Michael Barnes (arts administrator)

Michael Barnes (31 October 1932 – 14 May 2008) was an arts administrator and promoter, primarily in Northern Ireland, where he was director of the Belfast Festival at Queen's (originally the Queen's University Festival) and the Grand Opera House, Belfast.[1][2]

Born in Peckham, South London, he became interested in theatre while attending Alleyn's School on a scholarship. Having also received a scholarship to Wadham College, Oxford, he took a first in history[1][2] and, after graduating, became a lecturer in modern history at the University of Edinburgh. Whilst in Edinburgh, he took part in shows during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, but found that "learning huge dollops of script wasn’t all that appealing".[3]

In 1961, he became a lecturer in history at Queen's University Belfast, but continued to have an interest in the arts. The arts festival which would later become the Queen's University Festival was founded by a student, Michael Emmerson, in 1962, and Barnes quickly became involved. When Emmerson started a Belfast branch of the National Film Theatre as the Queen's Film Theatre in 1968, Barnes was the chairman of the film sub-committee.[1]

Belfast Festival

In 1973, Barnes was a senior lecturer in modern history at Queen's, when the role of Director of the Queen's University Festival became vacant. The Festival was in financial and creative difficulties and its future was uncertain. Queen's agreed to allow him to work on the Festival while remaining in his academic post, and Barnes became the Director, a post he would hold until 1994. Under Barnes' leadership, the Festival became the second largest in the British Isles after the Edinburgh Festival, and was able to attract internationally known performers, even during The Troubles, when many artists and audiences were reluctant to visit Northern Ireland.[4][5] Performers included the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Moscow State Ballet, Yehudi Menuhin and local talents like Seamus Heaney and James Galway.[6][7] Barnes also promoted newer artists like Nikolai Demidenko, Trestle Theatre, Philip Hammond, Rowan Atkinson and Billy Connolly.[8][9][10]

In the 1970s, Belfast's Grand Opera House was going to be sold and demolished. It was instead purchased by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, who successfully applied to make it the first listed building in Northern Ireland.[11] Barnes supervised an extensive renovation,[12] and when the Opera House re-opened in 1980, he was the artistic director. He left his academic post in 1976, to concentrate full-time on his roles in the arts; his dual role helped the Opera House become a significant venue for the Festival. He continued in this position until 1994, and undertook two further refurbishments in 1991 and 1993, when the building, which was situated adjacent to the Europa Hotel - the "most bombed hotel in Europe" - was damaged by explosions.[13][1]

After his retirement in 1994, his health began to suffer, and he lived in a nursing home in Belfast until his death in 2008.

In 1981, Barnes had convinced Michael Palin to perform his first solo show at the Belfast Festival; he returned every other year after. Belfast was the only place where Palin performed his one-man shows, saying that nowhere could be "better than the Belfast Festival".[14][15][16] The two men became friends, and after Barnes' death, Palin set up a drama scholarship programme at Queen's University in his memory.[17]

References
  1. Froggatt, Richard. "Michael Barnes OBE, The Dictionary of Ulster Biography". www.newulsterbiography.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-04-01.
  2. "Ex-festival director dies". The Newsletter. 2008-05-15. Retrieved 2018-04-01.
  3. McIlwaine, Eddie (2012-10-18). "Belfast Festival: Brilliance of Michael Barnes". Belfast Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2018-04-01.
  4. McCreary, Alf (1989-11-24). "Belfast's Arts Festival Helps Temper City's Strife-Torn Image". Christian Science Monitor. ISSN 0882-7729. Retrieved 2018-04-01.
  5. "A Different Kind of Belfast Story - Belfast Festival Anthology". www.belfastfestivalanthology.com. Retrieved 2018-04-01.
  6. "MICHAEL BARNES OBE | Arts Council of Northern Ireland". artscouncil-ni.org. Retrieved 2018-04-01.
  7. Bowdin, Glenn (2012). Events Management. Routledge. p. 561. ISBN 9781856178181.
  8. "The education of an artist". The Irish Times. 2001-10-08. Retrieved 2018-04-01.
  9. Grant, David (Feb–Apr 1988). "Rising to a New Challenge: What Does the Future Hold for the Belfast Festival". Theatre Ireland. 14 (14): 14–17. JSTOR 25489140.
  10. "Full Length Biography". www.philiphammondmusic.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-04-01.
  11. "Festival Venues - Belfast Festival Anthology". www.belfastfestivalanthology.com. Retrieved 2018-04-01.
  12. Gordon, Carl (1992-12-09). "Ballet and blondes kept in the dark". The Herald. Retrieved 1 April 2018.
  13. "Obits- Michael Barnes - QUB". daro.qub.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-04-01.
  14. "Comedy - Belfast Festival Anthology". www.belfastfestivalanthology.com. Retrieved 2018-04-01.
  15. Palin, Michael (2015). The Complete Michael Palin Diaries. Hachette. ISBN 9781474601719.
  16. Campbell, Brian (2015-10-17). "Python Palin brings stage show 'home' to Belfast". The Irish News. Retrieved 2018-04-01.
  17. "Life of Michael - Python star funds memorial scholarship". BBC News. 2010-04-20. Retrieved 2018-04-01.
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