ArtScape:There's a new face at the Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism and no-one yet knows what to expect of Seamus Brennan, writes Deirdre Falvey.
An experienced and shrewd Minister, his knowledge of the arts, his attitude to the area and his interest in it, are unknown.
When John O'Donoghue was appointed minister, he similarly was a dark horse, but he proved
exceptionally effective, strong, far-seeing, well-respected and well-liked in the job, and he seemed to grow to genuinely like his brief.
His achievements were many, including large-budget increases for arts, the new Arts Act, a new Arts Council, establishing a firm basis for the future of traditional arts, setting plans in place for the future of the Abbey and the National Concert Hall, the establishment of Culture Ireland, strengthening the film board . . . Many in the arts are very sorry to see him leave a portfolio on which he had such an impressive grip and where he achieved so much.
Last week O'Donoghue was in Venice for the opening of the Irish exhibit at the Biennale (see Weekend 6) and spoke warmly and off-the-cuff (he's always better off-the-cuff) at what proved to be his last major outing as Minister for Arts.
In his heartfelt speech he thanked people in the arts for allowing him into their world, introducing new aspects of life to him, and said he was all the better for that.
There was sustained applause from those gathered, including the Irish contingent and many international artists.
He's a tough act to follow, in all senses, but we live in hope that the dolly-mixture Government will work, and work for the arts.
The Arts Council got its pitch in ahead of the new Cabinet appointments, urging the new Government to invest €100 million in the arts in its Programme for Government. Such a €20 million increase on 2007 funding would stabilise the Irish arts, according to council hairwoman Olive Braiden.
It wants to provide more opportunities for children to participate in the arts, create more performances for the new arts centres around the country and to extend the council's touring programme.
Council director Mary Cloake says our new knowledge economy needs the arts more than ever.
"It's our ability to adapt, our creativity and our management of knowledge that will secure our future success.
All of these much-needed and increasingly highly rated traits stem directly from an involvement in and exposure to the arts, so it makes financial sense for the Government to continue to invest in the arts."
And, as part of raising awareness of the value of the arts and their positive impact, the council is publishing a series of pamphlets.
The first three pamphlets are written by Ian Kilroy, John Burns and John Waters and more are to follow, by Emer Oakley, John McAuliffe and Kevin Whelan.
Key days in Kinsale's calendar
A nine-day week is the least of Deborah Dignam's problems as she faces into her first term as director of Kinsale Arts Week, writes Mary Leland. Running for nine days from July 7th, the programme embraces an enthusiastically eclectic mix and only a shortage of funds (despite a ¤20,000 grant from the Arts Council and another of €21,000 from Cork County Council) is hampering the Dignam style.
She's probably right in thinking that any schedule that includes Edna O'Brien reading, Ross Lewis of Chapter One cooking, and Eilis O'Connell exhibiting her new sculptures - one of the major attractions of the event - deserves a little more national attention than it's getting.
Nevertheless, for this year at least, main corporate sponsors Howard Holdings, accompanied by three banks and a medley of other local concerns, are guaranteeing the festivities - which begin and end with firework spectacles - go ahead.
"What we're offering is very much at the cutting edge of new work in international terms, but it remains interlinked with the community and with the very beautiful place we're in," says Dignam, outlining a festival in which even the venues are unusual.
They include a Jacobean star-fort, several churches, a hair salon, streets and squares, a waterside hotel, a disused pharmacy, a headline-grabbing cafe and a boat cruising in the yacht-thronged, swan-decked harbour.
Other festival highlights are a maritime musical spectacle by New York composer Alvin Curran and Ouroboros's production of Brian Friel's Making History, directed by Geoff Gould at Charles Fort (which is also where Eilis O'Connell will be installing the sculptures she is moving over at great expense from Goodwood).
Robert Long and his choir will sing in the Parish Church on one hill, while arranger and performer Jody Talbot performs in StMultose Church on the other.
Lynda Radley from Playgroup will perform The Art of Swimming,Mangiare will perform A Play in two Chairs and a pair of Chekhov one-act pieces, and Edna O'Brien will read in the Trident Hotel, where she will then be more or less reviewed by a panel including Derek Mahon and Medb Ruane.
John Boyne, Macdara Woods (on Hedli MacNeice, one-time resident of Kinsale and founder of the Spinnaker Restaurant, and thus, arguably, inaugurator of the town's gourmet reputation) and Carol Drinkwater will extend the literary section, with Peter Marinker of John Calder's Godot Company reading an abridged version of Autumn Journal (written by Hedli's husband Louis MacNeice in 1939).
The "Mexican programme" includes Mexico City's El Teatro del Mar performing Divino Pastor Góngora. Courtney Pine and Republic of Loose will perform at Charles Fort, and Jimmy Crowley and Sharon Shannon are also in the musical mix, along with Mundy, Delorentos and the Blizzards.
A debate on architecture will be led by sponsors Scott Tallon Walker, while two massive sand sculptures will be built in the centre of the town and the children's programme will be led by an international group of performers trained at École Jacques Lecoq in Paris.
See www.kinsaleartsweek.com, or tel: 021-4700877/086-8227588.
Arts officer awarded Jerome Hynes Fellowship
Sharon Murphy, arts officer for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, was this week awarded the Jerome Hynes Fellowship - the 2007-2008 fellowship for Ireland under the UK-based Clore Leadership Programme, supported by the Arts Council of Ireland.
Murphy was "both honoured and excited to have been selected", and said the fellowship was an opportunity to develop her knowledge and skills "to the benefit of my abiding commitment to public participation in the arts, and especially to the participation of children and young people in theatre.
Arts Council director Mary Cloake said Murphy has "played a key role as advocate, policy-maker and practitioner in the field of theatre and drama in education in Ireland.
Her participation in the fellowship will not only enrich her own passion for and expertise in public engagement with theatre, but will stimulate further interest in this exciting field of arts practice in an Irish context."
As well as being Dún Laoghaire arts officer, Murphy is on the board of Dublin Youth Dance Company.
She was previously outreach/education director and co-ordinator of the centenary project for the Abbey Theatre; education officer for Team Educational Theatre Company; and lecturer in English literature and drama at the Froebel College of Education in Sion Hill, Dublin.
She starts a year-long programme in September, which will include two intensive residential leadership courses; professional development through mentoring; tuition and group learning; an in-depth research project, to be supervised by a Higher Education Institute,; and a period of secondment, including managing a challenging project.
The package has a total value of about €72,000 (€50,000 from the Arts Council and £15,000 - about €22,000 - from Clore).
Week of activities
As well as the mini-festival of events put together by the James Joyce Centre - making today, Bloomsday, surely the longest day, with a week of activities, including music, film, lectures, and readings there are the long-established Bloomsday events in Dublin.
These include Barry McGovern reading from Ulysses at the James Joyce Museum in Sandycove at noon today, followed by a slightly unusual Joyce twist from word-play poet-comic Peter Donnelly, aka "the Racker" (from reacaire, a reciter), who is doing extracts from a comic poem, Sandy & Other Coves, Including Jim (about Sandycove, the Forty Foot and Joyce); plus a dramatic narrative about what happened after Ulysses, called The Truth About the Blooms.