Madeleine Boughton has been appointed to the new position of arts officer at the Dublin office of the British Council, signalling a renewed interest in the arts at the Council. The British Council, in its Dublin office, has a brief to support and nurture Irish-UK arts partnerships.
Boughton, who has a background in publicity and marketing at the Draíocht theatre and the Abbey, as well as experience working with the Project Arts Centre, Dublin Theatre Festival and the Dance Council of Ireland, is well-connected in the Irish arts scene, and will be widely welcomed as a good choice for the new position.
In the past, engagement with the arts by the British Council in the Republic has been largely at the discretion of the Council's director of the day here. While Harold Fish, who retired as director in December 2000, pursued a personal interest in the arts, Ken Churchill, the first director of the British Council in Ireland, when it opened its doors in 1990, was more focused on science and education.
Boughton's appointment has come, as she puts it, "after a period of soul searching at the British Council". After Fish's departure, Anne Malamah-Thomas temporarily headed up the Council and initiated a re-evaluation of its investment in the arts. "The amount of projects the Council was involved in was so vast," says Boughton, "it was time to look at what was the most effective way to pursue relationships and projects."
What resulted was the decision to have a dedicated arts officer here, a new position to put a structure on the Council's arts policy. The fact that a new director has now also been appointed at the British Council - Tony Reilly - is evidence that that period of soul-searching is over.
In the past, the Council has had key relationships with organisations like the Abbey, Dublin Fringe Festival, and Music Network. But as Boughton makes clear, "It is a national organisation, it's not just Dublin-centred. We'll be looking for projects in Cork and Galway, Limerick and elsewhere to get involved in as well."
With a budget of €140,000 to €150,000 annually, and with "the potential to access extra funding", it is obvious that the arts office at the Council will be of great interest to those with projects that develop Irish-UK artistic relationships. Projects currently being pursued include Shane Cullen's off-site sculptural commission with Project, The Agreement, a complete Beethoven Symphony Cycle at the National Concert Hall, conducted by Northern Ireland's Barry Douglas, and Lyric's production of Conversations on a Homecoming, at this year's Dublin Theatre Festival.
As for the future, Boughton says that the Council is "looking for new relationships and new projects to get involved in. The message is that we're definitely open for business".
For further information on the British Council, its arts policy and cultural programme, see the Council's website at www.britishcouncil.org/ireland.
Irish actor Adrian Dunbar has been nominated for Best Actor in the forthcoming Barclays TMA Awards, for his role as Michael in the Lyric theatre's production of Tom Murphy's play Conversations on a Homecoming, which can be seen in the Dublin Theatre Festival, from October 7th to 12th next.
Dunbar, who is from Enniskillen, is best known for his television work and films such as My Left Foot, The Crying Game and Hear My Song, which he co-wrote, and in programmes such as Cracker and Morse. However, his theatre work - with companies like the Royal Court and the Tricycle Theatre, as well as the Lyric - has always been much more extensive.
To book for Conversations on a Homecoming: tel. 01 817 3333, or see www.dublintheatrefestival.com.
When Deborah Warner's production of Medea opened at the Abbey in 2000, it was hailed in The Irish Times as "a complex and major dramatic characterisation, not to be missed by any who care about great acting". That acting was done, principally, by Fiona Shaw, and after a sojourn in London, now Medea is opening the prestigious New Wave Festival in New York, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
If the production's Irish and British runs are anything to go by, Medea should go down well in the Big Apple. Not only did it pick up an Irish Times/ESB Theatre Award for Fiona Shaw, but the play also went on to win a London Evening Standard Award for Warner.
If you should find yourself in New York during October, Medea runs from October 1st until October 12th, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, 30 Lafayette Street, Brooklyn. E-mail: tickets@bam.org.
Practicioners of the traditional arts take note, the closing date for the 2003 Golden Fleece Awards fast approaches.
The award, which was established in 2001, is worth €15,000 to the winner and was set up to grant financial aid to practitioners and students of the traditional arts and crafts: including pottery, glasswork, calligraphy, spinning, dyeing and weaving. Entries for the award should be received by November 29th, and the winner will be announced sometime in Spring 2003. There will be three runner-up prizes of €2,000 each.
Further details are available from The Golden Fleece Award, 26 - 28 North Wall Quay, Dublin 1, or see the website, www.goldenfleeceaward.com.