'Art for the masses - not just the classes' says disappointed Arts Centre director

Centre director, Sean Lynch, is disappointed over the content of the review into Mullingar Arts Centre, which hasn’t, he feels, recognised adequately the value of the work carried out at the Centre.But the disappointment comes on top of his frustration at the way Westmeath County Council has failed, in his view, to allow the Centre expand in the way it has wanted to.“In 2006 we got a grant of €1.2m, and the County Manager was asked for €300,000 of local funding to allow us carry out works here, and he said he couldn’t justify it,” says Mr. Lynch.Mr, Lynch claims that the board and himself proposed developing the building to cater for an expanded range of activities, but were refused permission by the Council. However, permission was given to Comhaltas (now headquartered in the same building) to carry out a development which is, he says, virtually identical to the plans submitted by the Arts Centre.In the review of the Arts Centre Caoimhin Corrigan, the author of the document, makes clear that there are suggestions the Arts Centre doesn’t cater adequately for the visual arts - although he does lay much of the blame for this with the County Council, saying that it showed “lack of consideration” towards enhancing the arts centre while the new civic offices were being planned and constructed.Sean Lynch agrees that the Centre badly needs an art gallery, and says that the space that was in use for art exhibitions some years back was never intended as a gallery space: it was in fact a rehearsal space.“We refurbished the foyer, and built the bar and with the permission of the Town Council, we moved the gallery to the Market House in the clear understanding that we would have space available in the (County) building that was being vacated,” says Mr. Lynch.Ultimately, that didn’t happen - and the costs of keeping the gallery at the Market House were more than the Arts Centre could afford on a permanent basis.Constantly busy, the Centre hosted over 160 performances in 2009, some professional, some featuring plays or musicals by the groups operating out of the centre, and some being shows staged by the “schools” which rent space for classes at the centre, Mr. Lynch told the Westmeath Examiner.The report implies that there are a number of touring companies that have stopped including Mullingar’s Arts Centre on their touring schedules, but Sean Lynch argues however that Arts Centres generally are finding it difficult to get touring groups to visit - simply because there are so few touring groups these days.That’s one of the reasons why the co-operative theatre company NOMAD (North Midlands Arts Development) was set up by theatres in the north midlands - to provide an additional theatre company, which would tour between various arts centres.That said, seven professional touring groups staged shows in Mullingar last year, Mr. Lynch says, adding that the Arts Centre has its own theatre group - Rail, which this year is staging four different plays; and it has a share in the dance school Dionysus, which operates from the centre, and it is a stakeholder in NOMAD - the co-operative theatre company formed by theatres in the north midlands.The Mullingar School of Ballet - also run by the Centre - is now training dancers up to Grade 8. Also operating from the Centre are the Mullingar Student Players, who stage a play and a musical each year.“But what makes us unique is our involvement with the youth through education and in-house classes, and our outreach to schools,” says Mr. Lynch.“I believe art is for the masses - not just the classes.“If you want to win an All-Ireland, you train your U10s. I believe generations of Irish people weren’t introduced to the arts at an early enough age.” He has compared the programmes of Mullingar Arts Centre to other arts centres around the country, and believes it is busier than many of them - even running activities right through the Summer, when many others scale back their activities.Angela Lynch (no relation), who is Musical Director at the Centre, believes firmly in the work going on at the Centre, particularly on the education front.“These are all cogs in a bigger wheel,” she says of the classes run at the centre, and of its outreach programme.