As the decisions for this year’s Arts Council touring grants filter out – applicants were notified by post this week – there has already been one surprising and high profile casualty. NOMAD, the north Midlands touring network set up to produce work and share it between seven venues, has not received funding.
Founded in 2006, NOMAD is a collaboration between Livin’ Dred Theatre Company, Dundalk’s An Táin, Longford’s Backstage, Droichead Arts Centre, Drogheda, Iontas, Mullingar Arts Centre, Ramor Theatre and Roscommon Arts Centre. It has since produced three critically acclaimed productions, Conversations on a Homecoming, The Dead School and Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme. The Dead School was a particular success for the group, subsequently touring to three Dublin venues during last year’s Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival and then to the UK. Conversations on a Homecoming was the basis of an encouraging case study for the Arts Council’s Touring Experiment and fed directly into the Arts Council’s recently adopted touring policy, A Future for Touring in Ireland 2010-2015.
“We are very shocked and disappointed at this decision, considering the extensive planning and communications we’ve had with the Arts Council in advance of this application,” a spokesperson for NOMAD told ITM.
The Arts Council’s notification of its decision acknowledged NOMAD's “considerable track record”, but stated that the application provided “insufficient information regarding key aspects of the feasibility and planning of the proposed tour, such as the venues, the dates and the audience targets. Therefore, on this occasion, it has not offered funding given the extremely competitive context of this scheme.”
On the issue of the amount of information supplied with NOMAD’s application, Droichead’s director Marcella Banon disagrees and seeks clarification. “We cannot fathom what they mean by insufficient information,” she says, “because they’ve received everything about the key aspects of the tour including venues, dates, audience targets and past achievements.”
“We’ve maintained high artistic integrity, developed broader audience bases in our region, upheld clear touring objectives and received critical acclaim from national and international media. With five Irish Times Theatre nominations, one Irish Times Award, a production in Dublin Theatre Festival 2009 and a production in the Tricycle Theatre, London in 2010, we are baffled as to why we have received a rejection to our touring proposal for 2010.”