irish Times this summer - as an object lesson in culture-led urban regeneration.
In the heart of the medieval city at Christ Church, Dublin City Council (DCC) is planning to create a "Cathedral Quarter", restoring some of the sense of enclosure which has been blasted apart by gung-ho road-widening schemes, and providing a new pedestrian route to link Dublin Castle with Nicholas Street.
AND ACCORDING TO Michael Colgan of the Gate Theatre - which is also about to embark on a big extension - a "loose confederation" of interested parties, including the Rotunda Hospital, the Ambassador and the newly-extended Dublin City Hugh Lane Gallery, has been working on a plan for the restoration of Parnell Square.
"We'd like to make it a real cultural quarter," he says, though he admits that for many years now, it has been anything but. "In the 1980s, the rot of Mountjoy Square was spreading this way, and in the 1990s there was a slight feeling of being on the barricades," he says. "But things are much better now. Budget accommodation is opening up in the area; Chapter One is doing very well; the city has widened the pavements and provided new lighting; things are happening.
"There's talk of doing something with the Ambassador and giving over the front building of the Rotunda as a museum or public space of some kind. There's also the idea of making an entrance from the Hugh Lane into the Garden of Remembrance, with a car park underneath the square, and opening up the Rotunda gardens which used to be a 'pleasure garden for the city'. So the atmosphere would be rather like Stephen's Green."
One of the most striking features of the recent development of Dublin city centre is our belated discovery that a river runs through it. Many of the new developments, from Heuston Station at one end to Docklands at the other, will either face the water or use it as an integral part of their design. "I think Dublin has neglected the river for so long that maybe the balance is being tilted the other way now," says Jack Gilligan. "For years the city never really used or appreciated the river the way other cities do - where it becomes a focal point. That is happening now, and the boardwalk has helped. Twenty years ago everyone was trying to keep away from the river."
In the past, the river has also acted as a kind of border between "northside" and "southside". With any luck, in the Dublin of 2020 we'll all be on the same side.
As we head for our glitzy new city, though, some things never seem to change. One of them is the perennial question of who decides whether we get the Dublin we deserve. There is a plethora of competing voices on the arts scene - the DAST, DCC, the Arts Council, the DDDA, Temple Bar Cultural Trust among them - with no real procedures in place for synergy and co-operation in terms of the bigger picture; and public private partnerships look set to exacerbate, rather than alleviate, the situation. In its arts plan 2006-2009, Dublin City Council identified a pressing need to provide "greater leadership for the arts" and suggested the establishment of a Dublin Arts Forum. So far, however, nobody has been rushing off to build one.
