Making sure art stays visible

In the current ‘adverse economic climate’ for Irish artists and gallery owners, the decision of the RDS to expand its scope with Art Fair 09 is a reason for optimism

ART FAIR 09 RDS represents a bold initiative on the part of the RDS, where it takes place this weekend, running from noon tomorrow until 6pm on Sunday. The event is a successor to Art Ireland, which ran at the RDS in Ballsbridge for eight years but, “due to the adverse economic climate”, could not go ahead this year.

The RDS has an august history as an advocate and supporter of the arts, as well as of industry, science and agriculture in Ireland, since its foundation in 1731. To its credit, it decided in the summer that an art fair was too important to be allowed to fall by the wayside, particularly as the arts sector is acutely vulnerable to the economic downturn.

The RDS plans that the Art Fair should expand on the scope of Art Ireland, which didn’t quite break through into the mainstream contemporary art world. The fledgling contemporary art strand of the Interior Design Fair, held earlier in the year at the RDS, did manage to do that. In a way, Art Fair 09 RDS aims to find a common ground between the two showcases for contemporary art. And, significantly, it also sets out to provide a lot to see and do, regardless of whether or not you’re thinking of actually buying anything.

For one thing, there's an ambitious new project, Art on the Balcony, curated by Helen Carey, which features works by several dynamic young Irish artists, including the sculptor and performance and film artist Aideen Barry, whose extraordinary animations and films will be projected in the balcony's porthole windows. She's joined by the trio of Suzannah Vaughan, Sinéad Curran and Elaine Hurley, with a collaborative show, Latent Connections. Performance artist Emma Roche will stage a four-hour work both tomorrow and on Saturday. There's also a chance to see the annual exhibition of works by prize-winners in the RDS Student Art Awards, selected from more than 500 arts and crafts entries from Irish art colleges. The standard of degree shows in art colleges is now exceptionally high, so this exhibition is well worth seeing.

A series of talks and discussions in the reading area allows visitors to hear from and engage with several curators and artists. On Saturday at 2pm, curator Valerie Connor talks about international arts events, while at 4pm painter Mark O’Kelly, arts consultant Oliver Dowling and Seán Mac Cárthaigh of the Arts Council ask whether the arts have a role to play in national recovery.

On Sunday, Liz Burns of the Fire Station Artists’ Studios and artist Qasim Riza Shaheen discuss how artists, curators and institutions work together – or not – in contemporary art. At 3pm, enterprising independent curator Aideen Darcy of the alternative venue, thisisnotashop, looks at the art world outside the commercial mainstream, while, at 4pm, painter Mick O’Dea talks about the realities of being an artist in Ireland now.

Apart from all that, we’re promised more than 100 exhibitors, both individual artists and galleries. While it’s a tough time for Irish artists, it’s positively frightening in many ways for Irish commercial galleries. One could argue that art galleries are retail businesses and that they are subject to the same economic realities as anyone else. They do, in many ways, function as businesses, in terms of costs, profit and loss, and they are subject to the same pressures as other businesses.

But they are slightly different as well. Culturally, specific galleries and groups of galleries can assume an importance out of all proportion to their economic value or status. If we look back at the role of the Dawson or the David Hendricks galleries in the development not only of the contemporary art market but of contemporary art itself in Ireland, it becomes clear that they can occupy an exceptionally important position.

Art dealers tend to get a bad press. While there are exploitative dealers, the majority of people who run galleries do so because they are extremely interested in art and believe in the worth, over and above the commercial value, of the work they show. In the long term, running an art gallery requires a vocational commitment rather than a hunger for profit. This is not to say that business acumen isn’t necessary or desirable, as it is in any activity on which your livelihood, and the livelihoods of others, depends.

WHILE THERE ARE,numerically, more galleries now, they continue to be important, not only in terms of the careers of individual artists, but also because they contribute a great deal to the cultural texture of the country. That is why it is so disturbing to see Cork's two main commercial galleries, the Fenton and the Vangard, quit the scene, even if only, with luck, temporarily. (The Fenton is committed to pursuing off-site projects, and the Vangard is, for the moment, back in its home town of Macroom.) Many visitors to Cork made a point of going to both galleries, and there is no question but that they will be sorely missed by artists and art-lovers, and that their absence significantly detracts from the fabric of the city.

Obviously, no business likes to say it is doing poorly, and most Irish gallery owners have had to learn how to cope with lean times, but the current state of affairs is indeed frightening rather than worrying from the point of view of many. As one gallery owner put it, succinctly: “My buyers, I’m fairly sure, were not developers. I don’t think a developer ever bought anything in the gallery. And, as far as I know, the vast majority of the people who did buy are still employed, they have incomes. But they’re not buying art, and they’re probably trying not to spend money generally, because they’re worried.”

Art Fair 09 RDS is at the RDS Ballsbridge, Dublin, from tomorrow until Sunday; rds.ie, or Ticketmaster. Tickets cost €10