Category: Visual Arts

Belfastgalleries.com

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I’ve just been having a browse around the Belfast Galleries site, a project of Culture Northern Ireland…  intriguing, I haven’t come across it before. Lots of info on the gallery scene in Belfast, including integration of Flickr plugins, downloadable maps, etc. I think perhaps the design is too cluttered (similar to CNI’s own site), but it’s really useful to have so much information centralised somewhere.

Audiences Northern Ireland has a much better design in my opinion– clean, elegant interface, nice use of graphics:

Most Irish arts organisations still have a ways to go when it comes to utilising the web– don’t get me started on the National Institutions and the dire state of their websites– so it’s great to see some innovative examples. Long may they continue…

Dublin Fringe Festival seeks Volunteers

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I’m happy to pass on this announcement from the Fringe:

Dublin Fringe Festival Seeks Volunteers

The 2008 Dublin Fringe Festival takes place from the 6th until the 21st September and we are on the look-out for volunteers to help us to run Ireland’s most dynamic, exciting and rewarding festival.

You don’t need to love theatre or the arts to volunteer, but if you do all the better. Once you have plenty of positive energy, a willingness to get stuck in and some free time, come join us! Whether you have a few hours, a day, a week or a month, we want to hear from you. Apart from a valuable experience and an insight into festival management, we reward our volunteers with complimentary entries to shows, volunteer packs, references and a volunteer party to celebrate the occasion.

Details on the Roles and Application Form can be found on: http://www.drop.io/Dublin_Fringe_Volunteer

Password to enter site: Fringe (please note this is case sensitive)

Completed Application Form can be e-mailed to: volunteers@fringefest.com

Next step – Fringe Volunteer Coordinator will be in touch with you in the summer to let you know about our Volunteer Information/Recruitment event.

N.B. Volunteers need to be 18 years of age or older – Fringe terms & conditions apply for show tickets.

Dougherty at Sculpture in the Parklands

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Apologies if the blog has been slow the last few weeks– between travelling and sorting out conference stuff the blog’s fallen a bit quiet!

On Saturday though I made the trek out to Sculpture in the Parklands in Offaly (founded & managed by MA programme alumnus Kevin O’Doherty) to see Patrick Dougherty’s work in progress… an amazing willow sculpture, woven in and around a grove behind the park’s new visitor pavilion. It was an astounding piece of work– so intricate and amazingly complex. It looks magnificent in photographs but is even better in person– the modulations of light and shade, sequence of corridor-like spaces and enclosures, and the scent of fresh-cut branches can only really be experienced on site. It’s one of the most successful site-specific works I’ve seen in Ireland in some time. It’s a wonderful complement to the other works in the Parklands, though quite different in sensibility.

The 10-ton structure is being built with the assistance of a local crew over a 3-week period, and formally launching next Saturday. Patrick was extremely generous with his time in talking with visitors (and me!) about the work and his hopes for it– as his biggest work yet, it’s expected to last on site for the next few years, and it will be wonderful to see it mature and evolve over that time span.

Kudos to Kevin and everyone at Sculpture in the Parklands for all their hard work on the commission! It would be fantastic to see Bord na Mona really get behind the Parklands project, there’s so much scope to continue commissioning outstanding public artworks in such an evocative setting.

The art voyeur

I went along to Visit 2008’s open studios on Saturday, and was extremely impressed by the event and studios on show– especially with Broadstone Studios, which was a new space to me. Some great work going on there– of the artists’ studios we visited I was particularly taken with Fiona Leamy, Helen Barry, Donal Sheehan, Liam O’Callaghan, John Kelly, and Darragh Hughes. On such a drab and dreary weekend it was a joy to see such vibrancy and imagination in unexpected places.

Visit 2008 – Dublin artists open their studios

Dreaming of smoking gitanes in a garrett while working on your latest masterpiece? Or simply a nosy nellie who likes a good snoop? Either way, this Saturday and Sunday (19-20 April) check out ‘Visit 2008‘, a chance to peek inside the studios of Dublin-based artists:

Offering a snapshot of artists working across a wide range of media including printmaking, painting, drawing, sculpture, glassmaking, ceramics, video, film, photography, installation and conceptual art, VISIT 2008 celebrates the vibrancy of Dublin’s visual art scene. Throughout the city, artists’ studios are dotted and clustered in unusual settings: faded Georgian buildings, renovated stables, urban warehouses, an old mill, a hidden gem above a car salesroom, dormant council flats, an old firestation and a state of the art studio complex.

With walking tours on Saturday and a full bus tour on Sunday, it’ll be a great chance to see what folks are getting up to these days…