C99: Update

update

Changes at CIRCA

The magazine is undergoing a number of significant changes. Notice to quit our Belfast office coincided with the departure of our Administrator, Daan Bruijel. We are also sorry to lose Board member Daniel Jewesbury; Jo Allen, our Cork Contributing Editor has also moved on, after years of sterling contribution. We have decided to consolidate the operational elements of CIRCA in Dublin. However, to counteract this southward move, we have just appointed our first 'Editorial Adviser'. This is a rotating post, based in Northern Ireland, and the incumbent's job is, among other things, to advise the Editor on what art events s/he considers of key importance.

For the 100th issue of the magazine, artist Rita Duffy is undertaking this new role. The 100th issue will also see another major change: we are altering the format of the magazine to 240mm high by 185mm wide (see artist's impression above[!]). In other words, the magazine will be considerably smaller in format, more booklike, less unwieldy, and with more pages. We hope the 100th issue of CIRCA, representing 21 years of publication, will also be marked in other significant ways. Watch this space.

 

Dear Editor,

Thank you for including Marks of Omission at Arthouse in the Dublin reviews (CIRCA 98). For the record, it is important to correct Jane Humphries' description of Brian Conley's work. Conley presented Excerpts from War! in a small light-sealed shed where visitors entered the shed and listened to the work in pitch-dark space. There were no earphones as Humphries describes. Humphries also mentions that to listen to the piece she needed to "wait and toy with the technology." The room consisted of stereo speakers mounted to the wall and a CD playing a continuous 8 minute 'loop.' In short, there was no technology to toy with other than the curtain at the shed's entrance.

It is also important to mention that in a review of sound work, it is startling that Humphries concludes with the remarks, "Perhaps I craved something tangible to gaze at. Perhaps I felt that colour could stun my eyes, a brush stroke probe my ears and a composition my sensibilities in a far more subtle, complex and absorbing way." Her unfortunate nostalgia for painting is misplaced in a critical review of sound art. I am sorry that in the middle of a sound installation she craved colour and brushstrokes. I felt a similar craving for critical writing when reading her review.

Sincerely, Sarah Pierce, Artistic Director, Arthouse
[For the review in question, click here.]

 

Scottish moves

Variant, in different incarnations, has been Scotland's leading 'magazine' commenting on cultural developments there ('magazine', because it has been distributed over the last few years as a free newssheet and has been a familiar sight at art venues).

The Scottish Arts Council (SAC) has decided not to support Variant any more. Variant's editors, Leigh French and William Clark, are far from happy; they believe the decision to be highly political and due largely to how critical Variant has been of the SAC. They have sent a letter to Graham Berry, Acting Director of the SAC, detailing their grievances; the same letter has been distributed more widely by e-mail. They believe certain individuals within the Council have been on a personal crusade against Variant and have been unfairly influential in orchestrating its demise. Their letter finishes ominously:

We have no doubt that this whole matter will prove an embarrassment for you personally and the SAC at a time when the morale within the organisation is one of failure, fear and utter despair.

On a happier note, Scotland is going to Venice: The Scottish Arts Council has announced that they, along with British Council Scotland, will commit funding for "a Scottish presence in 2003 at the famous Venice Biennale, the most prestigious showcase for contemporary visual arts in the world." The press release goes on:

Several of Scotland's visual artists such as Douglas Gordon, Christine Borland and Callum Innes have already achieved international recognition, and Scotland's pavilion will seek to showcase an entirely new crop of talent.

It will be interesting to see how Scotland's representation positions itself in relation to the UK representation - the UK has one of the main pavilions in the key Giardini site in Venice.

 

IMMA seeks knight in shining armour

Since we last appeared, the saga at the Irish Museum of Modern Art has waxed spectacularly, then waned. The decision of the Board of IMMA to award the Directorship of IMMA to Brian Kennedy, Director of the National Gallery of Australia, did not have a pretty result. Amid howls of political interference, the Chair of the Board of IMMA, Marie Donnelly, resigned. Kennedy meanwhile decided he'd prefer to stay in Australia.

According to Aidan Dunne in the Irish Times, IMMA is going to head-hunt for Declan McGonagle's successor. Dunne does not recommend this strategy, one which IMMA had previously rejected in favour of advertising.

A successor to Donnelly was quickly announced: Eoin McGonigal, already an IMMA Board member. McGonigal has acted as legal advisor to Charles Haughey and Ray Burke during their various appearances in front of various tribunals looking into their financial dealings.

The Sunday Business Post's Simon Carswell did well during the whole mêlée. He was the only one to get a sound-bite out of Declan McGonagle. His response to the departure of Marie Donnelly? "This is very good news for the museum, and confirms the need for due process in public institutions."

 

Arts Council of Northern Ireland boosts Belfast

The Arts Council of Northern Ireland has announced its funding plans for this year. On the infrastructure side, Belfast comes out of it well:

Up to £3 million has been dedicated to the proposed new arts centre in the city's Cathedral Quarter, which should include a major venue for visual arts exhibition, up to £2 million to the Grand Opera House and £250,000 to Conway Mill...£9 million (75%) of the £12 million available from the Arts Council Lottery funds over the next three years has been set aside for major capital provision in Belfast. (press release)

The lean towards Belfast must be seen in the context of Belfast's bid to be the European Capital of Culture in 2008.

Information about revenue funding for arts organisations came a few weeks later. The Ormeau Baths Gallery will be one organisation pleased to see its grant increased, by 8% to £250,000. Photoworks North/Source Magazine should also be happy with a 25% increase to £15,000. The Golden Thread Gallery features for the first time, and gets £6,000. The Orchard Gallery's alarming drop of £47,000 is apparently due to the gallery's decision to concentrate more on Lottery than on revenue funding.

At 23.5% of the Council's total allocation, and amounting to £1,344,000, the Ulster Orchestra Society takes the biggest bite of the apple.

If the Arts Council of Northern Ireland is putting a brave face on standstill funding from central government, the Republic's Arts Council/Comhairle Ealaíon sounds more glum:

The Council's ability to offer grant-aid to organisations is heavily curtailed this year by the modest level of increase in our own funding from Government...What we have decided to do is honour existing financial commitments as much as possible and also to undertake what we believe is important development work in other non-grant areas.

True to its word, this year's funding round was marked by repeat funding through most of the sector.

 

AAIiiiieeeeee...!

The Artists' Association of Ireland is going through a really bad patch, and making headlines in the process. It has let Stella Coffey, its Chief Executive, go; she had been on extended sick leave. It is also making its membership and information-technology officers redundant. And there's been a swift turnover of chairpersons on the board of the association.

Money is at the root of the problem - a "serious financial difficulty" according to the Irish Times. The Phoenix has since elaborated. It seems that the time-bomb was the three-year plan the AAI put to the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon for 2000-2002. It included ambitious aims for sponsorship and donations, and these were never realised. The Arts Council were unimpressed, and had other worries besides. According to The Phoenix, outstanding funds for 2001 and all funds for 2002 have so far been withheld.

This has got to hurt: the AAI receives around 50,000 euro in membership fees each year, but its main source of money is an Arts Council grant, equal to 350,000 euro over three years.

Noreen O'Hare: Blow Up 1, 1984, photograph, 104 x 141 cm

 

Noreen O'Hare, 1957 - 2002

Despite her long period of illness, the death of Noreen O'Hare at the age of just 44, still came as a terrible shock to all those who knew her.

Born in 1957, Noreen studied art at Belfast, gaining her BA in Fine Art in 1979 and her MA in Sculpture the following year. She continued to make art after graduating, working in various media, including filmmaking, photography and painting.

It was, however, as a curator and gallery director that she particularly made her mark, at the Crescent Arts Centre, the Orchard Gallery, Ormeau Baths Gallery and finally with Offaly County Council.

I first met her when she became Director of Derry's Orchard Gallery. As well as being impressed by the energy and enthusiasm with which she threw herself into the task (with the help of the gallons of strong coffee she consumed every day), I liked her immediately and that initial fondness stayed for as long as I knew her.

The selfless generosity that made Noreen so likeable also formed the basis of her particular brand of professionalism. She held the view that curatorial programming should always be centred on the artists within it. Exhibiting artists knew they could always rely on her to give them the practical and the emotional support that she understood was so important when organising and hanging shows.

While many curators will always go for the easy options—artists who are already established and exhibiting regularly—Noreen showed the courage to take risks with shows by lesser-known artists, shows which she knew might be unpopular. I personally benefited from this policy. She gave me, as a virtually unknown artist, my first solo show in a major gallery and I have always remained grateful to her for this.

Another very important contribution made by Noreen was the encouragement of women artists. Despite the high reputation that the Orchard had already gained when she took on the Directorship, its programme had reflected the male dominance of the art world in general. Noreen's promotion of art by women, particularly Irish women, was very visible during her tenure. Again, this was a policy which could, and did, attract criticism, but Noreen maintained her position and it remains a key part of her legacy.

With the formation of the Ormeau Baths Gallery, Noreen was the obvious, and very popular, choice as its founder Director. As well as developing its programming policy, she played an important part in negotiating the building's design and layout. Its continuing success is due to a large extent to the initial work which she put into it.

Her time at Ormeau Baths, however, was cut short with the onset of her illness and many of her friends were to see very little of her from this time. She has been missed for a long time, and now that she's gone, we'll miss her even more.

Colin Darke, February 2002
[For a tribute to Noreen O'Hare by artist Catherine Harper, click here.]