Project: now the Employment Appeals Tribunal (June 14, 2001)

The Project saga lingers on. Last Tuesday the Project and Debbie Behan, Production Manager at Project from 1997 until last year, were due before the Employment Appeals Tribunal in Dublin, for an action taken under the Unfair Dismissals Act. Project cried off. However, the postponement was allowed only on condition that Project be willing to appear 'at short notice'.

Behan is claiming that conditions at Project were so bad that she felt compelled to quit her job. She is the fifth and final of the departed senior management to seek a resolution of matters with Project. Since the Industrial Tribunal is open to the public, the 'day in court', when it does occur, should tell us a lot about the last year's goings on at Project.

Meanwhile, some light on events there has been thrown by Art Monthly's second report on the Project débacle. It reads in part:

[Valerie] Connor was informed in November 2000 that her contact would not be renewed...What [Director Kathy] McArdle hadn't realsied was that this was Connor's second contract. Fearful of heavy penalties being levied either through an Unfair Dismissal suit or for Personal Defamation, Project backed down and offered Connor a contract as Curator of Visual Arts. However, Connor has said that at this point matters had moved far beyond the stage where this was a plausible option. She opted to leave Project with an agreed settlement of an undisclosed amount...According to Connor one good thing has come out of all this mess: 'so many artists have shown themselves to be informed, active and unintimidated in clearly identifying their values and demands...'

Margaret Corcoran: Unceremoniously folded (for Val), 2001, discarded Project banner folded roughly in the manner of flags at American military funerals; from Visual Art is Disposable

Art Monthly follows this piece with a (closely related) report on 147's first sortie, tracing 147's origins back to the initial protests and petitions against what was happening at Project. More on those protests here, on 147 here.

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