ArtscapeGalway Bay FM's live arts show, broadcast on Fridays and presented by Gary McMahon, formerly of Macnas, has been an indispensable part of the city's cultural calendar for the past six years, writes Lorna Siggins.
Last week, the show was moved from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. to make way for a preview of weekend sporting activities. However, fears that this might indicate a loss of interest by station management have been scotched by Galway Bay FM's chief executive and leading presenter, Keith Finnegan. Finnegan says the successful radio station is committed to providing specialised coverage of the arts, the Irish language and traditional music - both in dedicated programmes and in material on his own daily morning show - including extensive coverage of the annual Galway Arts Festival. There are no plans to pull the arts show and it will continue into the new year, he told The Irish Times.
The speculation comes at a time when eight activists in art, media and business in Galway have put in a bid to the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) for a community radio licence. Culture FM, as the proposed new station is called, is one of two applications for Galway city submitted to the BCI in its latest licensing round. The second is for a religious station, Flame FM, backed by the Foundation in Christ Ministries Ltd in Dominick Street.
Culture FM proposes broadcasting for six hours daily, with a "60 per cent music, 40 per cent talk" content. Music will include live performances, while the "talk" element will range from news and cultural affairs to documentaries, community art shows, live theatre performances and local perspectives on global affairs. Funding will be raised through the community, and through a membership drive, and the station will be run from the Galway Cultural Institute, in Salthill, by volunteers.
As yet, no decision has been taken by the BCI. The eight-person board, led by Ronan Lynch, editor of the Galway Independent, includes Barry Duffy, a sound engineer; Liam Leonard, lecturer at NUI Galway; Peader Mac Fhlannchadha, national organiser of Conradh na Gaeilge; Jasmine Itter, shiatsu therapist; Pat Itter, recording engineer; Eilish O'Connor, coordinator of Galway's Access Music project; and Sally Coyle, director of the Renvyle House Hotel and board member of Galway Arts Centre.
Meanwhile, the city's Tulca season of visual arts continues with a seminar this week in Galway Arts Centre's new Nun's Island premises. Artists and Architects will explore systems that both professions can employ to their mutual benefit, according to Val Ballance of the Áras Éanna centre on Inis Oírr, organiser of the event. Artist Jochen Gerz and architects Hugh Kelly and Gerry Mitchell will present the seminar from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Thursday at 23 Nun's Island. It is open to the public and admission is free. For details, telephone 099-75150 or e-mail araseanna@eircom.net
Druid heads for Perth
Druid is heading down under again, taking Garry Hynes's The Playboy of the Western World to the 2005 Perth Festival, Australia's oldest international multi-arts festival, where Linda Hume has taken over as artistic director from Seán Doran, now at English National Opera. The play will be at His Majesty's Theatre from March 1st to 6th and is apparently one of the bestsellers at the box office so far. Aaron Monaghan takes over from Cillian Murphy as Christy, and Ruth Negga will play Pegeen Mike. Druid's last Australian outing was at the Sydney Festival in 1998 with The Leenane Trilogy.
Hunter in 'Bog of Cats'
Holly Hunter, mainly known for screen roles in The Piano and Raising Arizona, opened this week in By the Bog of Cats in Wyndhams Theatre in London's West End. This isn't Hunter's first time playing Hester Swayne in Marina Carr's bleak play. She also performed the role in San José, California, opening on September 10th 2001, and, amazingly, audiences didn't drop off after September 11th. Carr said in a Guardian interview this week: "It was a trail of pilgrimage. Forty thousand people coming up from Silicon Valley to see this dark, dark play in a dark time."
Gate actors in spotlight
Stanley Townsend has been nominated as best actor in the London Evening Standard theatre awards for his terrific performance in Conor McPherson's Shining City. The production was a Gate Theatre/Royal Court co-production, which ran in London before coming to Dublin Theatre Festival. Winners will be announced on December 13th.
Meanwhile, also at the Gate, casting is continuing for Brian Friel's new play, The Home Place, directed by Adrian Noble. It has been confirmed that Britain's quiet theatrical knight, stage and film actor Tom Courtenay - known for a range of film roles, from Doctor Zhivago to The Dresser to Last Orders - will play Christopher, the owner of the Lodge in Ballybeg at the dawn of home rule. Others lined up for the play, which previews from January 27th, include Nick Dunning, Dervla Crotty, Barry McGovern and Pat Kinevane.
Fitzgerald the 'Focail' point
The Dublin-born stage, film and television actress, Nuala FitzGerald, will perform Cupla Focail, an evening of poetry, prose, lyrics and letters at the James Joyce Centre, Dublin, on Thursday at 8 p.m. The show includes extracts from works by W.B. Yeats, Ogden Nash, Sean O'Casey, Pablo Neruda, Spike Milligan, Dorothy Parker and Flann O'Brien, as well as a short selection from Ulysses. FitzGerald's grandfather, William O'Leary-Curtis, a newspaperman and colleague of James Joyce, appears in both Ulysses and Dubliners as O'Madden-Burke.
FitzGerald and her husband, Edgar Cowan, divide their year between their homes in Caherdaniel, Co Kerry, and Toronto, Canada, where one of their three sons, Noah Cowan, is the new director of the highly successful Toronto International Film Festival. Thursday's performance will be introduced by artist Pauline Bewick and will benefit Children's Books Ireland.
Whereas last year the Arts Council met for only one - long - day to make final funding decisions for 2004, this December it will have longer to consider applications. It is meeting for three days, from the 9th to the 11th, with a plenary meeting on the 13th, to assess more than 400 funding applications for next year. Although the money available has been known since the Estimates last month, final decisions will only be known in the week of December 20th.
The village of Dromineer, on the shores of Lough Derg, in Co Tipperary, kicked off its first literary festival last night and the readings, workshops and competitions continue until tomorrow.
Lunasa, Altan and Karan Casey are performing on Tuesday at a fundraising Streets of London concert at Vicar Street, Dublin (8 p.m.), organised by the Aisling Return to Ireland Project. The project, whose patron is comic Ardal O'Hanlon, was set up in 1994 to provide holiday and after- care support for long-term Irish emigrants to Britain. Tickets: €20 from Ticketmaster.
The Institute for Choreography and Dance in Cork is looking for six artists (dancers, actors, composers, musicians, designers, visual artists) to work with the Congolese choreographer, Faustin Linyekula, as part of Fête de la Danse 2005. Linyekula, whose critically acclaimed work, Spectacularly Empty II, will open the third and final Fête de la Danse on February 15th, will work with the six artists to present what promises to be a fascinating residency piece centring on the theme of Cork and Memories at the Firkin Crane on February 18th. The six artists will be chosen from a group of 12 applicants who will workshop with Linyekula on February 5th and 6th. The six artists will be paid for two weeks and must be available from February 5th to 19th. Artists can send resumés to Estelle Dumortier, Institute for Choreography and Danse, Firkin Crane, Shandon, Cork, before December 15th. Information: www.instchordance.com/www.kabako.org
Lochlann Quinn, deputy chairman of Glen Dimplex and former chairman of AIB, was named this week as the winner of the Business2Arts Award for Most Outstanding Business Contributor to the Arts in Ireland 2004. Quinn was a founding board member of the Irish Museum of Modern Art and is chairman of the National Gallery, and his company sponsored the Glen Dimplex Artists' Award.