Continuing every evening until this Saturday, each concert offers a Bach cantata, with noted soprano Susan Hamilton, and works by Telemann and Vivaldi – all neatly wrapped up in an hour (a baroque taster, if you like). If that’s not enough, there’ll be a Telemann Coffee Concert on Sunday afternoon to round off the series. Running alongside the concerts is Boutique Baroque, an education and outreach programme taking place at the National Concert Hall. The concerts themselves will take place, fittingly for Bach, in St Finian’s Lutheran Church.

They will be joined by Anthony Cronin and Eddie Hawkins of DATS – Dublin Argentinian Tango Society. They are one of the organisations in Dublin which specialises in the teaching of tango to each and everyone, from pure beginners (Sadhbh was one  herself at a class last night!) to advanced. They will be speaking about the joys that DATS has to offer those interested in tango, their upcoming Tango Winter Ball later this month and a great deal for our listeners on their lessons. So check it out!

The Contemporary Music Centre in partnership with RTÉ Performing Groups and the Dublin Institute of Technology Conservatory of Music and Drama is presenting a celebration of the music of Frederick May this Saturday in the Mc Cann Hall, DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama, Chatham Row.

With contributions from leading Irish voices on Frederick May, his work, life and influence on the development of Irish music, the afternoon marks the centenary year of the composer’s birth and features an opening address from multi award winning author Colm Tóibín, workshop performances from the RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet, with guest soloists Peter Kerr, tenor, Fergal Caulfield, piano and Colette McGahon, alto, alongside an overview of his work from Dr Mark Fitzgerald, lecturer at DIT.

Admission to the event is free but booking is recommended. See Contemporary Music Centre for details. Full schedule (pdf) here.

The excellent RTE Lyric FM label has also entered the Frederick May celebrations with a new CD release of selected orchestral works. This album marks the first significant orchestral recording of May’s music. It’s available from selected stores and online from the classical.ie website.

Jeanne Susplugas, Light House II, 2011, Aluminium, LED, 184 x 224cm,Courtesy the artist. Photo by Renato Ghiazza_Dublin Contemporary 2011

Do you want to display your photograph at Dublin Contemporary 2011, Ireland’s international art exhibition? Then, you need to enter Dublin Contemporary’s photography competition, where you could win the chance to have your photograph chosen by the curators, Jota Castro and Christian Viveros-Faune, and displayed in Earlsfort Terrace for the final week of the exhibition!

Did you know that you can photograph almost all of the 100 works at Earlsfort Terrace? We want to gather your favourite photos of the exhibition, whether they are taken in Earlsfort Terrace, our partnering venues, on the street as part of the ‘Roadworks’ project or in the public realm, and we’re running a competition for the best captures.

As well as exhibiting the winning work in Dublin Contemporary 2011, winners will also be invited, with 2 of their friends, to the Dublin Contemporary 2011 closing party on Sunday, 30th October. To enter, simply upload your best pictures from Dublin Contemporary 2011 to http://www.flickr.com/groups/dubcon11/. Each person can enter a maximum of 6 photographs and the closing date is midnight Sunday, 16th October, 2011.

The Ambassador of Spain in Ireland, Her Excellency Ms Mercedes Rico pictured here with Enrique Juncosa at the Ambassador’s residence in Ailesbury Road, Dublin. Pic: Justin Mac Innes / Mac Innes Photography

Congratulations to the outgoing Director of the Irish Museum of Modern Art on receiving this distinguished award.

From the official IMMA press release:

The Spanish State will today (Tuesday 5 July 2011) award one of its highest decorations, the Order of Civil Merit, to Enrique Juncosa, Director of the Irish Museum of Modern Art since 2003. The award is being made by King Juan Carlos of Spain in recognition of Mr Juncosa’s outstanding contribution to the arts in Ireland and his work in promoting cultural cooperation between Ireland and Spain. It will be presented this evening by the Ambassador of Spain in Ireland, Her Excellency Ms. Mercedes Rico, at the Ambassador’s Residence in Ailesbury Road.

The Order of Civil Merit was established by King Alfonso XIII in 1926 to “reward the civic virtues of civil servants as well as the extraordinary services to the Nation of Spanish and foreign subjects.” Mr Juncosa has been awarded the Encomienda de Número of this order, which is the highest category.

Speaking at the presentation, Ms Rico, who nominated Mr Juncosa for the award, said: “Enrique Juncosa’s remarkable work over the past eight years has not only greatly enhanced IMMA’s reputation abroad, but has also contributed significantly to Spain’s standing in Ireland and internationally. We believe Mr Juncosa is an exceptional example of a true European, who through his work in the international arts arena has had a major impact on both the cultural life of Ireland and the reputation of his native country.”

Commenting on the award Enrique Juncosa said: “I feel both honoured and delighted to receive this award. It closes in a grand way an important period of my life in which I have greatly enjoyed living and working in Ireland. I remember that when I was about to move here, some colleagues of mine said that I would disappear from the map by choosing to work abroad. This clearly proves them wrong. I also modestly feel that my work has been good for the already deep Spanish and Irish relationships and for greater collaboration across the European arts sector generally, which seems particularly relevant at this time of crisis. This decoration will certainly frame in a very special way my memories of Ireland.”

Born in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, in 1961, Enrique Juncosa has been Director of the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin since 2003. Prior to that he was Deputy Director of the Reina Sofia National Museum of Modern Art (MNCARS) in Madrid, and before that Deputy Director of the Institute of Modern Art (IVAM) in Valencia.  He was also the curator of the Spanish Pavilion in the Venice Biennale in 2009. He has curated more than 30 exhibitions since the early 1990s, most recently Juan Uslé (2004), Dorothy Cross (2005), Howard Hodgkin (2006), Miroslaw Balka (2007), Miquel Barceló (2008), James Coleman (2009), Philippe Parreno (2009), The Moderns (2010) and Philip Taaffe (2011). He has also published six books of poetry and two collections of essays, and is also the editor of the IMMA journal Boulevard Magenta.

Enrique Juncosa’s tenure at IMMA has won widespread praise from the Irish arts community, more especially for the number of leading international artists whose work he has brought to the Irish gallery-going public and for his highly-effective promotion of Irish artists at home and abroad. The rapid development of IMMA’s Collection, through his strategic acquisitions policy, and his innovative approach to IMMA’s Education and Community, National and Artists’ Residency Programmes are also seen as having yielded rich rewards. Mr Juncosa is due end his term at the Museum later this year.

Sadhbh Murphy chatted to Hot Press’s Jackie Hayden about My Boy – The Philip Lynott Story, which he co-wrote with Phil’s mother Philomena Lynott. The recently published new edition of the book covers developments in Philomena’s life since the first edition in 1995, as well as details about the birth of her other son and daughter, and why she kept their existence hidden for over fifty years.

Listen back to this edition of Artbeat here.

Death of the Party, one of the Tom Hunter works from Unheralded Stories. All works are ‘C type prints, editions of 5, 122 x 152cm’. Images are courtesy of the artist and Green On Red Gallery

Photographer Tom Hunter has used the London borough of Hackney as his inspiration for many years. He brings his third Irish show to the vast space that is Green on Red Gallery. Originally from rural Dorset, Hunter has used his urban environment, and Hackney characters, to reference the great masters. From Caravaggio’s Death of the Virgin (1606) and Luca Giordano’s The Fall of the Rebel Angel (1666) to Roger Delivering Angelica (1819) by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, his work transcends the seeming ordinariness of their locations. Speaking about the work ‘Hackney Cut’, Hunter says “I wanted to create the sense of an everyday epic, which in this case began with a story of boating adventures overheard in a local pub”. Showing alongside the large C type prints are a beautiful series of smaller photographs shot using a pin-hole camera.

Artbeat’s Des FitzGerald toured the exhibition with Jerome O’Drisceoil, Director of Green On Red Gallery. Listen to their conversation here.

Until 5th March at Green on Red Gallery, 26-28 Lombard Street East, Dublin 2

Artbeat will be replaying this interview and tour with Brian Cass very shortly on Dublin City FM, and you can also listen to the Podcast here.

We urge listeners to visit IMMA before this important exhibition ends after nearly 4 months.

Gabriel Metsu (Dutch, 1629–1667), A Young Woman Selling Poultry,1662 Oil on panel, 61 x 45 cm, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden. Photographers: Hans-Peter Klut and Elke Estel

The Dutch painter Gabriel Metsu is the subject of a major exhibition at the National Gallery of Ireland. Entitled ‘Gabriel Metsu: Rediscovered Master of the Dutch Golden Age’ the exhibition looks in detail at and reappraises this 17th Century contemporary of Johannes Vermeer. Des FitzGerald paid a visit to the exhibition recently in the company of Adriaan Waiboer, Curator of Northern European Art at the National Gallery and curator of the Gabriel Metsu exhibition. You can listen to the interview here.

You might like to know about a study morning taking place on Saturday 4 December from 10am. ‘Rediscovering Masters of the Dutch Golden Age’ will feature a number of academics discussing Metsu and 17th Century Dutch painting. Tickets are 25 euro and are available from the gallery bookshop.

‘Gabriel Metsu: Rediscovered Master of the Dutch Golden Age’ organised by the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, in association with the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam and the National Gallery of Art, Washington continues at the National Gallery of Ireland until 5th December.

There’s also a dedicated website gabrielmetsuexhibition.com for the exhibition.