A plan that dare not speak its name

ArtScape: The Arts Council's new strategy, Partnership for the Arts, reads very well and no one could fault its aspirations, in the same way that no one could be against motherhood, world peace or saving the environment. But maybe that's too glib. Its secondary publication seeks to put in more concrete terms some of its goals for specific areas of arts practice.

And there's more to come, on circus, on voluntary amateur arts, and on the long overdue plan for what's going to happen to opera in Ireland (following the Opera Working Group report, decisions will be made in June). The council will also look at two new areas in 2006: arts and older people, and cultural diversity.

Given that it follows the upheaval in the Arts Council - new council, new director, ditching of the old arts plan, and extensive consultation - the strategy will be looked at for indications as to the council's future direction.

People had a range of issues with the arts plan, but in the end, though the plan had been adopted by the Government, Exchequer funding didn't come through and the year of great unpleasantness in 2003 followed. Government wasn't prepared to honour its commitment to funding, especially multi-annual funding, and its stated policy had become a nonsense.

So, given the history of arts plans failing to achieve what they set out to do, what's different about this one? And will it be fully funded (the first three years are costed at €260 million)? Mary Cloake indicated this week that there will be a more flexible approach to funding, rather than exclusively pre-ordained categories. Another difference is that the council is adopting an explicit advocacy role for the arts. And is to be accompanied by research. Following its theatre pay-and-conditions study, the council plans to conduct similar research on the living and working conditions of all artists - but not until 2007, after a study next year on public attitudes to the arts, a follow-up to 1994's The Public and the Arts: A Survey of Behaviour and Attitudes in Ireland. According to Cloake, the arts community has changed greatly since the genesis of the old arts plan, managing its own affairs and developing a base of expertise. The council's job will now be to fill in any gaps.

The chairwoman and director seemed quietly confident this week when reacting to inquiries about funding for the strategy ("we have been very modest, reasonable," said Olive Braiden). And indeed, the Minister for Arts John O'Donoghue - who got a warm round of applause when he entered the council's library to accept the report on Wednesday - has consistently come through with funding and promises of funding. But of course there may be a change of government not long into the strategy's time-frame, so the financial back-up can hardly be secure.

The council intends to make action plans, and to review progress, at the start of each year, so in terms of this Partnership for the Arts - we dare not call it an arts plan - the proof of the pudding will be in the eating.

Adventures in relocation

Wexford Festival Opera was always going to face an awkward problem while the €30 million replacement for the Theatre Royal was being built, writes Michael Dervan.

The festival expects to be back home in High Street for 2008, and its plans for 2006 and 2007 present startlingly different prospects. The offerings announced so far for 2006 seem on the cautious side. There will be 12 nights rather than the usual 18, running from Wednesday, October 25th to Sunday, November 5th, and the programme combines some Donizetti previously staged by the festival in 1973, with a double-bill of established names, Falla and Stravinsky.

The orchestral requirements are modest, and the venue is the unprepossessing Dun Mhuire Theatre, which has hitherto only been used for scaled-down opera productions. This is to be transformed by stage designer Joe Vanek into "an intimate and visually enhanced venue" for its new role as the festival's temporary home.

Vanek has also been given the task of designing "a temporary theatre" for 2007, when the festival will bravely move to the Gothic Revival surroundings of Johnstown Castle. The 2007 programme, running for 18 days, will take place from Thursday, May 24th to Sunday, June 10th. This shift of date recalls Wexford's attempt in the early 1990s to establish an out-of-season opera event, a "spring weekend".

The May-June experiment will provide vital clues as to the potential of festival-like activities spaced safely away from the current October-November slot. Finding year-round activities for the new theatre is going to be a challenge, as discussions about Opera Theatre Company relocating from Dublin to Wexford appear to have come to naught. If nothing else, the Johnstown adventure will provide a pointer about the willingness of people to travel to Wexford for opera at a different time of the year.

Similarly, artistic director David Agler's decision to revisit some repertoire from the 1970s will give him a read on audience tolerance of repeats at a festival which has long prided itself on not re-staging works it has already presented. Agler takes a much broader view of what constitutes a suitable Wexford opera than his predecessor, Luigi Ferrari, who alienated some sections of the audience with the obscurity of his choices.

The festival's joy at securing €26 million of public money towards the building of the new theatre has been tempered by the deeply felt loss of the man who had driven the project with such determination, chief executive Jerome Hynes, who died suddenly a month before this year's festival.

In welcoming the new development, the Minister for Arts, John O'Donoghue, said: "It is particularly fitting that the decision to proceed with the construction of the new theatre should be taken now, so soon after the untimely death of the greatly missed Wexford Festival chief executive, Jerome Hynes, who had worked tirelessly to bring the project to realisation. The new Theatre Royal will be a fitting monument to his vision."

Doing the business

The season of resolutions is nearly upon us, and arts organisations looking to undertake a major project or programme of change over the coming year have the opportunity to draw on the business skills of a range of mentors to guide them. Following the recent relaunch of the Business2Arts Mentoring Scheme, in association with Enterprise Ireland, the organisation has seen a surge of interest from the business sector, with more than 30 senior business professionals volunteering to work with arts organisations as advisers.

Business2Arts is looking to hear from arts organisations that might benefit from having a business mentor to advise on the development of a project. The volunteers represent a range of skills, including change management, human resources, strategic development, marketing, information technology and public relations.

The programme was conceived as a way to support the ongoing development of business and arts managers, and offers individuals the opportunity to work together for their mutual benefit. Arts and cultural organisations often need specialist business skills in order to develop and the mentoring scheme helps them to access expertise that they would otherwise not be able to afford. In return, volunteering as a mentor offers business managers the chance to enjoy a stimulating new challenge.

A mentoring project can involve just an hour a month over a maximum of 12 months. For details, contact Rowena Neville at Business2Arts, 44 East Essex Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 2 (01-6725336, rowena@business2arts.ie or www.business2arts.ie).

The New Year will bring a new general manager to the Everyman Palace Theatre in Cork. Ciara Ní Shuilleabhean is to take on a newly created position, replacing house manager Brendan Galvin. This move comes after four years as chief executive of Cork Midsummer Festival, which she joined after a term as company manager with Druid.

John O'Donoghue has indicated he'll clear the Abbey's credit card, but the theatre is still in discussion with the Arts Council about the terms - and no money has yet changed hands. Presumably, however, this would clear the way for potential board members who might have felt reticent about getting involved because of the theatre's outstanding debt. Olive Braiden indicated this week that many people are interested in serving on the board, and that it would be announced soon, possibly in early January.