7Phelim Donlon sketches circles in the air. "From Donegal to Sligo, over to Fermanagh, Derry and Longford - this could soon be a regular touring circuit for theatre companies. We're putting pins in the map and joining them up." North-South touring has been happening on a modest scale over the past decade, but one of the aims of the two Arts Councils' Auditoria project, of which Donlon is the director, is to increase this island-wide movement significantly.
With a budget of £150,000 and the help of a project manager, Jennifer Traynor, a steering committee comprising two staff members and two council members from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and An Chomhairle Ealaion in the Republic, Donlon is conducting a two-year review of the planning, programming and provision of performance arts venues in Ireland, north and south.
At present, both Arts Councils have reams of raw data, which need to be collated and analysed for trends. The Auditoria review group will feed its findings into an "on-line relational database", which will provide detailed information about the physical infrastructure of performing arts venues, including location, design, capacity, technical equipment, etc. This database will be accessible to venue managers, local authorities and performing arts organisations as well as to the Arts Councils.
In addition, the results of the group's research will inform both Arts Councils about the priorities for provision of performing arts facilities and for supporting the increased touring of music, theatre, opera and dance. It will colour decisions about future expenditure by Government and local authorities. "The partnerships with local authorities are crucial," An Chomhairle Ealaion's director, Patricia Quinn says. "We want to enhance local government's perception of the contribution of culture to public life."
Over the past few months Phelim Donlon has been travelling all over the island, meeting venue managers, looking at theatres and arts centres and assessing them and their potential audiences. Maurice Power is the project's technical consultant; Richard Guiney is assessing the financial health of the venues; and the former director of the Dublin Theatre Festival, Tony O'Dalaigh, is examining the programming pattern of the theatres.
"Since the Minister [for the Arts], Sile de Valera, has recently invited applications for a further round of capital investment - the £36 million Access programme - it's crucial that we examine what we have already in terms of facilities, and see where the gaps are," Donlon says.
"At the moment we're still gathering the data. Of course, it is the local authorities who decide where the buildings go, not the Arts Council, but we can give them guidance and ask questions. For example, with a new venue planned for Derry, how will that affect the recently opened theatre in Letterkenny, An Grianan?"
North-South co-operation between arts organisations is not new. For 15 years there have been formal links between the two Arts Councils, and for the past five years a joint committee and a North-South liaison officer have strengthened the links. These initiatives have led to the joint-funding of a wide range of arts organisations and projects (see panel).
"There is an enormous amount of contact and a lot of co-operation in practical terms," says Patricia Quinn. "This review will enhance that. The structures and processes that we have are going to facilitate island-wide co-operation, and I think the institutions will then follow."
While Opera Theatre Company and Music Network regularly tour in the North, Donlon says that on the whole, theatre companies from the North - such as Tinderbox and Mad Cow - travel south more often than vice versa. "The good news is that there are networks building up between venue managers, who are using similar computer equipment." With so many new performing arts venues recently opened and with more planned for the near future, in Dun Laoghaire, Blanchardstown, Dublin City University, Derry and Macroom, the question of content is inevitable. Is there enough good work being produced to sustain all the arts centres and theatres around the country? "This is the crucial issue: the difficulty for venue managers of getting enough `product' - not a word I like - to be able to maintain an artistic policy," says Donlon. "In many cases, the pressure to make a building financially viable will lead to managers taking some shows simply because they are available. We've got to do a systematic analysis of this, which will then feed into the next Arts Plan."
Having observed the blossoming theatre scene over the past 15 years in his role as An Chomhairle Ealaion's drama officer, Donlon is an invaluable resource in himself. Before joining council in the early 1980s, he was venue manager at Dublin's Olympia Theatre and, later, administrator of Irish Theatre Company, a grant-aided touring company which eventually wound down. "I have experienced the theatre world from both sides, so this project is drawing together my experience to date." His successor as drama officer has still to be appointed. An Chomhairle Ealaion hopes to announce the name of the next incumbent shortly.
The recruitment and staffing difficulties for arts venues, which emerged in recent years, are easing somewhat, he thinks. "The recent appointments have been of people who had experience of managing venues in the UK and are moving back here. They are replenishing the personnel resources. There certainly was a problem, which is to do with people's initial enthusiasm wearing off. The early pioneering generation, who were the ones to open a new venue, with all the excitement that entails, have moved on, understandably. Many of them got burned out. It can be an exhausting business." And, needless to say, you don't go into arts administration for the money. "No. People who work in the arts are still comparatively poorly paid, and that's the `hidden subsidy' in the arts. But the demoralisingly low levels have been lifted to an extent. But you certainly don't go into it if you want to have your weekends free and expect a big salary. It's a total commitment.
"But I'm really optimistic about the new wave of young, dynamic, experienced and well-informed arts administrators which is emerging - they're now running venues in Letterkenny, Dunamaise in Portlaoise, the Model Arts Centre, Sligo, as well as the Dublin Fringe Festival, the Project Arts Centre. They're so impressive." He pauses, smiling: "I wish I could think of a man doing one of these jobs, but I can't. They're all women. I think women make excellent managers. They're just better all round." It seems churlish to disagree.
The Auditoria project is based at An Chomhairle Ealaion, 70 Merrion Square, Dublin 2 (01- 6180200)
