C96
News Bits
PS1 winners, and art.ie
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| cover
of the first art.ie |
Phil
Collins has been awarded the PS1 scholarship for Northern Ireland
and Amanda Ralph that for the Republic. They will replace Susan
Philipsz and Martin Healy, respectively. The PS1 award is coveted,
to say the least: a year's residency in New York, in your own studio
at PS1 in Queens, plus a monthly stipend of $1,500. And PS1 is now
part of New York's Museum of Modern Art.
Collins' recent show at the Context Gallery, Derry, is reviewed
in this issue, pages 46-47.
The PS1 Awards are funded by the two Arts Councils in Ireland and
the Irish American Cultural Institute. The two Councils have also
linked up to create the website www.art.ie.
It's still in final development but worth a visit already to see
the breadth of its ambition.
These seem like very positive developments, and there's a true piece
of hybridity going on with the simultaneous appearance of art.ie.
Produced by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, art.ie is an A5-format
listings magazine which replaces the impressive but large ArtsLink.
Despite the '.ie' suffix, art.ie, like ArtsLink before it, deals
only with the arts within Northern Ireland - whereas www.art.ie
deals with the whole island.
Also online are the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon's Arts Plan
forums. If you have thoughts you'd like to share regarding the next
Arts Plan, they'll hopefully be more than delighted to read them.
Go to www.artscouncil.ie.
Articulating
views on ourselves and others
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| Joan
Hanley: installation views of Office Hours, 2001; photo
John Kelly; courtesy the artist |
Two artists taking left-of-field approaches to the plight of immigrants
in Ireland are Joan Hanley and Mick O'Kelly. Hanley installed Office
Hours for just that - 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. - on April 4 in the Harcourt
Immigration Office in Dublin. The work was 184 oil paintings of
the Irish sky, in the same size as an IR£20 note; these she had
carried out at 4 a.m. and 4 p.m. every day over a three-month period.
She "chose to paint the sky since the clouds, stars and moon move
unaffected by national boundaries."
Mick O'Kelly is taking to the road with an articulated lorry from
May of this year. He will park the trailer of the lorry in towns
throughout Ireland, in each case for a consecutive Friday and Saturday.
From inside will come sound pieces generated through discussion
with immigrants and asylum seekers themed around ideas of xenophobia
and difference. According to O'Kelly "the work functions like an
immigrant vehicle. Through this nomadic vehicle these immigrant
voices will act as a prophet to this land, holding a mirror to our
tolerance of 'difference'."
Declan McGonagle bows out as Project hires
Director Declan McGonagle has left the Irish Museum of Modern Art
(IMMA), having secured a renewal of his contract. The renewal was
the stepping stone to a severance package of, it seems, IR£250,000;
the sum apparently reflects five years' salary.
The IMMA saga thus moves to a new phase. According to Aidan Dunne
in the Irish Times, "The announcement of his intention to depart
leaves IMMA facing the 10th anniversary of its official opening
next month [May] with a bruised and battered board, a jittery staff,
an uncertain future and a public perception problem." He goes on:
One
of the ironies of the clash between Donnelly in her capacity as
chair of the board and McGonagle was that, in terms of their public
statements and their track records, their positions on policy seem,
on the face of it, remarkably close. When Donnelly implied
that the museum had established itself nationally, and now had to
make its mark internationally, she seemed oblivious to the fact
that one of the most frequently voiced criticisms of IMMA is its
lack of attention to its national role, its responsibilities to
20th century Irish art.
Meanwhile, at Project Valerie Connor is now gone, and along with
it her post as Visual Arts Director. Both the McGonagle and Connor
cases provoked outcry and outrage in the visual-arts community.
Art Monthly commented on the Project scene cuttingly:
Six
months into her contract, Project's Artistic Director Kathy McArdle
stands accused of gross insensitivity by the visual arts community
and of the virtual destruction of one of its favourite venues.
Five of the seven senior members of staff have left Project since
McArdle's appointment...Valerie Connor had been with Project almost
since its inception and is greatly respected within the arts community...
It comes as a bit of a surprise to learn, as reported on RTÉ's
Rattlebag and in the Irish Times, that McGonagle has
recently been advising Project on its visual-arts programme. Also
advising them is artist Mick Wilson, who sits on the boards of the
Royal Hibernian Academy and of Arthouse. Meanwhile Alanna O'Kelly,
the only visual-arts representative on the Board of Project when
the crisis broke, has left that Board, and Joe Long, Chair at that
time, has moved over for Bridget Webster.
Project has finally announced a visual-arts programme for
2001. There's a sort of 'rolling-curator' exhibition called Word
of Mouth, starting in May. July sees Stand Fast Dick and
Jane, curated by Tom Keogh and Alan Phelan. It will feature the
work of six American artists - Donald Moffett, Nayland Blake, Virgil
Marti, Marlene McCarthy, Zoe Leonard and Carrie Moyer.
There is no news as yet about who will be taking up the job of Visual
Arts Curator, the post that appeared some time after Connor's post
had been deleted.
Update:
see more recent online news item here.
Shred this
Still ongoing is Gina Davey's project Shredders. An exotic menagerie
of artworks has already arrived, but you can still contribute either
by post (using last issue's bookmark) or
on the web.
At last, new Artistic Director at Arthouse
Arthouse has appointed Sarah Pierce as its Artistic Director. She
had been working with the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon in
the Arts/Science Research and Development area, has previously worked
at the New York Foundation for the Arts, has had ten years' experience
in arts administration, has curated exhibitions, and "is very proficient
with new technology and new media."
Dosh
It is not easy to summarise from the long list of recent funding
decisions from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon, but perhaps
three themes are most important for the arts, the visual arts in
particular:
•The
move to multi-annual funding will make planning significantly easier
for many organisations, among them the Artists' Association of Ireland,
CAFE, the Douglas Hyde Gallery, Fire Station Artists' Studios, Kilkenny
Arts Festival, Leitrim Sculpture Centre, the Sculptors' Society
of Ireland and Temple Bar Gallery and Studios.
•
The decisions have been made very quickly this year, and this will
help all organisations with their budgeting.
•
There is "Improved support for the visual arts infrastructure with
increases of between 13% and 44% for Arts Council-funded visual
arts studios, with Arts Council-funded galleries receiving an increase
of nearly 20%."
The pattern of funding from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland,
meanwhile, appears to be becoming more artist-friendly and also
more integrated. Support for individual artists has risen sharply,
from £300,000stg. to £489,000stg. ACNI Chief Executive Roisín McDonough
commented:
We
have begun the integration of Lottery funding into achieving art
form objectives; we are supporting the individual artist, extending
participation for all and we are directing arts organisations to
develop new audiences for their work.
The rapprochement between revenue and Lottery funding would seem
a welcome simplification. More at www.artscouncil-ni.org,
where you can also find an attractive map of where the money is
going.
Beyond
Arts and Disability
Arts and Disability Ireland is putting together a "centralised information
resource" overseen by Karyn Stein. It "will include projects or
programmes (past, present, and future) that various arts centres
or organizations have undertaken with Arts and Disability as the
focus." The results will be available to all. To contribute, or
know more, contact info@vsarts.ie.
Arts and Disability Ireland have been known heretofore as VSA (Vision
and Strength in the Arts). They have now relaunched as an independent,
not-for-profit organisation "working to ensure the cultural equality
of people with disabilities in all aspects of the arts."
Must try harder
| There
were a few embarrassing gaffes in the last issue. Gary Coyle's
image on the front cover-shown here-was not credited. In contrast,
Peter Thomas was named on page 35 as the author of the article
Artz 4 Cripz;
in fact it was by Dave Thomas, who was credited at the end of
the article |
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| Gary
Coyle: Lovely Water No. 3,2000,C
print, 90 x 120cm; courtesy
Kevin Kavanagh Gallery |
