Department flashes the spare cash

ArtScape: In these years of plenty, with dosh sloshing around in the public purse, it's good to see the arts getting a look-in, particularly with the memories still fresh of the devastation caused by past cuts.

The finer details will be known when the Budget is announced next week, but judging by the Estimates, the Minister for Arts, John O'Donoghue, has delivered significantly in terms of arts funding. The institutions have been dealt a fair hand, but individuals awaiting word on the artists' tax exemption will have to hold their breath until Wednesday.

Meantime, spare cash at the back of the department closet has been especially plentiful at the end of this year, with the Minister announcing an additional €15.72 million for the arts, shared between the Arts Council, the Abbey, the film industry, regional arts infrastructure and the national cultural institutions. Most significant is probably the clearing of the Abbey's debt, with more than €4 million of the extra €5.233 million Arts Council allocation going to clear the Abbey's debt and restructuring costs. Nice indeed for the theatre to start the new year with a clean slate, and a reward for finally beginning to reform and restructure itself. The rest of the council's extra money will go to opera, traditional arts and festivals.

Following the increase in Culture Ireland's funding (to €3 million) announced in the Estimates, the agency for the promotion of the arts internationally is seeking applications (by December 15th) for funding for events in the first half of 2006. The board is drafting its strategy for the next three years and will start a public consultation later this month. Culture Ireland will meet to consider funding applications three times next year, in early January, May and September, and the closing date for applications from artists, performers or event organisers is the 15th of each of the preceding months. Forms and guidelines can be obtained from 01-6313994/3905 or www.arts-sport-tourism.gov.ie.

Reaping the benefits

It's that time of the year, and there are some unusual fundraising efforts around. Cathal Ó Searcaigh's art auction to raise funds for his education programme in Nepal takes place today at An Grianán theatre in Letterkenny and you can see the work for sale at www.angailearai.com. Ó Searcaigh sent paper to fellow members of Aosdána and asked each to write/draw/paint on it. The result is a wonderful collection of 80 works of art by Ó Searcaigh's friends, many of them top names on the Irish arts scene.

Brian Friel has handwritten a piece from Dancing, John McGahern has contributed the opening passage from Memoir, Frank McGuinness sent the final speech from Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme . . . and the day after John Banville won the Booker, a hand-written passage from The Sea arrived. There's also a new Brendan Kennelly poem, a striking piece from Alice Maher, and artworks by Robert Ballagh, Janet Pierce, Felim Egan, among others. Thomas McCarthy sent a new poem and Seamus Heaney wrote and illustrated his poem, The Annals Say.

Meanwhile, in Dublin's Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, A Moment in Time opens today, involving nearly 90 Irish and international artists, including Oliver Comerford, Margaret Corcoran, Paul Doran, Blaise Drummond, Felim Egan, Martin Gale, Atsushi Kaga, Claire Kerr, Chung Eun-Mo, Elizabeth Magill, Makiko Nakamura, Leda Scully, Sean Shanahan, John Shinnors and Cara Thorpe, representing a snapshot of contemporary painting. Their paintings will be auctioned on Tuesday (at St Michael and John's Church, Cultivate Centre, Essex Street West, Temple Bar, Dublin 2, at 6pm) with a share of the proceeds going to Irish charity Aware. Viewing hours today and tomorrow are 11am to 6pm, and the exhibition continues until January 7th.

Elsewhere, Christy Moore, Declan Sinnott and friends will play a benefit gig at Vicar Street on Monday to raise money for the Pakistan Disaster Appeal. Tickets cost €40 and proceeds go to the President of Pakistan Relief Fund, which also welcomes donations to account number 14361368, Bank of Ireland, Merrion Road, sort code 90-12-12.

Waiting for Beckett

John O'Donoghue this week announced the members of the two committees that will organise the programme of events to mark Samuel Beckett's centenary next year. The Beckett Centenary Council, which will oversee the financial allocation and artistic direction of the programme and advise the Minister on funding, comprises Department of Arts secretary general Philip Furlong (chairman), Edward Beckett (nephew of the writer), Arts Council director Mary Cloake, Gate Theatre director Michael Colgan, RTÉ director general Cathal Goan, and John Hegarty, provost of Trinity College.

Meanwhile, the Beckett Centenary Festival Committee, which will monitor the presentation of the multi-stranded programme (including productions of nine of Beckett's plays at the Gate, poetry and prose readings, film screenings, music, television and radio productions, visual arts exhibitions, and educational and academic contributions), will be chaired by Colgan. Members will include the director of the National Library, Aongus Ó hAonghusa, and director and writer Alan Gilsenan, plus "representatives of other national cultural institutions and galleries,

representatives of RTÉ radio and television, Trinity College, Dublin City Council and the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism, and other eminent persons who will be directly involved in the delivery of the centenary programme".

Willie's winter cousin

Having wooed the hearts and minds of everyone in the traditional music firmament, the Willie Clancy Summer School and its dynamic and ever-modest founder, Muiris Ó Rocháin, have recently inaugurated its wintering cousin, Oidhreacht An Chláir (aka Clare College for Traditional Studies). The college is an institute for higher education which aims to cater for students of all aspects of Irish tradition, history and culture, writes Siobhán Long.

Where the Willie week sates the appetites of the most fervent players, singers and dancers, Oidhreacht An Chláir, based in Miltown Malbay, peers deep beneath the surface of the music, exploring the whys and wherefores of, among other subjects, country house dancing, the Irish music renaissance, the musicians and music of west Clare, and whether Irish music is ultimately a sustainable force. It takes place over three weekends.

The inaugural event having taken place on the weekend of November 11th-13th, the second and third weekends are scheduled to run from February 3rd to 5th and May 5th to 7th 2006. West Clare is once again proving itself to be a force to be reckoned with, stimulating not only eardrums and itchy fingers searching for a chord, but the grey matter of aficionados from Denmark to Drumcolliher. Each weekend course costs €120. For further information, see www.oac.ie.

• The inaugural international symposium from Initiatives in Dance through European Exchange (IDEE), on The Rise and Rise of European Dancehouses: Artistic, Cultural and Political Perspectives on a Growing Phenomenon, takes place this weekend at the Firkin Crane Centre in Shandon, Cork. Participants include IDEE partners from six European cities, representatives from cultural and academic institutions across Europe artists, dance-makers, arts managers and cultural operators.

• On Tuesday, Theatre Shop will host a seminar on The Role of the Audience in the Process of Theatre Production and Performance, at Andrews Lane Theatre from 2pm to 5pm. There will be three speakers from innovative theatre companies which place audiences within the creative process: Phelim McDermott, of Improbable Theatre; Nancy Meckler, joint artistic director of Shared Experience: and Deborah Shaw, director of the Complete Works Festival at the RSC. They will discuss the question for all those involved in theatre-making: where does the audience fit into the creative process? Chaired by writer, theatre and filmdirector Gerard Stembridge, the event is free but ticketed (tel 01-6704906 or e-mail admin@theatreshop.ie).

• Hugo Hamilton and Julie O'Callaghan will read on Wednesday at the Institute of Art, Design and Technology in Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin, as part of the Writer-in- Residence Reading Series. Three more readings follow after Christmas.