A blank canvas for the Budget

ArtScape:It's a twitchy old time, as people in the arts, and the Arts Council, wait to see what next week's Budget will bring, and how the relatively tiny proportion of it that affects arts and culture will fare.

On Tuesday the council is hosting a reception in the Dáil to "acknowledge the tenure" of former minister, now Ceann Comhairle, John O'Donoghue, and to "celebrate the success of the arts in Ireland". This is not the first time a former minister has been thus lauded (the departures of Michael D Higgins and Síle de Valera were similarly marked), and the current Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Séamus Brennan, is invited, as are the entire Government, Opposition front benches and department select committees.

Is this odd timing? Or perhaps it is appropriate timing, on the eve of the first Budget of the new Government.

Despite meetings with arts organisations, some people still seem unsure where Brennan stands on the arts part of his brief; he seems to feel his tenure has been beset by rumour, to judge by the statement he issued a few weeks ago, via a spokesman, to the Sunday Independent. In response to speculation about his health and his continuing role in the Cabinet he dismissed rumours that he was seriously ill.

How Minister for Finance Brian Cowen, sees the arts will be known this week. The arts have been a success story for Ireland, and the past few years of funding have paid off: there is much hope that the benefit of that vote of confidence, and the investment, won't be lost.

In an arts funding context, a piece in the Stage in October by Tony Hall of the Royal Opera House in Britain makes interesting reading from across the Irish Sea. His good-news story spelt out how, despite speculation about grim British funding decisions on the way - other areas of public spending were supping tough medicine, so why shouldn't the arts? - the British treasury decided to boost the arts budget, with a further increase a few days later from the culture secretary.

The decision was down, Hall wrote, to persuasive, clear and measured arguments put forward by top arts organisations, who put the case with a united front, and argued from the concrete examples of internationally recognised success. "We wanted to make sure culture was placed at the centre of the government's thinking. We wanted them to recognise our role at the centre of the creative economy, which is one of Britain's great success stories."

Another salient argument was the power of the arts and cultural organisations to define communities and help regeneration. As Hall reports, the government listened to the arguments, praised the dynamism and vitality of the arts, appreciated they have institutions and artists of world class, and pledged there would be no return in funding terms to the stop-go policies of old. He concludes that the debate in Britain has shifted seismically. "No one now seems to challenge the fact that the arts and culture are central to the sort of country we aspire to be. We are no longer a 'nice to have' but are a vital part of a civilised society and an energetic economy."

So, a happy seasonal ending in Britain. Will the Irish arts Cinderella make it to this year's ball?

Caldwell's play pipped

Lucy Caldwell's debut play Leaves, which premiered in Galway in March, was pipped at the post earlier this week for the prestigious Charles Wintour Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright, writes Sara Keating. The play received lukewarm reviews when it opened at the Royal Court in London, so its nomination was something of a surprise. Nicholas de Jongh, chief theatre critic with the Evening Standard and one of the judges, called Leaves "sensitive but shallow" in a harsh two-star review, while Matt Wolf's review for Broadway.com criticised its "plodding shape", its "generic wash of familial pain", as well as the "inchoate nature of the production". However, Michael Billington's three-star review in the Guardian was slightly more encouraging, calling it a "highly promising first play" that "probes . . . family tensions with psychological acuity."

The £25,000 (€35,000) prize was awarded at a ceremony on Tuesday to 20-year-old Polly Stenham, whose play That Face was also staged at the Royal Court earlier this year. However, Caldwell can surely console herself with her continuing success in Ireland and abroad, her latest full-length play receiving an airing at the O'Neill Theatre Centre in Connecticut in July, where she participated in the highly coveted National Playwrights' Conference. The two prestigious accolades awarded before Leaves had even been produced must be some consolation too. It was awarded the George Devine Award for best new play in 2006, and the 2006 Susan Blackburn Award for emerging female playwrights, which she shared with fellow Irish writers Stella Feehily and Abbie Spallen, whose Pump Girl opens in New York on Monday.

New CEO for Kilkenny festival

Kilkenny Arts Festival has appointed a new CEO, Damian Downes, a business and financial executive with a background in arts and media administration, to take over when Geraldine Tierney leaves to pursue personal interests. The festival is continuing its less-than-usual management structure - with a panel of experts programming different strands of the programme, and a chief executive running the overall festival.

Downes was head of finance and administration at NUI, and in charge of budgets at the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva. He was business manager at the Helix, sales manager at FM104 and financial controller of the Irish Film Centre (now the IFI). Festival chairman Fergus Cronin said Downes has considerable skills which are essential to the strengthening and development of the festival.

As the first CEO, Tierney had taken the festival through significant change, Cronin added. "Geraldine has tremendous energy and has shown boundless commitment to the huge job of producing an extensive programme of the highest quality for Kilkenny."

The Gate Theatre has confirmed that the glorious Francesca Annis will play the vulnerable, faded southern belle Amanda Wingfield in its production of Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie. The Brazil-born British stage and screen star's first big break was as Elizabeth Taylor's handmaiden in Cleopatra at the age of 16; memorable TV roles include Emma Bovary in the BBC2 serial Madame Bovary, and Lillie Langtry in Lillie (which won her a Bafta); and now she's in the BBC1 costume drama Cranford with Judi Dench. Tennessee Williams's memory play The Glass Menagerie opens on February 12th, directed by Robin Lefèvre.

Coincidentally, her former long-term partner Ralph Fiennes also graced the Gate's stage not so long ago, playing the faith healer in Brian Friel's masterpiece in 2006, at the very time that their well-publicised break-up was in the news.

The classical music programmes funded by the Arts Council's Touring Experiment have ranged from concerts in churches, and a series that brought the Ulster Orchestra to Border counties, to out-of-Dublin contemporary music performances by the Crash Ensemble, writes Michael Dervan.

The latest venture brings the players of the London Irish Camerata back home for a four-leg tour to Christ Church Cathedral, Waterford (Wednesday, December 5th), St Mary's Cathedral, Kilkenny (Thursday 6th), Rowe Street Church, Wexford (Friday 7th) and the National Gallery, Dublin (Sunday 9th). The orchestra, which is the brainchild of violinist Stephanie McCabe, made its London debut in 2006 under the auspices of Irish Heritage. It aims to bridge the gap between being a top-level student and being a member of an established orchestra, as well as to promote Irish musicians working in London. The upcoming tour, directed from the violin by Nicola Sweeney, has pianist Finghin Collins as soloist, and features works by Grieg, Mozart, John Kinsella, Shostakovich and Bartók.

The Abbey is presenting a series of public readings of work by three young Irish playwrights it has commissioned. Plays in Progress are at the Peacock: Grace and Elizabeth by Jessica Cooke is on Friday, December 7th; Spider and the Lily by Conall Quinn is on December 12th; and Goo Goo G'Joob by Sean McLoughlin is on December 14th. Admission is free but booking is essential, on tel: 01-8787222.