Opinion divided on the impact of Dublin City of Culture with one councillor calling for a relaunch.
Since taking on the mantle from Edinburgh, Dublin’s reign as European Cultural Capital has produced hundreds of events across a range of art forms.
The year of culture has a budget of £4.7 million to be spread among many groups. One of the Dublin City of Culture commissions is The Ha'penny Bridge Gansey by Belgian born textile artist Lily Van Oost. This is a temporary piece of public sculpture consisting of nine faces strung over the Ha'penny Bridge and five hands floating in the River Liffey.
Sculptor Finola Jones is one of one of 64 artists whose work has been selected for the exhibition 'Espace’ at the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA), partially funded by the year of culture. Finola Jones takes a positive view of Dublin’s year as European Cultural Capital as it helps artists to get their work seen.
Possibly exhibitions that would have not happened previously were encouraged or helped, were given extra funding to actually go into fruition.
Her optimism is not shared by all. Dublin councillors including Michael Conaghan of the Labour Party complain Dublin’s year as European Cultural Capital lacks imagination and should be re-launched in the autumn to allow community groups and schools to become involved.
Dublin City of Culture director Lewis Clohessy rejects claims that his programme of events is a failure.
I think it’s succeeded well beyond what we were expecting.
He points out one of the biggest successes of getting £3.6 million from the European Commission for the Temple Bar redevelopment project. There are over 130 community projects underway and he refutes the idea that the ordinary person on the street is being neglected by Dublin City of Culture.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 12 August 1991. The reporter is Tom Kelly.
