Crowds flock to the da Vinci codex

ArtScape:Leonardo da Vinci anticipated many things, but it's unlikely that he foresaw he would be breaking records in Dublin centuries after his death. In the first month of the exhibition of the Codex Leicester, one of Leonardo's most famous and important scientific notebooks, 38,000 people visited the Chester Beatty Library. It is the only autograph manuscript by da Vinci in private hands (Bill Gates's).

The director of the library, Dr Michael Ryan, said the response to the exhibition has been terrific. "We have never experienced crowds like this at the library and I am glad to say that our booking and crowd-control systems have worked effectively. Our negotiations over a six-year period to bring this exhibition to Ireland have been overwhelmingly endorsed by the numbers of people turning up to see it." Visitor feedback ranges from "marvellous" to "being in the presence of something sacred", he added.

Other comments in the visitor book write about the "brilliant", "excellent", "stupendo!" exhibition. "The Exhibition of the Codex Leicester is incredible. I 'persuaded' two neighbours to come along, one of whom does not like to have to negotiate stairs, and the other whose sight is not great. The lift and the large screen presentation, plus the more brightly lit IT interactive demonstrations kept us there longer than we thought we would be able to last," wrote one visitor. Another wrote about "a spell-binding visit to the codex. As big fans of da Vinci and indeed, Galileo, it was such a privilege not just to see, but be in the presence of, this extraordinary work. We intend to go back before the end of its stay. Thanks a million for bringing it to Dublin."

Many of the visitors are from abroad. The codex, which travels to a different country every year, has never been displayed in Ireland before and is unlikely to return in the foreseeable future. The exhibition runs until August 12th and is free - but booking is essential. Best choice of time is online on www.cbl.ie. Book between 10am and noon on weekdays, on 01-4070769.

Happy Birthday as you've never heard it before? August 2nd is the date, the National Concert Hall is the venue, and the occasion is a musical party to celebrate the 80th birthday of the doyenne of Irish singing teachers, Veronica Dunne, writes Arminta Wallace.

Which means that instead of a raucous chorus of "Happy birthday, dear Ronnie", there'll be immaculately-delivered operatic arias by Gluck, Mozart, Strauss, Verdi and Puccini, sung by - among others - Suzanne Murphy, Cara O'Sullivan, Imelda Drumm, Orla Boylan and Colette McGahon.

Special guests at this affectionate tribute will include three of Ronnie's most recent success stories: Miriam Murphy from Tralee, who won the 2006 Seattle Opera International Wagner Competition; Tara Erraught from Dundalk, who took second prize in the Veronica Dunne singing competition in January, and Celine Byrne from Kildare, who won the Maria Callas Grand Prix in Athens in March - the first Irish singer to do so.

Accompaniment will be from the Orlando Chamber Orchestra, joined by the Lassus Scholars and Piccolo Lasso; it'll all be conducted by Ite O'Donovan, and staged by Vivian Coates of Lyric Opera.

No sooner had Wexford Festival Opera's chief executive Michael Hunt reached an agreement with his employers about vacating his post, than another music-related employment dispute wound its way into the High Court, writes Michael Dervan. Adrian Gaffney, chief executive of the Irish Music Rights Organisation (Imro), is seeking to prevent his dismissal for alleged gross misconduct and to be permitted to continue in his position pending the outcome of the full hearing of his action against Imro.

The court, which has reserved judgment until Tuesday, heard about talk in pubs, "conspiracy", and the biases of board members on the one hand, and allegations concerning business expenses and misleading the board on the other. The handling of the Hunt situation, resolved without the festival formally disclosing its position, seems almost genteel by comparison.

There should be more music, writers' tours and visual art travelling around Ireland following the third round of funding under the Arts Council's Touring Experiment. More than €280,000 has been offered to a further 15 companies and individual artists, across five art forms, bringing the total so far under the two-year touring project to €2.1 million. The council will be looking for feedback from some of the audiences, performers, companies and venues involved in the experiment, says director Mary Cloake, who's confident it will "offer a robust touring programme, once the experiences of the experiment have been evaluated". She reiterated the mantra that the council "will be looking to Government to invest €100 million in the arts in 2008 to make high-quality touring in all the art forms a reality".

Literature figures strongly in this funding - among the recipients are the Children's Book Festival's author tours; Access All Areas from Kids' Own Publishing; the Western Writers Centre (€10,000 towards Irish Language Writers - Beyond Limits); Nuala Ní Chonchúir's bilingual poetry, Tattoo: Tatú; and Sliabh an Fhiolair Teoranta/Brandon. In trad, tours assisted include Heel to Toe - Barr go Sáil (€ 65,000), Mary McPartlan, Tommy Peoples and Seamie O'Dowd, and Fiddle Fair Showcase. The Model Arts and Niland Gallery got funding for both Andy Warhol: The Silver Factory 1963-1968, and the Month Of Sundays collaboration with Donal Dineen. Irish Architecture Foundation is assisted in touring two exhibitions, SubUrban to SuperRural and Line to Surface, and others to tour include Tigh Filí/Eurochild with Bring Me the Moon, Dance Theatre of Ireland, Andrew Duggan, Liam Ó Maonlaí and Rural Arts Networks.

Culture Ireland's summer funding meeting has allocated €865,000 to help 82 companies and individuals to bring Irish art abroad. Chosen projects will tour in the US, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia, and include showcase concerts by the Irish Chamber Orchestra in Berlin (€34,000), the Crash Ensemble in Canberra, Australia (€44,000), visual arts projects in China (€40,000), the Gate Theatre's Beckett season in New York (€100,000), and Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre's tour of UK in 2008 (€100,000).

John Kelly of Irish Chamber Orchestra, who has just signed a contract with Schmid Concert Agency guaranteeing the orchestra access to perform at major concert halls and festivals across Europe, said "Culture Ireland funding is essential to allow organisations like the ICO to avail of opportunities like this and to open up markets outside Ireland for Irish artists, whose high standards are increasingly being internationally recognised". Culture Ireland's board meets again in September and the application deadline is August 15th.

This funding process is separate to that for productions going to the Edinburgh festivals next month; Culture Ireland is funding five companies this year - Druid's production of Enda Walsh's The Walworth Farce, Ransom Productions' This Piece of Earth, Playgroup's The Art of Swimming, Rough Magic's new Christian O'Reilly play, Is This About Sex?, and Pasodos Dance Company's Sorry Love - as well as granting €1,000 to 18 companies/individuals to research performing there in the future.

It was probably a simple mistake, made under pressure, and in a daily newspaper we understand that better than many, but if you had a tendency to conspiracy theories, what would you have made of the Department's statement issued on Friday, July 6th? The press release, about Minister for Arts Seamus Brennan's visit to Foynes for the commemoration of the famous flight, was headed "Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism" as usual, but started "The Minister for Tourism, Arts and Sport . . . today visited Foynes . . . " Surely the department's name or priorities aren't being changed? (Just teasing.)

Three traditional music activists were recently awarded honorary doctorates: both Tom Munnelly, founding chairman of the Irish Traditional Music Archive, and Nicholas Carolan, its current director, received honorary Doctor of Literature degrees for services to Irish traditional music from NUI Galway, while last week the University of Ulster at Coleraine awarded current chairman of Irish Traditional Music Archive and RTÉ director general Cathal Goan an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters for services to Irish-language broadcasting and the media industry in Ireland.