The biggest public art project in the history of the State aims to put Ballymun on the arts map. But how involved are the residents? Ian Kilroy reports.

The dilapidated grey of looming decaying towers, the kind of work of which any Stalin-era architect would be proud: that's the image of Ballymun that Irish cinema has peddled for years.

The Van, The Commitments, Into the West, and the television series Family, have all come in for flak for their portrayal of the Ballymun area. But a new Per Cent for Art commissioning programme, part of an ambitious project of regeneration for Ballymun, is about to change all that.

"Breaking Ground", as it is known, is a major art-commissioning programme, which is intended to be the most ambitious public art scheme in the history of the State. It kicked off last month with a light installation at the Ballymun Boilerhouse by Limerick-born artist Andrew Kearney, entitled Illumination. Over the next decade or so - the time it will take to regenerate Ballymun fully - phased funding will come on stream for every kind of art and art practice in the emerging Ballymun area. The initial commissioning budget is €600,000, but as Ciaran Murray, chief executive of Ballymun Regeneration Ltd (BRL), makes clear, that is just the start.

"Essentially, that's the initial kick-off," says Murray. "As the regeneration programme progresses over the next number of years, there will be very significant funding related to the annual capital spend becoming available. Also, we'll be able to pool those figures rather than deal with them in each individual isolated project."

Murray envisages that such pooling of funds will make "dramatic, iconic sorts of features" part of the new Ballymun townscape, but he also promises a flexible approach to commissioning, whereby all sorts of public art and arts practice will benefit. Budgets for each commissioned project will range from €3,000 to €10,000, although in exceptional cases BRL will increase that budget.

The Per Cent for Art scheme was first introduced in 1988 by the Department of the Environment. It allows 1 per cent - up to a maximum of €63,486 - of any construction budget to be spent on commissioning art.

In the case of Ballymun, that reconstruction budget is massive. What is proposed is the building of what is essentially a new Ballymun town, with about the population of Sligo - 30,000 people in all - and it is estimated that the overall cost of the project will be about €2.5 billion. As outlined in BRL's master plan, not only will all the towers and flats dating from the 1960s be demolished (a controversial move in some quarters), but the roundabouts leading into the current flats complex will be replaced by a new main street, with shops, a swimming pool, a leisure centre, civic offices and accommodation for the students of nearby Dublin City University. The newly built Axis arts and community resource centre will front onto a new civic plaza.

At the end of the regeneration period - in about 10 years' time - Ballymun will consist of five separate neighbourhoods, each with its own design identity, and a number of new public parks. Each new neighbourhood will have its own community centre. All that new public space offers huge potential for public sculptures, as well as monumental, interactive or installation art works.

However, such monumental works are only one of the four commissioning strands of "Breaking Ground". Under strand A, projects will be commissioned that engage the local community; these will have a strong developmental aspect. Strand B covers monumental works or works for the interior or exterior of buildings and public spaces (it is envisaged that artists will work closely with architects and that this strand will result in an iconic work for Ballymun). Strand C is concerned with temporary installations, events and happenings. And strand D is the outreach strand, encompassing arts education, awareness and training. It is thought that some commissions will span a number of strands.

THE various agendas of the commissioner, the local community and the artist will have to be weighed up and mediated by a steering committee, whose job it is to recommend projects for commission. The 10 current members of the committee are Aisling Prior, artistic director of "Breaking Ground"; Peter Sirr, poet and director of the Irish Writers' Centre; Michael Wilson, artist, writer and lecturer; John Montague, historian and Ballymun resident; Eileen McDonagh, sculptor; Cecilia Moore, artist and Ballymun resident; Fran Hegarty, academic and practising artist; Kevin Kelly, director of Treasury Holdings Ltd; Jim Barrett, city architect; and Mick McDonagh, senior architect with BRL.

That committee met some of the local, national and international artists who are eligible to bring forward proposals at an information seminar held in the Ballymun Axis arts centre recently. After hearing from various speakers from the steering committee and BRL, the discussion was opened up to the room, full of artists and other interested parties.While the general response to the Per Cent for Art programme was positive, there were some concerned questions about the level of local community participation in the seminar and the programme as a whole.

Dublin-based artist Joakim Saflund, originally from Sweden, asked the first question: "Should the art be coming from inside the community to a greater extent, rather than all of us coming in and converging and putting our things into this new environment?"

John Montague, of the steering committee, said that he was "also anxious to see community groups put in proposals", and he spoke about "marrying" local community groups and individual artists for specific projects.

One woman in the audience, who works a lot in the Ballymun area, said that many of the people present at the seminar were "outsiders" whom she did not know. "I'm surprised that Ballymun people aren't here themselves," she said, adding: "I don't know whose fault that is."

Aisling Prior responded by saying that the seminar had been well publicised locally, while both Jim Barrett, the city architect, and John Montague, of the steering committee, said they hoped that another seminar for local community groups could be held at a later date "to give them ways of coming up with suggestions". Why a separate seminar for local groups was deemed necessary was unclear at the end of the seminar's two information sessions.

While there were no specific pitches made by artists at that Axis seminar on March 9th, the artists who attended left with food for thought. They went away to work up ideas and prepare submissions for the first-call deadline of April 25th (first-call selections will be made in May). As the comments at the seminar indicated, the artists present were concerned with questions about the function and role of public art for Ballymun, whether it should be parachuted in or made in consultation with the local residents. They also raised the issue of responsibility for the maintenance of permanent artworks after they have been installed and completed - a question not yet resolved by BRL. They were also concerned that diverse art practices and diverse contexts for art and art forms should be reflected in the commissioning choices - a concern also highlighted by the steering committee.

Whatever comes out of the process in terms of commissions, the aim of the "Breaking Ground" programme to "establish Ballymun as a place of international standing within the arts community" and to "help to contribute to changing the image of Ballymun" seem on track.

It is important, however, that the residents of Ballymun are as happy and enthusiastic with the way things are going as many of the outsiders who attended the recent seminar. A sense of local ownership is key.

For more information, see the www.brl.ie/breakingground.htm website or call 01-8421443