THE Regional Cultural Centre in Letterkenny is not the building, the RCC is the people.
The biblical quote came to mind as Jeremy Howard, Acting Manager of the multi-disciplinary arts facility, took time this week to reflect back on a unique year.
“It’s been strange alright but we’re finishing the year in a strong enough position. We’ve coped well with most things that were thrown at us,” he smiled.
Over the past nine months, the RCC has had to create its own unique, innovative, hybrid way of working in adapting to the disruption that was caused by Covid-19.
“Since the start of April, we’re employed, commissioned or hired 178 different artists in the RCC and there’s a few weeks left yet,” Jeremy explained.
While the adjacent An Grianan Theatre is more of an events based building, live performances makes up about only about ten per cent of the RCC’s output.
“We quickly figured out that we had to engage people in their own homes as we could no longer rely on them coming into the building. The key was to make sure that we met them on their own terms,” he said.
While the Covid-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the performing arts, Mr Howard believes that it’s also given smaller venues like the RCC the chance to shine.
“A lot of the bigger galleries and art centres would get more funding than us but once everything closed down it put us all on a level playing pitch. Suddenly, it was more about ideas than money. It gave us a chance to punch above our weight – to try out new ideas and focus on new things.”
This led to the Virtual Artist-in-Residence programme which, although since replicated in other venues, was first rolled out by the RCC and Little John Nee.
It also saw the production of the RCC for Kids programme which had more than 5,000 participants.
“In the early days of the initial lockdown there was more of a novelty factor involved but we soon realised that it wasn’t just about creating content but also about supporting local artists and musicians,” he said.
With many experts suggesting it will be another six months, at least, before we see any signs of normality Mr Howard and his team will continue to experiment into 2021.
“We will have as many audience members coming into the building for exhibitions and small concerts as possible but we’ll also continue with the hybrid approach that will see us stream events online. I think that type of approach will stay with us into the future,” he said.
Those online platforms have opened up the RCC to a much wider audience, from the diaspora in Boston, New York and London to people in Scandinavian and other EU countries.
“Once we’re back to normal we hope to have a physical audience here while also streaming events across the world because we’re now set up to do that. That’s exciting and, hopefully, people watching will then decide to come over and visit Donegal and come to one of our shows in person,” he said.
The pandemic has also seen many artists relocating back to Donegal from bigger cities like Dublin, Belfast and London.
“There’s a very vibrant scene out there. Many painters, animators and musicians have moved back here because there’s a better quality of life. It’s now up to us to make sure that we keep supporting them so they don’t have to return to these bigger cities,” he said.
With that in mind, the RCC plans to continue promoting local artists for the first half of 2021 before looking to attract some bigger names to Donegal in the summer.
The RCC is also launching its own video on demand service – Culture Donegal – over the coming weeks to provide music, theatre and cultural content some of which will be free.
“We want to give local musicians and cultural practitioners a way to monetise things. In the past, it was quite hard and expensive for them but the RCC is now in a position where it can support artists and make the equipment accessible.
“What we really want to do is showcase Donegal as a creative hub, not only within Ireland but also worldwide.
“We’ll be launching Culture Donegal with ten concerts over Christmas. We want to open it up as much as possible to artists throughout the county,” he said.
“It’s been a great time for innovation, a time to discover new things and while doing online concerts is great it’s never going to replace the real thing. So, as we move into the new year, we will try to reintroduce new small, socially distanced, audiences once more.
“We want to have the best of both worlds – the online innovation and streams are great but we also want audiences back in the centre.
“We also plan to commission artists and photographers to do arts projects within Letterkenny and across Donegal. We plan to use show windows and billboards to illustrate what we’re doing rather than just opening our doors and expecting people to come in to our building out of the blue,” he said.
Jeremy is joined by Paul Rooney, technician, and Martin McIntyre, front of house manager, in the RCC.
“The two lads are just brilliant. They’ve jumped at any opportunities to learn new skills and adapt. We would like to thank everyone for their support over the year. It’s been tough at times but, hopefully, you enjoy all the Christmas stuff we have lined up,” he said.
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