The format the International Folk Music Centre in Ennis, Co Clare, is to take will be discussed with traditional musicians who feel distanced from the project.
The newly-appointed director of the centre, Ms Katie Verling, said a public consultation meeting will be held on November 14th and she will be available to musicians on an individual basis.
The £6 million centre has already had a controversial history. In April, planning permission was given despite objections from the Poor Clare community which lives nearby and was worried about having its contemplative way of life disturbed.
Originally it was mooted as a centre for tourism which would be partly funded by the private sector. Now it is firmly in the public ownership camp. The Minister for Arts, Ms de Valera, put up £2.5 million, the council and Ennis UDC provided £1.5 million.
Shannon Development is channelling £500,000 of European Regional Development Funds towards the project. The building project has raced ahead because the latter tranche is dependent on works, equivalent to that amount, being carried out by the year's end.
The construction is experiencing its own problems after it became embroiled in a bricklayers' dispute. This week the building company Brian McCarthy Contractors was given permission by the High Court to serve notice on picketers on the site, members of the Limerick branch of the Builders' and Allied Trade Union, preventing them from continuing their unofficial protest.
Ultimately, the 2,500 sq m two-storey building will have a performance space with moveable seating, exhibition, workshop and rehearsal spaces, and a bar and restaurant.
The shortfall of £1.5 million, earmarked for the fit-out, remains to be met, but Ms Verling now faces the problem of dealing with a group of artists who by their nature are disparate and unorganised but whose input will be essential to the building's success as a centre of excellence and authenticity balanced with viability.
Locally-based musicians, such as the flute player Gary Shannon, John O'Connor of Custy's traditional music shop and Siobhan Peoples, a teacher at the Meain Cheoil an Chlair school, are hopeful about the centre's prospects but feel there should be more engagement with musicians.
"If properly packaged and sold to the musical fraternity, I cannot see why it cannot be a success," said Mr Shannon.
On the face of it, the advisory board has a mix of people reflecting the centre's complex task. Three of the members have business backgrounds. Other members include Cllr Pat Hayes, a brother of the Clare fiddler, Martin Hayes. Mr Muiris O Rochain, organiser of the annual Willie Clancy music festival in Miltown Malbay and Mr Frank Whelan is a member of Comhaltas Ceoltoiri.
Ms Verling, a niece of the late Sean O Riada, worked for Telegael, the Co Galway-based consultancy which acted as an adviser to the project in its early stages. She said the project began as a market-led one, anxious to cater for tourists who want quality Irish music and avoid the "Oirish" variety.
But she is intent on catering for Clare musicians in the process. "Clare knows its music and if the music is good enough to satisfy the people of Clare, it should satisfy the demand of international visitors to access the living Irish tradition."
Prof Micheal O Suilleabhain, head of the Irish World Music Centre at the University of Limerick, addressed a meeting of the key figures in the project earlier this year, and is relieved it has remained in public ownership. He believes there is a big demand for the quality music the centre aims to promote, but the community-based ethos and creativity of the music must be retained.
"There is room for dozens of similar ventures. Each one carries a grave responsibility about the commodification and regulation of the human spirit for particular purposes. You just have to be careful about that, that the baby is not thrown out with the bath water."