Summer ‘11 FREE – PLEASE TAKE ONE Vol7 Iss 3 SPACE INSIDE LIVE NIGHT - Tues 5 April ’11 @ 8pm Wicklow Sailing Club – Free Admission Robert Teeling is a newcomer to Wicklow Town, arriving in Ireland just 6 months ago. He is mainly a self-taught artist and, when living in South Africa, specialised in Wildlife and African art. Robert paints in acrylics and oils, and his versatility enables him to paint most subjects – seascapes, landscapes, portraits and murals. He is currently working on artworks featuring local people and places in Ireland. A member of Kilmantin Art Gallery, Wicklow Town, his paintings of local scenes are proving very popular. Check him out at www.robteelingart.com Frank Gallagher Zoryanna Mother and baby by R. Teeling Colm Nolan
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Summer ‘11 FREE – PLEASE TAKE ONE Vol7 Iss 3
SPACE INSIDE LIVE NIGHT - Tues 5 April ’11 @ 8pm
Wicklow Sailing Club – Free Admission
Robert Teeling is a newcomer to Wicklow Town, arriving in Ireland just 6 months ago. He is
mainly a self-taught artist and, when living in South Africa, specialised in Wildlife and African art.
Robert paints in acrylics and oils, and his versatility enables him to paint most subjects – seascapes,
landscapes, portraits and murals. He is currently working on artworks featuring local people and
places in Ireland. A member of Kilmantin Art Gallery, Wicklow Town, his paintings of local scenes are
proving very popular. Check him out at www.robteelingart.com
Frank Gallagher Zoryanna
Moth
er an
d b
aby b
y R. T
eelin
g
Colm Nolan
2
Editorial
Hi all,
After decades of watching TV and internet, it looks
like we now have a burning need to get back to the
real thing. Two new poetry/music sessions have
sprung up in County Wicklow: one in Bray and the
other in Greystones. Great to see people are still
interested in ‘live’ performances. See Twitters for a
list of these and other similar venues.
If, like me, you have always been a bit vague on what
exactly Aosdana is all about, our Feature article this
month gives some insight into its workings – a club
which arouses mixed reactions from artists.
The Wicklow Arts Festival team is working hard on
this year’s event. A brief taster of what’s on is shown
opposite, but full details of the exciting programme
are on their stunning new website.
Once again, we have been awarded a grant from
Wicklow Arts Office. However, we continue to need
your support to ensure this journal is kept in print.
We have a new page on our blog Donate Now, where
you can make a donation for as little as €3. All you
need is a credit card. We find it is better to make a
donation after the pubs close – less traffic on the net!
It seems, after seven years, there are still people in
Wicklow who don’t know we exist. Your mission,
should you accept it, is to enlighten one such person
every month, and keep the Space Inside Live.
See you at our Live Night on Tuesday 5th April for
another great evening of poetry, dance and music.
Carol Boland
This May, Wicklow Town will come alive with music, art
exhibitions, dance, crafts and family entertainment, with
over 40 events over four days. The Space Inside checks
out what’s on offer.
icklow Arts Festival takes place annually in May in the
beautiful harbour setting of Wicklow Town. Now in its
eighth year, the Festival has grown with the town to become an
important cultural fixture in the calendar, with audience figures
rising steadily each year. This year, the theme is a celebration of
International Year of Forests, which will highlight the
environmental resources that abound in the Garden of Ireland.
Batchelor’s Walk
The Festival has a wide-ranging arts
programme which contains a strong
element for kids, with a teen poetry
challenge, a colouring competition, a
storytime and various children’s
workshops.
During the weekend, the Artisan Food and
Craft market on Bachelor’s Walk by the
river, offers the stroller unusual crafts and
demonstrations of heritage skills. This is also the site for the
Festival Tent, the centre of activities over the weekend. You will
find Niall de Burca and his unique style of storytelling there,
Deadly Moons, an interactive art/science workshop, and Badger’s
Birthday Puppet Show. Close by, the popular Chalk Attack is
back, and everyone is invited to create temporary art on the
footbridge. Don’t forget to bring your camera to capture the
works of art.
WAF Stage
A new addition to this year’s festivities is
the WAF Stage. On Sunday, the stage will
be at the heart of the action on Bachelors
Walk with a great line up of acts promised.
Music to spoken word, the acts include
performances from Wicklow School of
Music and Drama’s Rock School, and Let’s
Sing, a lively Arklow-based choir. A
continuous line of performers will take the
stage through the day. During the week,
the Festival Arts Trail and Art on the Railings will again brighten
up the town. A new, impressive Festival website is now up, and
events and gig are continually been added. To keep up-to-date
with what’s happening at the Festival, subscribe to the Festival
newsletters on their website : www.wicklowartsfestival.ie
W
Jimmy Deenihan, T.D. was
appointed Minister of Arts,
Heritage and Gaeltacht Affairs
on the 9th March 2011.
Opening an art exhibition at
his Dept’s offices in Killarney,
he said, ‘ I hope this exhibition
will be the start of a great
future of promoting art in
public places and making art as
accessible as possible to the
widest audience – we have to
remember that art is not
exclusive, it is for all.’ And so
say all of us.
Derek Landy talks about
‘Mortal Coil’, the fifth
instalment of the
bestselling Skulduggery
Pleasant series, in the
Grand Hotel.
n ancient Ireland, the Aos Dána were the wise men,
and occasionally women, of the Clan who included
judges, priests, poets and historians. Today,
membership of Aosdána is purely open to artists: be
they musicians, novelists, poets, visual artists,
chorographers or architects.
Aosdána was set up in 1981 by Taoiseach Charles
Haughey, on the suggestion of the writer, Anthony
Cronin. The idea behind its formation was to honour
artists who made an outstanding contribution to the
arts in Ireland, and to financially assist members to
devote their energies full time to their art.
The Toscairí.
Funded by the State through the Arts Council, which
handles all of its administrative and financial
arrangements, Aosdána’s members are currently
limited to 250.
Membership to the club is by peer
nomination and not by application. The
nominee must have created a significant
body of work and be a native of, or resident
for at least five years in Ireland. The
committee of Aosdána is the Toscaireacht, a
group of ten members who are called
Toscairí. When new members are
proposed, the Toscairí have the task of
verifying that the nomination process has been
complied with, and also that the candidate is willing to
accept membership – something that cannot be taken
for granted.
To be or not to be
Heated debates on this organization continue. The
poet Brendan Kennelly, in an Irish Times article said,
‘On an unconscious or subconscious level I might feel
compromised (by membership).’ In the same article,
playwright Hugh Leonard stated, ‘I am not a member
by choice. And if I did ask to get in, they wouldn’t let
me in . . . the whole thing seems unforgivably political .
. . that thing of exclusivity and elitism I despise.’
For those who have been
accepted into Aosdána the
benefits are many. The poet
Pearse Hutchinson has
described his membership as ‘a
miracle and godsend’ that
allowed him to continue writing
at a time when he might have
had to give up.
And composer Roger Doyle
tells of the difference it made
to him. ‘I was elected to
Aosdána in 1986. This gave me
a small stipend from the Government each year, which
enabled me to devote all my time to composing.’
The benefits
Members of Aosdána are eligible to receive an annuity
for a term of five years. This stipend is called a Cnuas,
and is intended to allow recipients to work full time at
their art. Its value, in 2010, was €17,180 p.a. It may be
renewed for subsequent terms of five years, if the
artist shows that a work of merit has been produced
during the previous term.
Aside from these financial benefits,
members may also be awarded titles.
The Saoi – the wise one – is the
highest honour that can be bestow
upon a fellow member. The title is
awarded for ‘singular and sustained
distinction in the arts’. The President
of Ireland confers the symbol of the
office, the gold Torc, and no more
than seven living members can be so
honoured at one time.
It is Aosdána’s obligations under the Residential Redress
Act 2002 that causes some artists a problem. But,
recently, a motion was passed calling for clarification
on sections relating to censorship. Also, a motion was
passed unanimously that ‘Aosdána deplores some of
the recent tax exemptions granted to the authors of
books and calls for the introduction of new guidelines
in accordance with the spirit of the Act.’ I wonder to
whom they could possibly be referring.
I
FEATURE
Aosdána – an archaic
club for conferring honours
or a lifeline for artists.
Aosdána is a members’ only club that arouses strong opinions
among Irish artists. Carol Boland takes a look at this unique
institution and the controversy that continues to surround it.
Artist Patrick Scott with
President Mary McAleese
at Saoi ceremony in 2007
Current Toscairí
Seóirse Bodley (Music)
Anthony Cronin (Literature) Theo Dorgan (Literature)