A lot more to do at An Táin
&
It’s just four years since Paul Hayes took up the role as director of An Táin Arts Centre. It is, he says, the longest he’s ever been in one job and he has no intention of moving, borrowing the infamous political slogan ‘A lot done and a lot more to do’. He has every reason to be cheerful. After all, An Táin has just received a €20,000 grant from the Arts Council. It’s not a huge amount of money but it’s the first time the centre has got funding from the Arts Council and is the only new arts centre to get such funding in many years.
There’s more good news. The centre’s theatre company in residence, Quintessence Theatre Company, has just been awarded a €23,000 touring grant from the Arts Council. ‘ This is great as it means they are now going to tour their play ‘Cracks’ to 19 venues later this year,’ he says. ‘ This will make it the most widely toured show getting Arts Council funding as most groups would only go to 10 or 12 venues.’ ‘Cracks’, which deals with the issue of mental health among young people, was devised by Quintessence and has already been staged in An Táin three times, as well as doing a mini tour of the north east, taking in venues in Drogheda, Castleblayney and Monaghan Paul says he is ‘ hugely proud’ for the company as he believes it is one of the functions of An Táin to foster artistic talent. ‘When I get asked what I want to do with An Táin Arts Centre that is different from other arts centre, I always say that it should be the place to develop the next generation of artists.’ This includes having a theatre in residence as well as supporting visual artists through the emerging artists’ programme. He notes that Quintessence have staged thirteen shows in their three and a half years as the centre’s theatre in residence. These shows included productions which they devised themselves, adaptations of works by Shakespeare and other classics, and outdoor productions for children in the grounds of Anaverna House.
‘ This will mark their last year as theatre in residence at An Táin and they have now applied for their own funding from the Arts Council and we will be appointing a new company to take their place.’ Quintessence look well placed to take their place in the world of Irish theatre and received a €5,000 commission to stage a work in the recent Drogheda Arts Centre.
One of their key members, Leah Rossiter, has also received a €8,000 artist’s development bursary from the Arts Council. Paul believes that the work achieved in An Táin over the past three and a half years when it first opened as an arts centre, has been considerable but there’s more to do. Having previously worked in the arts scene in Drogheda, where he is still involved with the Drogheda Arts Festival. ‘One of the questions I’m often asked is what are the differences between Dundalk and Drogheda,’ he says. ‘I always say that Drogheda is looking towards Dublin while Dundalk is looking northwards.’ While Dundalk has a very strong music scene, driven largely by the town’s young bands, he says that ‘culturally Dundalk is miles behind Drogheda.’ ‘Drogheda has two professional theatre companies, Upstate and Calipo, the Droichead Arts Centre, which one of the oldest arts centres in the country, the Highlanes Gallery, the Barbican Centre, and the TLT, so we have a huge amount of catching up to do here in Dundalk and it’s not going to happen overnight but it is starting to happen slowly.’