ArtscapeThe replacement body for the Cultural Relations Committee (CRC) is taking shape and it's believed that a new international arts agency will be in place by the end of next month.
The CRC was established in 1949 as a voluntary, non-statutory body with a cultural-diplomacy remit, advising the Department of Foreign Affairs on funding cultural promotion abroad. It moved to the Department of Arts during Síle de Valera's ministry and has, over the years, provided one-off funding for a huge variety of artists and arts organisations working, performing, exhibiting or studying abroad, with its grants ranging from a few hundred euro to thousands.
The new body arising from the ashes of the CRC follows the Arts Act's statutory requirement for the Minister to promote Irish arts abroad. The budget for the new body will be €2 million - up from the CRC's annual €700,000 - allowing it a lot of scope for the development of Ireland's international arts profile. It will continue to work in conjunction with the Department of Foreign Affairs, capitalising on its embassy network.
Details have not been confirmed but the new group is likely to be slimmed down from the 24 members of the CRC to about half that number.
In the meantime, there is an interim ad hoc group accepting - and granting - applications from Irish individuals and companies in the arts taking work abroad. This month the CRC awards include: €14,000 to Druid to bring The Playboy to Perth Festival; €2,000 to guitarist John Feeley, for performing in Washington DC; €15,000 to IMMA to visit ARCO in Madrid; €1,500 to musician Liam Ò Maonlaì, towards performing in Mali; €18,000 to Prague's Charles University, towards an Irish Studies programme; €3,000 to artist Michelle Rogers for an exhibition in Mexico; and €4,000 to Cinematheque to participate in a festival in Tel Aviv. In the midst of what are likely to be high-profile showcases, one hopes grants to smaller projects won't be lost.
The move for change comes in the wake of what is felt to be a series of successful international forays by the Department of Arts - the EU presidency programme, ReJoyce, and last year's cultural exchange with China - and it will be interesting to see if similar large-scale international cultural exchanges emerge in the future.
Of course, Chinese/Irish connections are back in the news again this week. One of the striking things about last year's exchange - quite apart from the cultural content itself - was the lack of comment or mention of the unmentionable: China's appalling attitudes to freedom of expression, its repression of writers and artists, and its human rights abuses. Art takes place in a context.
Line-up for Snow show
Sounds like a fab line-up: Michael McElhatton, Karen Egan, Suzanna de Wrixon, Mark O'Regan, Conor Lenihan, Helen Norton, Deirdre Molloy, Cathy White, Tony Flynn, Red Space (featuring Daniel Snow), Arthur Riordan, Feck Global and the Militants, Kathleen O'Rourke and an excerpt from Improbable Frequency (Rough Magic). They will all feature in a cabaret fundraiser for the Jayne Snow Award on Sunday, February 6th. The award, now in its fifth year, was founded to celebrate the life and spirit of actress Jayne Snow, who died on February 1st, 2000. It is awarded annually to an Irish-based participant in the Dublin Fringe Festival who "best exhibits the qualities of innovation, bravery and risk taking in the pursuit of artistic excellence".
Past winners are actor/writer Morna Regan, dancer Lisa McLoughlin and both Rex Levitates and Catapult dance companies. The cabaret is at Project Upstairs on Sunday, February 6th, at 8p.m. Tickets cost €20. To book, telephone Project on 01-6796622.
Library acquires director
The National Library this week appointed Aongus Ó hAonghusa as its director. He has been the library's acting director since Brendan O'Donoghue's retirement in September 2003. The library's Council of Trustees said the appointment was "at a time of major change for the library, with the imminent establishment of a new board for the organisation replacing the present council".
Ó hAonghusa, from Galway, with a BSc in zoology from University College Galway and a masters in public administration from University College Dublin, joined the National Library in 2000 from the Department of Arts, where he was an assistant principal. He was also private secretary to a number of government ministers. As acting director he oversaw the creation of the James Joyce and Ulysses exhibition, which has had more than 25,000 visitors since it opened in June 2004.
Concert for Beslan
The many fundraisers for victims of the tsunamis are continuing to raise staggering amounts in Ireland. Other causes may, understandably, have been taking a back seat in public consciousness, so it's excellent to see that the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland - whose Ring Cycle CD recently won the Birmingham Post's CD of the year award - is to perform a special concert on Sunday, January 30th at the National Concert Hall, Dublin, in memory of Beslan School No 1, with proceeds going to the Beslan Fund, to support to those who survived the siege at the school.
The programme will feature Barber's much loved Adagio for Strings, followed by two pieces by Russian composer Tchaikovsky, Piano Concerto No 1 and Symphony No 6 (Pathétique). Alexander Anissimov will conduct, with his son Sasha on piano. A National Youth Orchestra of Ireland string quartet will travel to Beslan in August to perform at the opening of the school that is being built to replace the one destroyed in the siege.
With the money raised from this concert and other events, the Beslan Fund will offer the help that the people of the town feel is most needed. Next month a team of Irish psychologists will travel to Beslan for two weeks, to share their knowledge and help fatigued support workers in the area, and to give advice to teachers of Beslan survivors on helping their pupils. In March, the fund will start bringing groups of Beslan children and their families to Ireland for respite. Longer term, there are plans to build a community centre.
Tickets for the NCH fundraiser cost €100, €50, €40 and €30. Booking: 01-4170000; www.beslanfund.4t.com; www.nyoi.ie
The Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris, Ireland's first cultural centre abroad, is offering a two- to three-month-long residency to Irish and other visual artists in 2005. The residency includes a room in the College des Irlandais in Paris's Latin Quarter and a studio within the historic courtyard. Applications are being considered for March-June 2005 and for September-December 2005. Applications to The Director, Centre Culturel Irlandais, 5 rue des Irlandais, 75005 Paris or hcarey@centreculturelirlandais.com
The deadline for applications is Friday, February 4th. Further information on www.centreculturelirlandais.com
"A percentage of the next generation of Irish writers will more than likely have cultural histories quite different from our own, and their writing, when it comes, will be informed by these, rather than what are commonly regarded as Irish literary traditions," says the Western Writers' Centre's manager, Fred Johnston.
In view of this, the centre is starting a writers' group aimed at new immigrants and groups from diverse cultural backgrounds. Anyone interested in writing short stories, plays or poems is welcome. The sessions will open on Thursday, January 27th, at 2 p.m in the centre's premises at 34 Nuns Island, Galway (tel: 091-533595; inquiries to Judith, Angela or Fred). Admission is free.
The Institute for Choreography and Dance (ICD) has just published volume two of its occasional journal, Choreographic Encounters. With the theme "dance and identity", it features contributions by choreographers Carol Brown (UK), Omar Barghouti (Palestine), Steve Batts (Northern Ireland), Faustin Linyekula (Democratic Republic of Congo), Fearghus Ó Conchúir (Ireland), Vincent Sekwati Koko Mantsoe (South Africa), and Alexander Baervoets (Belgium). Photographer Derek Speirs, poet Tom McCarthy and graphic designer Nigel Williams will also feature.
Choreographic Encounters, Volume Two, is edited by Mary Brady and is €20 from book distributors, specialist bookshops and directly from ICD. Direct orders to the Librarian, ICD, Firkin Crane Centre, Shandon, Cork, Ireland. E-mail: archive@instchordance.com