A Busy Year on the Arts Scene

Clare Champion, Friday, 5th January 2007

Jessica Quinn looks back on a hectic year in the cultural life of the Banner County

The arts scene in Clare has seen a particularly busy 2006 with festivals, big name performances, international conferences and the launch of a variety of initiatives, just some of the events which have taken place in the past year.

Christy Moore, The Chieftains, Eleanor Shanley and Ronnie Drew, Finbarr Wright and Pat Shortt were just some of the major Irish stars that have taken to the stage in the Banner county in the last 12 months. However, the county's venues haven't been the only ones to have experienced a hectic year. According to County Arts Officer, Siobhan Mulcahy, It's been a hugely successful year, very very busy, but hugely successful".

One of the main focuses for the Arts Office in 2006 was the Shifting Ground Rural Arts Conference held in Glór in October and organised in conjunction with GMIT. The conference saw speakers from all over Europe and the United States come to Ennis for a weekend to discuss contemporary arts in rural areas. Delegates were brought to locations throughout the county to see a number of temporary artworks which had been commissiooned as part of the Arts Office's ongoing Ground Up Three programme.

"As well as local and Irish artists, we had Hungarian and Russian artists who we had commissioned work from and it was a really interesting process to have them come to Ireland and for them to make works in response to that", recalled Siobhan. Local artists worked with the international artists as assistants as part of the project. "It was a fantastic project, with local artists getting the chance to work with internationally renowned artists, which of course is very important in terms of their own artwork", said Siobhan.

This year also say the launch of the traditional arts group in residence 'Londubh' featuring Sean Tyrell, Siobhan Peoples, Christy Barry and Paul Dooley. This is the first time that a traditional Arts group has been in residence in any county in Ireland. And, according to Siobhan, there are hopes to do something similar in 2007.

Another major highlight for the Arts Office was the launch of the Clare Youth Theatre in early summer. There are currently 30 members, all young people from all over the county ranging in age from 13 to 17, who meet every week in Ennis. "That was a big development for us and they are going from strength to strength and we are hoping that there will be another production taking place in spring 2007. We would be very conscious of giving young people a voice and this project was an ideal way of doing that", she said.

A project that's received a lot of attention in 2006 was artist Aileen Lambert's piece 'Clog an Chlair', which saw the artist record a variety of hand rung bells for a performance on Scattery Island. "The feedback from that was really positive. I suppose it was just really evocative, for lots of people it brought back memories of the various things we associate with bells, such as school yards and churches", said Siobhan.

Many ongoing projects that the Arts Office has been involved in have seen some changes in the last year.

Trad 4 Teens, the monthly traditional music session for teenagers that was originally just based in Glór, was expanded to Tulla this year.

The Riches of Clare traditional music series was expanded outside of Ennis to take in six other locations this year. "This was hugely popular and something we would be looking at doing in 2007", she commented.

A major exhibition as part of Embrace, the arts and disabilities programme, was held this year in Glór featuring over 70 works from participants on the scheme. "This was our largest exhibition to date, which was just fantastic", exclaimed Siobhan.

The Tulla Stables celebrated its first birthday late this year and all of the units are now fully taken.

And while the Arts Office is looking back on the events of the last 12 months, plans are now being put in place for 2007.

"The Shifting Ground conference and the partnership with GMIT was obviously one of the main focuses of the year and a huge amount of work went into that. So next year we will be able to refocus our attention to look back on some more community work, doing a lot more work with schools and health care settings", she revealed.

There are also renovation works planned for the de Valera Library. Siobhan added that the Arts Office are excited about the two new festivals due to take place in March. The Ennis Book Club Festival and Chord, the Ennis International Music Festival. "We would certainly welcome these developments and hope that they would impact throughout the county", she concluded.

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