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Midland Arts and Culture Magazine | SUMMER 2012Art makes a differenceto the places we liveUsing the Arts to promote a town’s regeneration“The arts have a serious contribution toaddressing contemporary socialchallenges as they cause socialbenefits integral to participation”(Matarasso 1997)Portarlington is one of the mostinteresting towns in the midlands with itsrich Huguenot history, distinctivearchitecture and the River Barrow whichmeanders through neatly divides thetown between Offaly and Laois.At an important rail junction, the townflourished as a commuter town of Dublinbut in recent years this has brought newchallenges.The Portarlington CommunityDevelopment Association (PCDA) wasestablished in 1997 to be the voice of thecommunity, to develop theentrepreneurial, social and culturalcontent of the town and plan for its futuredevelopment. To date, the PCDA hasbrought to fruition a Community Centre,the People’s Park, recreational walks andan After Schools’ Project among otherinitiatives. The (Port’s) Vision 2020 planpresents the vision for the town’s future;a foundation of the town’s regenerationand growth up to the year 2020.The group has been using the arts andartists to animate their vision for thetown. Its recent inclusion the RTE’s DirtyOld Towns series saw the development ofa new piece of sculpture at the BarrowBridge. Spelling out the word ‘life’ (it hadinitially been ‘live’ but its orientationmeant that people could easily read itbackwards, so the ‘v’ became an ‘f’) thishas a Diarmuid Gavin stamp all over itbut, nonetheless, it animates and drawsattention to one of the most strikingfeatures of the town.from the Peoples Park to the Spa Bridgewith architect Edel Roycroft. CabriniCahill, Theatre Director, added her artisticdirection to the 2012 St Patrick’s DayParade to develop the parade as anartistic expression for the town. This wasan opportunity for an artist to interpretPortarlington’s 2020 Vision throughdifferent art mediums in order tocommunicate its message out to thetown.Cabrini took the themes of the ‘vision’and creating a parade throughcommunity workshops, exploring theirideas to encourage people to think andget involved.Mr Portopoly and the glamorousassistants who will have the audiencerolling the dice and bartering carrots tobuy a variety of potential businesses,which could add value to the town’seconomy. The festival was full of ideas,props, costumes made to express thetown’s ambitions for itself.This process has communicated andbrought alive what otherwise would havebeen a desktop exercise. Celia Deverell ofPortarlington Community DevelopmentAssociation said: “We would consider thisprocess could be used as a template forsocial and community regeneration inother similar Irish towns, and encouragepeople to talk to the artists in theircommunity for ideas and inspiration to turntowns around.The visual arts were used as an effectivepromoter to showcase the five actiongroups within Ports’ Vision 2020; forexample, the Business Section Cabrini’sPeopleopoly Board: (13 foot square), was In Portarlington, there have been overOther projects include ‘welcomedriven through the streets with a1500 volunteer hours given on this projectpaintings’ wall by the Railway Station led borrowed title of PORTOPOLY for the day. and 10 local artists who have contributedCopiesby artistofSarahtheDelaneybook areandavailablethe walkwaylocally inAidedChocolateby colourfulBrown's,characters,WilliamincludingStreet & Balconysince 2010.”Books, Bridge Centre both inTullamore or on www.originalwriting.ieMI AM HERE, I LIVE, I LOVEAs part of Offaly County Council’sEngage with Architecture Programmearchitect Orla Murphy gave a talk inDaingean Library about the evolution ofthe Irish Town and its morphologypointing out that Irish Towns are centralto our cultural identity, much more thanwe realise and appreciate.The social relations which emerge asindividuals and institutions interact tocommodify place identity. Where there isevidence of a gradual redefinition of localidentities through, for example, thechanging of cultural practices, heritageand landscape resources, there is also30evidence of resistance to this reorientation.As the former County Town of Offaly,Daingean is one of these towns that hashad to redefine itself. It is steeped inhistory from a time when it was one of themost important towns in Ireland from itswell-known association with the GrandCanal and St Conleth’s Reformatory.Daingean was the termination point forthe Grand Canal until 1797 at which pointthe canal was completed to Tullamore andthe Shannon and the trade went with it.The town went into decline and hasstruggled to recover since.2012 sees the start of a new purpose forDaingean, beginning with the painting ofthe Main Street in association with Dulux;to help regain the town’s proud heritage.The town’s huge courthouse is beingrenovated (an oversized building inrelation to the rest of the town, which onlymakes sense only in the context ofDaingean’s history).Also, RTE’s Dirty Old Towns is beingfilmed there and a heritage trail is beinglaunched in June, closely followed by the25 th anniversary Daingean Home ComingFestival in August.So what does this all mean for amidlands town, or any town?Towns which are proud of their heritage,who find ways to gather, create, celebrateand educate transform more than how itlooks - they transform its residents, givingthem confidence and a proud sense ofidentity. Towns that have this magicalingredient survive culturally, socially andeconomically. With this renewed focus onDaingean, it will be interesting to watch anew cultural legacy in the making.M
Major regional venue is threatenedby escalating funding cutsHistoric and groundbreakingIn 2012 Backstage Theatre in Longfordfaces into its eighteenth year inoperation. Almost 20 years old thetheatre can look back on manymemorable and often challenging timesin an ever changing arts landscape.When the theatre opened its doors in1995 it was the only theatre in themidlands region.Many would have thought the notion ofa theatre in Longford a far too lofty andambitious one when the concept wasfirst announced but the determinationand hard work of a relatively smallnumber of people, with the support ofthe local community behind them,made this vision a reality.Since then Backstage has been aleading force in the promotion anddevelopment of the arts, not just in themidlands, but in the country as a whole.Impressive track record of theatreA programme of theatre that hasfeatured such notables as Druid TheatreCompany, The Abbey, Rough MagicTheatre Co and Livin Dred has proven tobe a great draw for audiences regionallyand have cemented Backstage asfundamental to any national tour by thetop theatre companies in the country.Excellent dance venueBackstage has earned itself a glowingreputation as a dance venue nationallyand has a strong relationship with theShawbrook dance organisation inLegan. Their partnership with thisorganisation has done much tostrengthen the audience for dance, bothcontemporary and ballet, in the region.Fidget Feet Aerial Dance Theatrebecame the venue’s resident companyin 2011 and regularly rehearse andtech their work before national andinternational tours.Two-time Olivier Award nominatedFabulous Beast Dance Company, whohave toured to the Barbican in Londonand Sydney Opera House, took up shortterm residency in the venue inDecember 2010 to produce a newpiece of work entitled Helen and Hell.The programme of dance has alsoincluded companies such as CoísCéimDance Theatre and Diversions DanceCompany in Wales.In recent years, the programme ofmusic at Backstage diversified toinclude more contemporary andmainstream artists such as Rodrigo yGabriella, Mick Flannery, Duke Special,Lisa Hannigan, Gemma Hayes and PaulBrady.TouringIn 2006 Backstage joined forces with anumber of other venues to become partof two touring networks; Nomad aregional network based in the northmidlands and Nasc a network of sevenvenues with a wider geographicalspread nationally. These were the firstnetworks of their kind and Backstagewas the only venue on both networks.In 2008 Backstage was the lead venueof the Nomad network and a productionin association with Livin Dred of TheDead School by Pat Mc Cabe opened inthe venue before touring to all venues inthe network and subsequently to theDublin Theatre Festival and the Tricyclein London. The Dead School was a hugesuccess with audiences and criticsalike, garnering three Irish Timestheatre Awards nominations.Community-focusedA strong programme of touring theatredance and music is complimented by asteadfast community focussedprogramme. The theatre provides aplatform for local community groups,schools and festivals to develop performand present work encouragingparticipation in the arts.Organisations such as Aisling Children’sArts Festival, an annual week longfestival which has been in existencesince 1998. Then there is StChristopher’s Services, a service forpeople with intellectual disabilities.Backstage Youth Theatre has gone fromstrength to strength since it’s inception.And, of course, Backstage TheatreGroup, the founding members ofBackstage Theatre utilise every aspectof the theatre from advice and supportand access to professional touringtheatre to performance and workshopfacilities in the Auditorium, The AtriumGallery and Canal Studio.The addition of the Canal Studio spaceat the theatre in 2010 allowedBackstage to further enhance itscommunity focus and ability to meet theneeds of a growing number of artsparticipants.New theatreTo coincide with the launch of thisstudio, Backstage introduced a newtheatre project to produce and stage inhouse productions at the theatre.In the two short years since the projectwas introduced three productions havebeen devised and developed out of theCanal Studio at Backstage beforetransferring to the 212 seaterauditorium for three to five night runs. The productions are cast through anopen audition and have attracted manyexperienced and talented amateuractors living and working in the area.The production process involves aseries of rehearsals and workshops withwell-known figures from the world oftheatre giving these local actors thechance to work with professionaldirectors, choreographers, lightingdesigners and theatre staff.The first production Philadelphia Here ICome was directed by Noel Strangefrom Longford in October 2010, as wasthe third production of The Hostagewhich toured to Ramor Theatre inVirginia after its run in Backstage inOctober 2011.In August 2011 a production of TheCarnival at Glenaduff, written anddirected by Padraic Mc Intyre of LivinDred Theatre Company ran for fivenights.All three in house productions played tofull houses.Funding cutsBackstage has suffered significant cutsto its Arts Council funding in recentyears, which almost certainly threatensthe future of what has become alandmark venue in the national artsscene.Those invloved told the Midlands Artsand Culture Magazine: “We can onlyhope that the experience and expertisegained over almost two decades ofconsistent and commendable artsprovision will provide this venue with themeans and the resolve to survive andeven continue to flourish.” M31
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