PRESS RELEASE
CULTURE IRELAND AWARDS €800,000 IN PROJECT FUNDING - FILM, THEATRE AND MORE TO BENEFIT
SUPPORT FOR ABBEY AND DRUID PROJECTS
FUNDING FOR INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS INCLUDING BEIJING
20 December 2007: In its winter funding round, Culture Ireland has awarded a total of €813,000 to 75 arts projects across Europe, Asia, America, the Middle East and Australia.
Culture Ireland is funding two flagship Irish productions at the Traverse Theatre during the 2008 Edinburgh Festival: the Abbey’s production of Terminus by Mark O’Rowe (€82,000) and Druid Theatre Company’s production of The New Electric Ballroom by Enda Walsh (€80,000), following on Druid’s award-winning production of Walsh’s The Walworth Farce at the Traverse this year. Druid Theatre Company receives additional grants of €60,000 to present The Walworth Farce at St Ann’s Warehouse in New York, capitalising on its success in Edinburgh, and €80,000 for a US tour of two plays from the DruidSynge cycle, The Playboy of the Western World and Riders to the Sea.
“In 2008 we are proud to be supporting a range of outstanding projects in global artistic centres such
as New York and Edinburgh as well as dynamic emerging cultural hubs like China,” said Eugene Downes, Chief Executive, Culture Ireland.
“Culture Ireland is receiving an ever increasing number of high-quality proposals. The evidence is striking that Irish artists are thinking, creating and working in a global context," he added.
Managing Director of Druid Theatre, Declan Gibbons said “Without Culture Ireland it would not be possible to stage The New Electric Ballroom in Edinburgh. With the support of Culture Ireland Druid theatre has become an international brand in the last few years, travelling to Edinburgh, Tokyo, and New York City. We have had a terrific response and significant success, returning from Edinburgh last year with the Fringe Festival Award for another Enda Walsh play, The Walworth Farce, which has also been facilitated by Culture Ireland to play at St Ann’s Warehouse in New York. We firmly believe that success breeds success, and we are very appreciative that Culture Ireland has chosen to invest in us, once again, as winners”.
Director of the Abbey Theatre, Fiach Mac Conghail said “The Abbey Theatre is very proud to present the work of Mark O’Rowe at the Traverse Theatre as part of the Edinburgh Festival. Culture Ireland has been pivotal in supporting contemporary Irish theatre abroad. With the support of Culture Ireland Terminus is also opening in the Under the Radar Festival in New York on January 9th”.
Also in New York, the Irish Arts Centre receives a total of €47,000 towards a series of theatre and music projects, while two contemporary music projects are supported at the prestigious World Financial Centre in downtown Manhattan: the Snakes and Ladders Festival of contemporary music from Ireland (€16,000) and Crash Ensemble’s participation in the Bang On a Can Marathon (€12,000).
As international attention focuses on China in the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, a total of €72,000 is awarded to a programme of visual arts, dance, music and literature events in Beijing in March and in other major Chinese cities.
In the visual arts, Gerard Byrne, whose exhibition representing Ireland at this year’s Venice Art Biennale attracted international critical attention, receives €32,000 towards participation in the prestigious Sydney Biennale.
A table of the awards received is attached/below.
Culture Ireland’s Spring 2008 call for projects has a 15 February deadline for receipt of applications, with decisions in March. Forms are available on www.cultureireland.gov.ie.
ENDS
For further media information please contact:
Martin Mackin
Q4PR 01 475 1444
087 814 5030