Carlow Arts Festival Programme 2015

C A RLOW A R TS FE STIVA L 29th May to 7th June www.carlowartsfestival.com

MUSIC

2015 ART

12 galleries, 24 live bands and a street carnival

from the pens of David Ives,

THEATRE Brian Friel, Gavin Kostick

Over fifty artists in the spectacular Visual Centre for Contemporary Art, including the AIB Éigse Open Submission

From singer-songwriters to symphony orchestras

10-DAY CULTURAL QUARTER

In Borris Village, at the Festival of Writing & Ideas: Ian McEwan, Michael Cunningham, Lisa Hannigan, Antony Beevor, David Gilmour, Kevin Barry, Neil Jordan, Victoria Glendinning, Michael Harding, AC Grayling and many more.

CALendar of events

Tickets for all events via the box office at VISUAL Centre, in person (Old Dublin Road, Carlow) or by phone (0)59 9172400 but best of all via our website:

www.carlowartsfestival.com

Thanks!

The folks who pay the bills:

The Team – Hugo Jellett, Lisa Williamson, Teresa Gorman, Adeline Minchin, Mary Connolly, Louise Buckley and Sandra Walker – are encouraged to be imaginative and held in check by the Board Cornelia McCarthy, Emma Geoghegan, Chris Chapman, Brian O’Donoghue, Miriam Donohue.

The friends who put their hands in their pockets because they care about Carlow: Carlow College of Music, Kilbride Insurance, Jim Behan (Dolmen Pottery), Michael & Bev Carbery, Rory Healy, Bríde de Róiste, Swans Electrical.

Those who helped us beyond the call of duty: Dan McInerney, Tom Barry, Bernie O’Brien, Sinead Dowling, Michael Brennan, Seamus O’Connor, Eanna Rowe, Damien McWeeney, Rosanna Nolan, Ann Mulrooney, Tadhg McSweeney, Emma Lucy O’Brien, Gail O Reilly, Brigid Deering, Pierce Kavanagh, Morgan Kavanagh, Conal Boyle, Paul Dunne, Noel Lennon, Anthony Kavanagh, Ollie Byrne, Sgt. John Foley, Ger Guerin, Eoin O’Dowd, Harry Sothern, Connie Byrne, Bernard Jennings, Michael Dundon, Mary Murphy, Joe Walsh, Ross Byrne, Derry Dillon, Seany Fennelly, Vivienne Guinness, Roz Jellett, Eileen Brophy, John Purcell, Clare Looby, Kieran Comerford, Pat Deering, Fr. John Cummins, Bernard Geraghty, Nuala Grogan, Rosaleen Muji, Woody Kane, Dominique Dorman, Tom Connolly, Marcus McCormack, Catherine Darcy, Michael Woods, Annlouise O’Neill, Una Townsend, Elaine Stafford, Fr. John Dunphy.

Programme designed by Wise Eyes Creative

10.30pm: ChoiceCuts with Emma Martin Dance (Deighton Hall)

7pm: Opening Night (Visual Centre)

SATURDAY 30 May

12pm: Arty Farty Malarky 3pm: Junk Kouture Fashion Show 8pm: Ca Ba Rey (59 Dublin St) 8.30pm: Davie Furey (O’Loughlin’s Bar) 10pm: Saint John The Gambler (Tully’s) 11pm: Pembroke Club D’Art

12.15pm: Mícheál O Súilleabháin talk (George Bernard Shaw Theatre) 7pm: ‘One’ by Sinéad Cormack (Deighton Hall) 7.30pm: ‘Solo to Orchestra’ (George Bernard Shaw Theatre)

EXHIBITING DAILY FOR THE DURATION OF THE FESTIVAL:

1pm: Carlow Regatta 1pm: Andreea Bouros recital (Deighton Hall) 2pm: Gospel Hootenany 8.30pm: Hot Tin Roof (O’Loughlin’s) 10.45pm: Fireworks (River Promenade)

7pm: Frances Black (Woodford Dolmen Hotel)

BARGES DOCKING:

MONDAY 1 June

BARGES DOCKING:

TUESDAY 2 June

BARGES DOCKING:

WED 3 June BARGES DOCKING:

THURS 4 June BARGES DOCKING:

CARLOW

7pm: Launch at Visual Centre 8pm: DoubleInstrumental (59 Dublin St ) 9pm: ‘Cultural Quarter’ Opening (Dublin St) 10pm: The Eskies (Tully’s Bar)

SATURDAY 6 June SUNDAY 7 June

8pm: David Ives ‘All In The Timing’ (George Bernard Shaw Theatre)

8pm: ‘The Games People Play’ (Deighton Hall)

12pm: ‘Puss in Boots’ (George Bernard Shaw Theatre)

6.30pm: Carlow Writers Co op (Deighton Hall)

8pm: ‘Dancing at Lughnasa’ (George Bernard Shaw Theatre)

FRIDAY 5 June BARGES DOCKING:

7.30pm: ‘The Piano Has Been Drinking’

by Eric Butler (Deighton Hall)

4pm: Mahler’s Symphony 2 (Carlow Cathedral)

LEIGHLINBRIDGE

TI CKETS:

FRIDAY 29 May

SUNDAY 31 May

STAGE

BAGENALSTOWN

They dock on 5th June in Borris in time for the Festival of Writing & Ideas, our spoken word programme, which has grown into something very special in just four years. Linking Carlow Town with Borris Village – at opposite ends of this county – seems like an appropriate way to book-end the festival.

POP up cultural Quarter

GORESBRIDGE

On the last day of the month of May, four barges will begin their journey down the Barrow stopping each night – Carlow, Leighlinbridge, Bagenalstown, Goresbridge, Tinnahinch, Borris – bringing a popup restaurant, a live gig, a painter, photographer and writer… and inviting people to join them for the evening. This is a new thing, a sort of floating arts festival with a gentle, meandering feel to it, moving at a languid pace down one of the most beautiful rivers in Ireland.

DATE

TINNAHINCH

Last year, a half-hour after Dublin Street in Carlow was closed to traffic for our street carnival, it was full of people standing square in the centre of the road like it was always that way, and within an hour it was full of shoppers and mums-with-buggies and stall-holders and gospel choirs and acting troupes and buskers and brand new galleries… and for a couple of days Carlow Town was in the throes of a small cultural revolution, a regenerative and genuinely well-loved version of ‘town’ we would like to have here all the time. So we are going to try it again. At one end the magnificent VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art; at the other, a restored Post Office building and a fresh identity for Deighton Hall… and in between, all manner of creativity and bustle.

Festival Of Writing & Ideas BORRIS

A word of introduction

Open Submission Exhibition (Visual) Bedwyr Williams ‘Echt’ (Visual) ‘Gimme More’ Augmented Reality (Visual) ‘Cultural Quarter’ 12 Galleries Including:

David King Kilkea Group Orlagh Murphy Daragh Hughes Nine Stones Photographic Soc. Eileen MacDonagh Blueprint Group David Bickley Mark Cronin and others

8pm: ‘Dancing at Lughnasa’ (George Bernard Shaw Theatre) 8pm: ‘The Man In Black’ (Woodford Dolmen Hotel)

Festival Of Writing & Ideas Tommy Tiernan (Town Hall Borris)

8pm: ‘Dancing at Lughnasa’ (George Bernard Shaw Theatre)

Festival Of Writing & Ideas

8pm: ‘Dancing at Lughnasa’ (George Bernard Shaw Theatre)

Dragon Boat Race (River Promenade, Carlow)

VISUAL ART

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VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art presents

BEDW Y R W I L L I A M S : ECHT

VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art presents

G I M ME MORE

Image: Courtesy Thomas Eberwein, Ghosts, 2014.

Image: Courtesy Glasgow International.

Photo Tim Morozzo

36TH A NNUAL ART PRIZ E OF €5000

Main Gallery, VISUAL Centre 30th May - 13th September

Digital Gallery, Visual Centre 30th May - 13th September

Bedwyr Williams is interested in the worst, worst-case scenarios and the people that get caught up in them; average-sized people in over-sized situations.

In collaboration with EPFL+ECAL Lab Switzerland, two works from the groundbreaking ‘Gimme More’ exhibition explore the link between the physical and digital worlds via augmented reality-based immersive installations.

Echt presents a full size diorama of such an encounter – trees are upended, a bus has been abandoned and people’s possessions lie scattered. This immersive installation envelops visitors in a dystopian future, a tale of societal greed, where Kings are hoarders and status is based on conspicuous consumption.

Associated Event

T H E A I B É IGS E O PE N S U BM IS S IO N

Previous incarnations of this award-winning exhibition have travelled to London, Milan, Paris, San Francisco and New York. In the work presented, the public is more than an audience; through their presence they become participants.

Willie Doherty, Donegall Lane, Belfast 1988 (2008)

Micky Donnelly Untitled (2012)

Kathy Prendergast Dark Embrace (2010)

Link and Studio Gallery, Visual Centre for Contemporary Art 30th May - 13th September The AIB Éigse Open Submission takes centre stage at the festival’s visual art’s programme. In many ways this annual exhibition was a forerunner to the emergence of the Visual Centre for Contemporary Art, facilitating the presence of some extraordinary emerging artists and providing a platform for several established international artists to show their work in Carlow over the years.

This annual exhibition and prize invites artists to submit new or recent works. This year’s selector and curator is Lewis Biggs, curator of the Folkestone Triennial, former artistic director of the Liverpool Biennial and director of Tate Liverpool. The exhibition also features work by invited artists Eilis O’ Connell, Kathy Prendergast, Willie Doherty, Siobhan Hapaska and Micky Donnelly.

The AIB Éigse Award of €5000 for Visual Arts will be presented for the ‘most outstanding work in any medium’ on Friday 29 May 2015.

ALL WORKS ARE FOR SALE TO THE PUBLIC.

Allied Irish Bank has kindly sponsored this prize.

Saturday 6th June | 3.30pm Artist performance and talk with Bedwyr Williams. Places limited, reserve at 059 9172400

Opening Night Party & First Viewing Friday 29th May | 7-9pm Please let us know if you wish to attend the Opening Night of the Festival (and the preview of the summer season exhibitions) at VISUAL (info@carlowartsfestival.com).

The overall Eigse Open Submission prize-winner will be announced at this event, and the works selected will be on view for the first time.

At 9pm, a dozen galleries in the pop-up ‘cultural quarter’ will open (see p.25-29).

At 10pm, guests are welcome to Deighton Hall (see p.22) where Emma Martin Dance and ChoiceCuts promise something unusual.

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Carlow College of Music presents

University of West Florida’s Dept of Theatre presents

Rise Productions presents

Lyngo Theatre presents

SOLO TO ORCHESTRA

A LL I N THE TI MI NG

THE GAMES PEOPLE PLAY

PUSS IN BOOTS

A T WENT Y-F I F TH A NNIV ER S ARY CEL EBRATION

BY DAVID I VES

George Bernard Shaw Theatre Saturday 30th May | 7.30pm | €14/€18

George Bernard Shaw Theatre Sunday 31st May | 8pm | €14

This gala recital of classical and contemporary works from the extraordinary talents that have emerged from Carlow College of Music in the past quarter-century – both alumni who have gone on to have prominent careers within the Arts, as well as professional musicians that have influenced, inspired and taught there, and also a youth orchestra accompanied by special guest Mícheál O Súilleabháin.

Eight immensely talented actors from The Sunshine State cross the Atlantic with these hilarious and ridiculous series of one-act plays by David Ives – mastered for a single performance in Carlow. This side-splittingly funny collection of short pieces lampoon everything from chimpanzees to the death of Trotsky.

Performances include works by Mussorgsky, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, Albéniz, Mozart, Borodin and Schubert. Mícheál O Súilleabháin will perform his own compositions Woodbrook and Crispy.

Associated Event Saturday 30 May | 1pm Mícheál O Súilleabháin will give a talk to aspiring young musicians between rehearsals in the theatre.

Reservations essential info@carlowartsfestival.com

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The University of West Florida’s Department of Theatre – invited to perform by the Festival last year under the eagle eye of Carlow-born Floridian Howard Reddy and Carlow adoptee Charles Houghton – are a triumph in crosscultural exchange programming: performance, education, experience, collaboration.

DIRECTED BY BRYAN BURROUGHS

Deighton Hall Monday 1st June | 8pm | €16/€14 Winner of Best New Play at the Irish Times Theatre Awards and a Fringe Festival sell-out success, The Games People Play is a radical re-working of the Tír na nÓg myth.

Niamh and Oisín were sold the dream – the house, the life, the kids. But what do you do when everything you ever dreamed of still isn’t enough? One night, a series of games starts to escalate, and threatens to unravel their suburban paradise.

Written by Gavin Kostick and performed by Aonghus Og McAnally and Lorna Quinn, this play explores the negative-equity generation in a poignant, witty and insightful way.

AG ES 4+

BY MARCELLO CHIAREN Z A

George Bernard Shaw Theatre Tuesday 2nd June | 12pm | €5 (adults free) Would you trust a talking cat? You never know, he might turn you from a pauper to a prince just like the hero of this story, brought to vivid life by Patrick Lynch from Cbeebies.

With smoke and mirrors and hidden trapdoors he’ll show you how this sure-footed feline fools both the King and the Ogre to put his master at the top. With a host of puppets, a working windmill and an avalanche of fruit and nuts, this classic furry tail is the cat’s whiskers!

Lingo Theatre (UK) is a theatre company whose work for children (4+) far outstrips their competitors.

School bookings 059 9173381.

Associated Event Shakespeare Conservatoire: Twelve students will undertake a week-long workshop focussing on the performance of Shakespeare, under the tuition of Donnacadh O’Briain (Royal Shakespeare Company), Bryan Burroughs (The Lir), Maisie Lee (Abbey) and Sophie Motley (Rough Magic).

Associated Event Director Brian Burroughs will introduce the performance with a pre-show talk.

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Carlow Little Theatre presents

Carlow Arts Festival, Carlow Local Authorities, Wide Open Music present

DANCING AT LUGHNASA

MAHLER’S SYMPHONY NO. 2 “RESURRECTION”

DIRECTED BY PADDY BEHAN

CONDUCTED BY F ERGUS SHEIL George Bernard Shaw Theatre 4th - 7th June 8pm €16 / €13 concession

Brian Friel’s colossal tale of a family in chaos in Ballybeg Village, Donegal, in 1936 is one of the most enduring works of theatre-making this country has known.

Carlow Little Theatre Society, whose recent productions include The Kings of Kilburn High Road (2014/5), The Beauty Queen of Leenane (2014), Calendar Girls (2013/4), and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (2012/3), bring this masterpiece to their hometown theatre.

Cast includes Keelin McDonald, Gillian Doyle, Aoife Reddy, Paula Drohan, Larry McNally, Irene Kane, Keith Whelan, and Gary McHugh.

FRANCES BLACK Woodford Dolmen Hotel Sunday 31st May | 7 - 9.45pm | Tickets €25

€149 for Dinner B&B & Tickets for 2 T: 059 9142002

Frances Black’s inclusion amongst the best of Ireland’s female singers on the million selling album Woman’s Heart in 1993 secured Frances’ status and launched her solo career, and showcased her musical range from the traditional to upbeat country songs to ballads. It is not only that indisputable voice which has made Frances such a star, but her relaxed, honest and congenial approach to the triumphs and turmoil of her life.

AN EVENING WITH THE MAN IN BLACK Woodford Dolmen Hotel Friday 5th June | 8pm | Tickets €20

€149 for Dinner B&B & Tickets for 2 T: 059 9142002

It’s San Quentin Prison – rock n roll era – and Johnny Cash and his Tennessee troops take to the stage to deliver a dazzling display of that authentic BOOM CHICA BOOM style. This well-produced tribute to the great Man in Black, performed with a cast of ten musicians and actors, features a superb song-list of all the greatest hits, real-life prison officers might just give you some yard time, and possibly even a visit from June Carter and Elvis Presley.

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Cathedral of the Assumption, Carlow Bank Holiday Monday June 1st | 4.00pm to 5.30pm | Tickets €22.50 Mahler’s Second Symphony is of one of the most extraordinary masterpieces of the classical repertoire, a large-scale composition – the most celebrated and popular of all his works, and some of the most spiritually uplifting music ever written.

Resurrection calls for a large symphony orchestra and Carlow is delighted to be visited for this unique event by the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra along with top Irish vocal soloists Miriam Murphy (soprano) and Imelda Drumm (mezzo). A large specially assembled choir with singers from Carlow Choral Society, Cormiosa, Aspiro and many other groups provides a huge outpouring of vocal talent that forms the climax of the final movement.

Mahler’s Symphonies are celebrated in concert halls throughout the world, but in Ireland they seldom appear outside of Dublin due to the scale and ambition of the undertaking.

Led by conductor Fergus Sheil of Wide Open Music, this project brings together many of the participants from previous successful collaborations such as Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (2013) and the Carlow County Council’s opera commission Shelter Me from the Rain (2011).

This performance is sponsored by BANK OF IRELAND (Carlow) and we are honoured to be using Carlow’s majestic cathedral for the occasion.

www.wideopenmusic.ie

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LOCAL CULTURE WRITER S

In 1985, when the Éigse Festival began to gain traction as a significant celebration of Visual Art, painters and sculptors from the locality starting using the dates as their annual showcase, selfcurating their own retrospectives, solo or group exhibitions. From this, an unofficial Fringe was born, and these artists have become the most loyal participants of the Festival year-on-year.

‘In the Nature of Things’

An exhibition of paintings

by Mary Brennan Cathedral Parish Centre, College Street 10.00am – 6.00pm daily

Excerpts from The Actor

A reading by Cecil Allen from his book Library, Seven Oaks Hotel Wednesday 3rd June 7.00pm

‘Out and About’

An Exhibition of Paintings

by Attracta Carbery Cedar Room, Seven Oaks Hotel 11.00am - 7.00pm daily

‘Tranquility’

An exhibition by Anne Deere The Atrium, Shamrock Plaza 9.00am - 5.00pm daily

Exhibition of Oils and Watercolours Jacinta Crowley-Long Seven Oaks Hotel 11.00am - 7.00pm daily

Musical Pop ups

Carlow Amateur Musical Society Saturday 30th May ‘Mama Mia’ at Liberty Tree Fountain 12.30pm ‘Pick a Pocket or Two’ (Oliver) on Dublin St 2.00pm

‘Observation of Country Scenes’

An Exhibition of Paintings

by Noreen Madden Cathedral Parish Centre, College Street 11.00am - 6.00pm daily

An Exhibition of Paintings

Helen O’Meara Cathedral Parish Centre, College Street 11.00am - 6.00pm daily

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An Exhibition of paintings

by Sally Ashmore

Naive paintings in watercolour, mixed media, acrylic and oil.

Cathedral Parish Centre, College Street 11.00am - 6.00pm daily

Before & After

Decorative Painting Workshops and exhibition of paintings by Catherine Ryan with readings throughout the day

by Dr. Paul Francis Horan.

55 Dublin Street 10.00am - 6.00pm Daily

Picture Book: Local Scenes Still Life - Portraits

Exhibition by Lorraine Fenlon Carlow County Library, Tullow Street 28th May - Sat 6th June as per Library Times

Watercolours, acrylics & pastels

An Exhibition of paintings

by Artist Trudi Doyle Seven Oaks Hotel 10.30am - 6.00pm daily

Carlow Writers Cooperative with The McHenry Group (USA) Workshop: Scripting fables for multiple readers / Creating scripted material with found content Carlow County Library, Tullow Street Wednesday 3rd June at 3.30pm Workshop: Engaging with issues of social debate Carlow College, College Street Thursday 4th June at 3.30pm

TEARS P O T

I R I S H

S T I L L

W H I S K E Y

5th – 7th June 2015 Borris House and Village Co. Carlow

‘Memory Lane’

An Exhibition of photographs

by Karl McDonough 30, 40 & 50 years ago Behind Whites Chemist, Tullow Street 10am - 6.00pm daily

The Carlow Art Collection

Venue: Carlow College, College Street, Carlow Time: 9.30am - 5.00pm daily (except Public Holidays)

‘Safe Haven’

Campus of St Dympna’s, Athy Road Sculpture, Paintings, Photographs, Textiles and more.

10.00am - 4.00pm daily

Carlow Regatta Carlow Rowing Club The Quays, Carlow 30th & 31st May

Barrow Dragon Boat Regatta 7th June at 3.00pm Carlow Town Park

Borris House, the seat of the High Kings of Leinster, at the foot of the

Barrow Valley Group of Painters Annual Exhibition

Blackstairs Mountains, with the River Barrow meandering by, is home to

Part of the 10-day cultural quarter, this long-standing art group hopes to bring to the festival a showcase of work (2014-2015). Established in 1973, the group consists of 34 artists who work in studio and en plein air producing work in oil, acrylic, watercolour, pastels and mixed media.

11.00am - 6.00pm daily

the Festival of Writing & Ideas. It’s a place that the curious find inspiring.

Tickets, accommodation, directions, latest programme information:

www.festivalofwritingandideas.com

Open Mic/Poetry Slam Competition Teach Dolmain, Tullow Street Thursday 4th June at 7.30pm

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BORRIS PLANNER

The Mobile Motel Project

FRIDAY 5th JUNE BALLROOM

CHAPEL

GRANARY

12.00 - 13.00 Shane Hegarty in the Town Hall 16:30 - 17:30

Biographers Victoria Glendinning, Selina Hastings, and Lucy Hughes -Hallett, with Vincent Woods

18:00 - 19:00 Roy Foster on WB Yeats

Nuala O’Connor and Diarmaid Ferriter on War of Independence

Future Farm with Science Gallery

19.30 - 21.00

Lar Joye, Jane Wellesley, Hugh Gough, Patrick Geogeghan and Tommy Graham, on Wellington

Joanne O’Riordan with Olivia O’Leary

20.00 - 21.30 5x15 Stories: Alannah Weston, Ian Kelly, Giles Duley, Anthony Sattin, Surprise Guest

SATURDAY 6 JUNE th

BALLROOM 12.00 - 13.00 David Gilmour and Polly Samson on songwriting.

CHAPEL

GRANARY

Nick Davies and Fintan O’Toole on phone hacking

7.30 BOOK LAUNCH: Belinda McKeon’s Tender

13:30 - 14:30 Anthony Loyd and Ben Anderson Dylan Haskins + Lisa Hannigan with Stephen Bayley on Irish Design on ISIS with Fergal Keane Neil Jordan, Katie Hickman and more 15:00 - 16:00 Antony Beevor on Hitler’s last gamble.

Rosie Boycott and Anna Jones

Michael Cunningham meets Sophie Gorman

16:30 - 17:30 Lisa McInerney and Colin Barrett

Andrew O’Hagan talks with Brendan Barrington

AC Grayling on The Challenge of Things.

18:00 - 19:00 Ian McEwan, Michael Cunningham, Neil Jordan on films

Victoria Glendinning with Myles Dungan

Theatre Unplugged: A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing performed

by Aoife Duffin

19.30 - 21.00 Donal Lunny, Nuala O’Connor, Ben Anderson and Ollie Lambert Philip King + Nicolas Carolan with Finton O’Toole remember Frank Harte

Eight architects took up the challenge to design and build a standalone accommodation space with a microscopic materials budget and just TWO DAYS to be assembled. They will be located in the Walled Garden, and are open to visitors from 2pm to 5pm each day, after which they become the private and salubrious residences of several of our speakers.

STEPHEN BAYLEY WILL LEAD A TOUR OF THESE INSTALLATIONS ON FRIDAY AT 4PM.

Architectural Farm, Mobile Motel (Dublin) The design draws on festival communality to create a space for stories and conviviality. Privacy and retreat is provided within a bespoke textile enclosure created in collaboration with Naoimh Prim.

Ryan Kennihan Architects (Dublin) This ‘tented room’ draws inspiration from Ottoman campaign tents its simple structure belies a tactile and luxurious inner bedroom.

Ciara Murray Architects (Dublin) A private reflective space created by the play of light in a simple geometric enclosure.

PAC Studio (Dublin) Adaptive lightweight structure comprised of hinged poles of bamboo held in compression through a series of ropes in tension, wrapped with a taut canvas skin.

NOJI Architects and Elizabeth Clyne

(Sligo) Based on a fortified ‘Tower Room’ this design uses a perforated inner chamber to allow light to diffuse into the sleeping space.

Lucy Jones / Christophe Antipas

(Dublin/Amsterdam) Creating a walled-in bivouac-style enclosure with miniature private ‘garden’ and a canvas sleeping structure, occupants can step outside the festival into another space.

21.00 - 22.30 Tommy Tiernan Improv in Borris Village (Town Hall)

SUNDAY 7th JUNE BALLROOM

AT BORRIS

FKL Architects CHAPEL

GRANARY

11:00 - 12:00 10.30 Brunch is Served

Dylan Haskins + Lisa Hannigan with Rick Stroud and more

Myles Dungan meets Selina Hastings

12:50 - 13:45 Tommy Tiernan head to head with Kevin Barry

Mary Costello and Polly Samson

Anthony Sattin talks with Manchán Magan on Africa

14:10 – 15:05 Michael Harding and AC Grayling chew the cud

Giles Duley, Olly Lambert, Fergal Keane on war’s legacy

Anne Enright and Rosie Boycott

15:30 – 16:30 Ian McEwan with Sinéad Gleeson

Guitarist Jim Moginie with Nick Seymour, Clive Barnes and others

Catriona Crowe in conversation with Roy Foster

(Dublin) Illuminated from within, the unit consists of three plywood forms, an enclosure for a bed, a portal with a door and a frame for storage – and it is wrapped in a taut semi translucent skin.

MEME Architecture

(Carlow/London)

An enclosure is a cube in form, composed of coloured translucent panels, some of which slide to create overlapping hues and gently illuminate in response to distant low frequency sounds.

These architectural pods will be reassembled in Electric Picnic Festival (4-6 September).

BORRIS HOUSE

FRIDAY 5th June: EVENING Easons will be hosting the bookshop marquee, which will feature book readings, signings, a book launch

Thanks also to the Brian Guinness Charitable Trust and to Alan and Gianni Alen-Buckley (via The Ireland Fund)

and numerous activities throughout the weekend.

TICKETS www.festivalofwritingandideas.com Tel: 059 9172400

An initiative of: Hugo Jellett and Vivienne Guinness

Weekend ticket: €95 Day ticket: €35 - €50 Individual talk tickets: €12.50 - €25

2015 Curatorial Assistants: Eleanor O’Keefe, Dylan Haskins, Tom Morris

Nuala O’Connor

Diarmaid Ferriter

Victoria Glendinning

Selina Hastings

Lucy Hughes-Hallett

Roy Foster

Lar Joye

Jane Wellesley

6.00pm - 7.00pm

6.00pm - 7.00pm

7.30pm - 8.30pm

PUTTING A PRICE ON THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE

FUTURE FARM

WELLINGTON, WATERLOO & IRELAND

Nuala O’Connor, producer of Limits of Liberty, and Diarmaid Ferriter, Professor of Modern Irish History at UCD, discuss the Military Service Pensions Saga and the Irish Revolution’s legacy.

FRIDAY 5th June: AFTERNOON

Shane Hegarty

Rosie Boycott

Joanne O’Riordan

Looking ahead to Science Gallery’s 2016 FUTURE FARM exhibition: Beyond the extremes of intense industrial production versus a romanticised view of local production, what other visions are there? What are the new agricultures we could build?

Olivia O’Leary

Alannah Weston

A History Hedge School with Lar Joye (curator at the National Museum of Ireland), Patrick Geoghegan (Professor of History at Trinity and broadcaster), Hugh Gough (UCD), and Jane Wellesley (author of Wellington:

A Journey through my Family).

Chaired by Tommy Graham.

Ian Kelly

Giles Duley

12.00pm - 1.00pm

4.30pm - 5.30pm

5.45pm - 7.00pm

7.30pm - 8.30pm

8.00pm - 9.25pm

10.45pm - Midnight

DARKMOUTH

MORE THRILLING THAN THRILLERS

YEATS 2015

NO LIMBS NO LIMITS

5 X 15 STORIES

To mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of the poet Roy Foster gives a lecture on WB Yeats, including a series of readings by very special guests.

Inspirational Joanne O’Riordan talks to Olivia O’Leary. Followed by:

Five speakers, fifteen minutes, no notes. Alannah Weston (on combatting plastic garbage), Ian Kelly (on co-writing Vivienne Westwood’s autobiography), Giles Duley (on his experiences in the warzone), Anthony Sattin (on Lawrence of Arabia) and Surprise Guest.

The authentic sound of old blues, jazz and bluegrass players from one of the finest roots performers in Ireland, Clive Barnes.

Finn is the last remaining Legend Hunter in the border town of Darkmouth, and he’s not very good at it. Author Shane Hegarty introduces this new hero.

7-11 year olds CHILDREN’S EVENT

Historical biographers Victoria Glendinning, Selina Hastings, and Lucy HughesHallett talk to broadcaster Vincent Woods.

8.30pm In the company of the current guardians of Borris House, Morgan & Sara Kavanagh, Joanne launches the restored granary and new lace garden.

This event takes place in O’Shea’s of Borris, a tavern and hardware shop.

I N B O R R I S V I L L AG E

SATURDAY 6th June: LUNCHTIME

David Gilmour

Polly Samson

Nick Davies

SATURDAY 6th June: AFTERNOON

Fintan O’Toole

Belinda McKeon

Antony Beevor

Rob Doyle

Rosie Boycott

Michael Cunningham

Sophie Gorman

12.00pm - 1.00pm

12.00pm - 1.00pm

12.00pm - 2.30pm

3.00pm - 4.00pm

3.00pm - 4.00pm

3.00pm - 4.00pm

LOST FOR WORDS

Nick Davies (The Guardian) and Fintan O’Toole (The Irish Times) discuss the phone hacking scandals and the undermining of independent investigative journalism.

BOOK LAUNCH

HITLER’S LAST GAMBLE: ARDENNES 1944

SURPRISE TALK

Pulitzer-prize winner Michael Cunningham (The Hours, and most recently The Snow Queen) meets arts journalist Sophie Gorman to discuss how music shapes his writing, the state of American fiction, and reinterpreting Virginia Woolf and Hans Christian Anderson.

Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour and writer Polly Samson - in their first public interview together - talk to Andrew O’Hagan about lyrics and their creative relationship.

Winner of the Irish Book of the Year Award, Belinda McKeon, comes to Borris to launch her astonishing, lyrical and ambitious second novel Tender, published

Antony Beevor, bestselling author of Stalingrad, Berlin,

D-Day and The Second World War, gives a major talk on the Führer’s ill-fated final stand.

by Faber.

Anthony Loyd

Lisa Hannigan

Rick Stroud

Katie Hickman

Stephen Bayley

Lisa McInerney

Colin Barrett

Andrew O’Hagan

Brendan Barrington

AC Grayling

1.30pm - 2.30pm

1.30pm - 2.30pm

1.30pm - 2.30pm

4.30pm - 5.30pm

4.30pm - 5.30pm

4.30pm - 5.30pm

THE ESCALATING TRADE IN HOSTAGES

SOUNDINGS: HOLY TRINITY!

PORTRAIT OF THE DESIGNER AS A YOUNG MAN

THE STORYTELLER’S ART

ANOTHER STRING OF PISS, NOW DEPARTED

THE CHALLENGE OF THINGS

Veteran journalist Anthony Loyd, kidnapped in Syria, and Vice correspondent Ben

Hosted by Dylan Haskins and Lisa Hannigan, with stories that shock, motivate and inspire to laugh.

Guests include Neil Jordan (Filmmaker), Katie Hickman (author) and special guest.

Design critic and former Head of the British Design Museum Stephen Bayley wonders if products are more enduring than prose, and why Ireland’s peerless literary traditions have not been matched in architecture and design — or have they?

Colin Barrett (Young Skins,

Philosopher AC Grayling explores the prejudices that result in conflict – and the myriad ways we can think our way through and out of these troubles times.

Anderson talk to BBC’s Fergal Keane about ISIS tactics of kidnapping and execution.

Twice Booker-nominated Andrew O’Hagan’s novels rise out of contemporary life (His latest, The Illuminations) and his non-fiction from the battlefronts of modern culture, including Jimmy Savile, Julian Assange and identity theft. He talks to Brendan Barrington (Dublin Review).

2014 Guardian First Novel Award) and Lisa McInerney (The Glorious Heresies) on divine anarchy, eloquent violence and the outright gruesome in the new Ireland.

SATURDAY 6th June: EVENING

Ian McEwan

Neil Jordan

Myles Dungan

SUNDAY 7th June: MORNING

Victoria Glendinning

Aoife Duffin

Anna Jones

Lisa Hannigan

Myles Dungan

Dylan Haskins

Selina Hastings

6.00pm - 7.00pm

6.00pm - 7.00pm

6.00pm - 7.30pm

10.30am - 11.30am

11.30am - 12.30pm

11.30am - 12.30pm

FROM BOOK TO SCREEN

VICTORIA GLENDINNING

SOUNDINGS: HOLY TRINITY!

THE RED EARL

She’s told the stories of Swift, Trollope, Sitwell, Bowen, Sackville-West.

Biographer and novelist Victoria Glendinning CBE meets Myles Dungan.

A GIRL IS A HALFFORMED THING

BRUNCH IS SERVED

Ian McEwan (Atonement), Michael Cunningham (The Hours) and screenwriter and director Neil Jordan discuss film adaptations — and the demands they make on the writer – with Grainne Humphreys (Director of JDIFF).

Donal Lunny

Philip King

Actress Aoife Duffin performs ‘unplugged’ the exceptional stage adaptation of Eimear McBride’s novel, created

by Corn Exchange Theatre.

Introduced by its director Annie Ryan.

Join us for a late breakfast with our speakers, surprise chefs, and some spontaneous readings.

Hosted by Dylan Haskins and Lisa Hannigan with stories that shock, motivate and inspire to laughter, with some tunes and special guests Rick Stroud, Victoria Glendinning and others.

(STAGE PERFORMANCE)

Nicholas Carolan

Ben Anderson

Tommy Tiernan

Kevin Barry

Polly Samson

Mary Costello

7.30pm - 8.50pm

7.30pm - 8.30pm

9.00pm - 10.30pm

12.50pm - 1.45pm

12.50pm - 1.45pm

SINGING VOICES

REPORTING FROM THE FRONTLINE

OPEN MOUTH – AN IMPROVISATION

A GRIEF OBSERVED

Approaches to conflict journalism dissected by Ben Anderson (VICE News and Foreign Press Award winner) and Olly Lambert (Bafta-winning film-maker from Newsnight), with Fintan O’Toole.

No games or audience suggestions. Tommy Tiernan walks onstage with no idea what’s going to happen and just begins. A full length, entirely composed in the moment, aria of mayhem.

Navan comedianprovocateur Tommy Tiernan comes head to head with Limerick story-smith Kevin Barry (City of Bohane) to provide some answers to questions no one has thought to ask.

Donal Lunny, Philip King, Nicholas Carolan and Nuala O’Connor remember Frank Harte, Dublin song collector and singer (1933-2005).

Note this performance is in Borris Town Hall. Weekend and Saturday passes do not include this event.

Desire and betrayal lie at the heart of Polly Samson’s

The Kindness and Mary Costello’s Academy Street.

They discuss using fiction to look at the darker side of life, with Sophie Gorman.

Selina Hastings talks with Myles Dungan about her father Jack Hastings, 16th Earl of Huntingdon, who disgraced his family through marriage, fled to Australia, happened into 20s Hollywood, and wound up as assistant to Mexican artist Diego Rivera.

Anthony Sattin

Manchán Magan

12.50pm - 1.45pm Historian and travel writer Anthony Sattin talks with fellow globetrotter Manchán Magan on history and culture - either side of the Sahara - and why is it so misunderstood.

SUNDAY 7th June: AFTERNOON

WORKSHOPS A GUIDE TO GETTING PUBLISHED 10.15am - 12pm | Saturday 6 th Places €25 each (max 25 people)

Michael Harding

AC Grayling

Giles Duley

Fergal Keane

Anne Enright

2.10pm - 3.05pm

2.10pm - 3.05pm

2.10pm - 3.05pm

Fresh from his stage role as The Bull McCabe, Michael Harding (Hanging With The Elephant) and AC Grayling (philosopher and controversial humanist) discuss everything and nothing.

CASUALTIES OF WAR AND THE LIMITS OF EMPATHY

Laureate for Irish Fiction Anne Enright is addicted to the truth of things, the gaps in the human heart and how to fill them. She talks to broadcaster and writer Rosie Boycott.

What happens to local people once the media spotlight moves?

Photojournalist Giles Duley, documentary filmmaker Olly Lambert and BBC Foreign Correspondent Fergal Keane.

Senior publishing figures – Alexandra Pringle (editor-inchief, Bloomsbury), Dan Franklin (digital editor, Random House) and Antony Farrell (publisher, The Lilliput Press) – offer candid advice to fiction and non-fiction writers on how to get published.

Practical tips on writing; editing; how to prepare manuscripts for agents and publishers; cover letters; recent industry trends and changes. Plus extended Q&A.

LAUNCH OF LACE GARDEN 8.30pm | Fri 5 th

Sinéad Gleeson

Roy Foster

2.45pm - 4pm | Saturday 6th Places €25 each (max 25 people) Thomas Morris (Stinging Fly editor and short story writer) will quiz award-winning writers Colin Barrett (Young Skins) and Rob Doyle (Here are the Young Men) on the making and shaping of short stories.

The panel will discuss how to begin and finish stories (as well as write the middles); how to create character, setting and voice; the importance of form.

VISUAL ART Victorian Laundry and Granary

Ian McEwan

SHORT STORIES: THE ART, THE CRAFT, AND THE GRAFT

Catriona Crowe

Jim Moginie

3.30pm - 4.30pm

3.30pm - 4.30pm

3.30pm - 4.30pm

Ian McEwan’s writing career spans almost 40 years.

He discusses his life and work – including his latest novel, The Children Act, his masterpiece Atonement and the importance of poetry and music to his work – with Sinéad Gleeson.

Roy Foster talks with Catriona Crowe onVivid Faces, the revolutionary generation’s families, romances and aspirations.

THE COLOUR WHEEL Assembled especially for Borris, led by Jim Moginie (Midnight Oil) a guitar orchestra featuring Nick Seymour, Clive Barnes, Conor Fenlon and Andrew Kelly will accompany a colour-wheel artist.

The current guardians of Borris House, Morgan & Sara Kavanagh, invite you to join them for the unveiling of the restored Victorian Laundry, the 16th Century Granary, and a Lace garden which commemorates the world famous famine relief of Borris lace.

Joanne O’Riordan, inspired

by Morgan’s infamous ancestor The Incredible Arthur Kavanagh (1831-1889), will speak at the launch.

(*not included in day ticket)

THE HOWS AND THE WHYS OF SUBMITTING WORK TO LITERARY JOURNALS 11.30am - 12.45pm | Sun 7 th Places €25 each (max 25 people) Many a writer’s career has begun in a literary journal, so how should you go about submitting your work to them?

Brendan Barrington (Dublin Review) and Thomas Morris (Stinging Fly) explain how journals operate, how best to submit work, and why rejection isn’t cause for despair. Rob Doyle, who has published fiction and non-fiction in both these journals, will join the discussion.

PORTMANTEAU SAIDHBHÍN GIBSON

LEGACY OF WAR: A PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION: GILES DULEY

The Laundry Room, Upper floor

The Restored Laundry Building

Saidhbhín Gibson’s work examines the ordering of nature.

It questions the ever-increasing cleansing of the outdoors while looking at the subsequent lack of engagement with that which is not man-made.

These photographs document what happens to a war-torn country and it’s people after the cameras have long since disappeared and the last army tanks have left.

Organic material is gleaned for the construction of art objects and then paired with human constructs to highlight the decorative present in our natural world.

Since being critically injured in a landmine explosion in Afghanistan, photojournalist Giles Duley turned his attention to capturing the long-term effect of war on communities across the globe.

BARGES DOWN THE BARROW Ireland’s first ever floating festival!

30 TH MAY ~ 5 TH JUNE

Fo ur barges will depart Vicarsto wn o n the River Barro w and travel o ver seven days to Borris.

B6N (&HI On bo ard - writers, painters, bro adcaster, pho to graphers, seaso nal- ingredients chefs and musicians. ?JC: &HI

Carlow Leighlinbridge Bagenalstown Goresbridge Come join us!

Tinnahinch Borris EACH NIGHT:

A different village A miniature festival of food and music

?JC: )I=

A collaboration with:

?JC: 'C9

?JC: (G9

?JC: *I=

Bring a vessel.

Bring a bike.

Bring a tent.

A TEN-DAY CULTURAL QUARTER IN CARLOW TOWN

and help from

Barrowline Cruises and Connolly SuperValu (Bagenalstown)

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DEIGHTON HALL SECR E T S O U L S H AC K E M M A M A RTIN DA NC E I N T H E CO MPA NY O F C HOIC EC UTS

AND REEA BO UR OS: Eric Butler & Band Presents

LU NC HTIM E R ECITAL

SINÉ AD C ORMACK ‘O NE’

T H E PIANO HAS BE E N DR I N K I N G

A N E V E NING O F TO M WA ITS Deighton Hall Sunday 31st May 1pm Tickets €12, Students €10

Deighton Hall Friday 29th May | 9pm | €10 On the Opening Night of the Festival, Deighton Hall plays host to the first ever ‘Secret Soul Shack’.

For one night only, leading choreographer Emma Martin joins forces with renowned DJs ChoiceCuts to occupy this raw-brick Berlin-esque hall for an evening that fuses the best hand-picked, vinyl-only soul, funk and afrobeat … with a highenergy live performance by five visiting dancers that will unfold during the evening.

Emma Martin Dance is a dance theatre company whose work that has been described as ‘exquisitely raw and reckless’. She is dance artist in residence at Visual Centre of Contemporary Art. ChoiceCuts is a renowned Dublin-based independent music promoter and DJ collective, resident at the Sugar Club.

Deighton Hall Sunday 31st May | 8pm €17.50 This is the story of a “booze-soaked bard of the barstool, the keeper of a bad liver and a broken heart”. There is no way of knowing if it’s true or not, because Tom Waits is mischievous and fiercely private, and likes to make things up. All we know is, he has spent five decades honing the most unusual vocal style in music, a hybrid of blues, jazz, vaudeville.

The immensely diverse talent that is Eric Butler (piano, guitar, banjo, whistle, vocals, percussion) will steer a personage homage to the great Mr Waits, accompanied by Ken Nolan, David Ayers and Ger Farrell, performing his music, talking about his rollercoaster life, and listening to some pearls from the archive by the man himself.

Accomplished Romanian violinist Andreea Bouros will give a very special hour-long recital showcasing her inspiring and extraordinary expertise. The repertoire will include George Enesco’s Ballad, Beethoven’s Sonata 8, SaintSaens’ Danse Macabre and Romanian composer Ciprian Porumbescu’s Ballad.

Andreea has taught scores of violin students at the Carlow College of Music. She will be accompanied by pianist Gillian Daly, who graced the stage at the 2014 Festival.

The first public performance of this solo dance piece by one of Carlow’s most daring and experimental artists.

“Loneliness expresses the pain of being alone and solitude expresses the glory of being alone.” said Paul Tillich. Sinéad Cormack explores this notion. Using light and choreography, the sorrows and joys of being alone in a crowd are brought into focus.

Part of the Carlow College of Music 25th anniversary.

The McHenry County College + Carlow Writers’ Co-Operative present

THE ATRE OF STORY & VERSE:

F REE

EVENT

LITE R ATU R E WITH A P UL SE

The U.S. based McHenry County College National Champion Literature and Performance Group come together with the Carlow Writers’ Co-Operative for a series of dynamic readings of poetry, drama, and story. The award-winning Illinois-based group – Lauryn Lugo, Chris Cox, Branden Dunlap and Bonnie Gabel – are renowned for their innovative performance style.

The show will be finished in plenty of time for patrons to watch the fireworks down on the river promenade, at 11pm

Deighton Hall Wednesday 3rd June | 6.30pm 22

Deighton Hall Saturday 30th May 7pm (40 mins) €11

They join Carlow Writers Co-Op, who have worked with Gerry Morgan to develop a series of bespoke performances.

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TULLY’S BAR

II

THE E S KIE S

SAINT JOHN THE GAMBLER

O’LOUGHLINS

I

DAV I E FUREY

A LBU M L AU N CH

O’Loughlins Pub Saturday 30th May 8.30pm Free to the thirsty Fusing traditional roots with contemporary folk and rock, Davie Furey’s music is characterised by storytelling, energy and guitar riffs that beat like a pulse. His 2009 album Out of your Arms was championed by Christy Moore, Phil Coulter and Jimmy McCarthy. This is the official launch of his follow up, Easy Come Easy Go.

Tully’s Bar, Tullow Street Friday 29th May | 10pm Free to the thirsty

Tully’s Bar, Tullow Street Saturday 30th May | 10pm Free to the thirsty

Purveyors of music that meanders from seasoaked waltz to Italian tarantella, from brassy funeral march lament to weep-along Yiddish knees-up, from chain-gang holler to rag-time finger-snap, The Eskies have brought this unique brand of folk noir / gypsy jazz / sea shanty (and a swaggering stage spectacle) to ballrooms and booze houses the length and breadth of the country, sullying soirees and lowering inhibitions everywhere.

Saint John the Gambler is a riveting, hedonistic and hugely original band with a danceinducing spirit. This Dublin-based group, with Carlow frontman Mark Baker, have melded sounds from by-gone eras and distant lands with modern song-writing, taking in influences from Old-Time Jazz, Klezmer, Americana and Vaudeville to create high-energy live shows that few other acts can deliver.

PORTRAITS FOR THE POST OFFICE

Friday Night May 29 | 8pm DoubleInstruMental Auxiliary Phoenix (live) + Jasper Rua

Burrin Street Unveiling: Friday 29 May | 9.30pm

Saturday May 30 | 12pm onwards Arty Farty Malarky Video & Art + The Spinning Boy + Reverend JM’s Panic Worship

As An Post undertake a restoration of the dilapidated façade of the Carlow Post Office, The Pure Thinking Group spearhead the regeneration of our neglected streetscape with a highly visible community arts project, which promises to leave a significant legacy in its wake.

TBA

(TIME BASED ART) 59 Dublin St Fri 29th - Sat 30th May Free (but when it’s full, it’s full) Marc Ivan O’Gorman’s curated ‘coach-house’– on the site of 17th century ‘Blackamoor Head Inn’ – is a wine tavern with a miniature theatre, live music stage, and a social space serving locally-brewed tonics and ales.

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Saturday May 30 | 8pm Tea-Bee-Ay Ca-Ba-Re A fragrant pot-pourri of miscellany consisting of emerging performers presenting short bits from the fields of Music, Theatre, Literature and Fire-eating. (PS. There will be no fire eating)

HOT T IN ROOF

O’Loughlins Sunday 31st May 8.30pm Free to the thirsty Scottish duo Hot Tin Roof play stripped back atmospheric blues ‘n soul, with Andy McKay Challen on acoustic guitar & voice, and Gavin Jack on electric lead & slide guitar. Regulars in the back-street bars of Edinburgh & Glasgow, and their distinct sound is ingrained in the thriving underground Scottish blues scene.

II STREET ART

THE PURE THINKING GROUP

M ARK CRONIN : 3D I L LUSION A RTIST

T WO A NA M OR P H I C I N S TA LL AT I ON S

28 local artists were invited to create a portrait of an individual who inspired them – forming the basis of a large-scale exterior frieze.

Dublin Street (you have to find them) Take a seat in the café nearby one of Mark Cronin’s extraordinary street art installations, and watch the public come to terms with it. It could be a hole in the road, a window to another world, and ladder that climbs nowhere….. all his trompe d’oeil projects provoke laughter and confusion, and he travels from Clare to Carlow to re-calibrate one or two well-known spots on Dublin Street.

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GALLERIES

I

All galleries open 30th May - 7th June, 11am - 6pm

E IL E E N M ACDONAG H M AQUE T T ES AN D M O D E LS

DAVID KING

CO N D I T IO NS O F PO S S IBILIT Y

GALLERIES

I

All galleries open 30th May - 7th June, 11am - 6pm

DA RAGH HUGHES ANIM A LS

BLUEPRINT GROUP SPACE

Dublin Street 9 Dublin Street

1 Dublin Street

Eileen MacDonagh is best known for her monumental sculptural works in stone and steel, so this intimate show of her scale models and maquettes provides an unusual narrative on her career for the last twenty-five years. This exhibition, assembled by artist Tadhg McSweeney, will give a perspective of the artist’s working practice, models in wood, polystyrene, metal, stone, of ideas both abandoned and brought to life.

Over the last ten years David King’s work has explored purity, negativity, and the clearness of ambiguity. Using the language of abstract form he maps the sensuous geography of place, time and the emotional and intellectual elements that exist there. His work is continually evolving, each body of work offering a wholly fresh dialogue, ‘reinvesting familiar genres with new meanings’.

O RL AG H MU R P HY

DAV ID BI CK LE Y

F RO M W H E RE W E ON CE LIV E D AND L E AR N ED

R A R E E A RTH: MACHINES (2015) A N D MATERIALS (2014)

Primarily a figurative painter, Daragh Hughes’ interest in the human form – and his ability to capture the body as a true narrative rather than an ideal – have led him to explore a series of studies on animals.

Feral, skeletal forms hewn from timber and found items, and often clothed in a skin of translucent material represent creatures which are powerful and wild and at the same time emaciated or long-extinct.

A SE NSE O F PL ACE

AN E X HIBITION BY THE CARLOW PHOTO GR A P H IC S OCIE T Y

Dublin Street Blueprint is an artist’s network for the Carlow area. With a focus on the contemporary, its remit is primarily visual – but it has always left the door open to performance art.

Artists include Maureen Phelan, Brian Bastick, Sue White, Mary Cullen Kelly, Anthony Walsh, Brigid Teehan and Ian Mannion. Curated by Anthony Walsh and Mary Cullen Kelly.

KIL KEA GROUP SPECTRUM

11 Dublin Street

3 Dublin Street Orlagh Murphy explores our memory of the two most significant sites of our early formation, home and school. The image of the rural schoolhouse in Ireland evokes strong associations with the past; the journey on foot from home to school and back again was a daily ritual. This exhibition comprises a series of ten mixed media works combining photographic images with oil on a ceramic base.

26

Assembly Rooms, Dublin Street, Carlow

Castle House, Castle Hill

This exhibition is based on two landscape film artworks completed under Arts Council Project Awards. Materials uses pure natural terrain as the source material, married with the artist’s own ambient score, to weave a story through the Irish landscape, shot through with subconscious motif: a seamless atmospheric journey that takes us from dawn to dusk and from birth to death.

Following recent arts festival engagements and workshops with Tomaz Lunder, Amelia Stein and John Minihan, the Carlow Photographic Society – comprising some 50 members – continue their laudable and intuitive journey of developing their practice. Former graphic designer and experiential writer Brendan Harding worked with the group on a series of photographic posters.

Founded in 2007 as a pilot scheme to bring amateur artists together and grow their understanding of contemporary art ideas and practice – and to receive tuition in skilled-based processes within that context – The Kilkea Group have found success in the immense diversity of their individual ongoing practices.

Under the tuition and mentoring of artist David King (see p.26), they develop and encourage each other to partake in and understand art practice and to progress their own styles.

Includes works by artists including Ber Rowan, Clare Durdin Robertson and Elizabeth Fingleton.

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GALLERIES

I

All galleries open 30th May - 7th June, 11am - 6pm

BL AC K S TAC K S T U DI O Dublin Street Kilkenny’s Blackstack, a collective of skilled professional artist printmakers, present an exhibition of contemporary fine art prints.

Artists include Aiseling Noone, Sylvia Hemmingway, Maeve Coulter, Jacqui O’Neill, Vicky Cody, Helen Robbins, Ale Mercado, Andrew Kelly, Mella Cahill and John Busher.

The exhibition features several print disciplines which are practised in the studio (etching, silkscreen, photoetching, collagraph, drypoint, woodcut and textiles).

THE N I NE S TONE S A RTI S TS

Gate Lodge, Carlow College Uniting for their sixth group show, this dynamic visual arts collective, infused with the common language of their shared domestic lives in the rural hinterland of the Blackstairs Mountains, will present an exhibition of recent works.

The Nine Stones Artists consistently make stunning, eclectic and intriguing work. Remco de Fouw, Michelle Byrne, Anthony Lyttle, Annabel Konig, Gwen Wilkinson, Martin Lyttle, Jules Michael and Rachel Joynt.

June Bank Holiday Weekend Sat May 30th ~ Mon June 1st

STREET CARNIVAL

www.blackstackstudio.com DU B LIN ST RE E T | T ULLOW S T RE E T | CAST LE S T RE E T | BURRIN S T RE E T

OLD CARLO W P HOTO G RA P H S

CORA MURPHY WEEKEND PAINTING WORKSHOPS Carlow Town

Cantina (formerly Café Formenti) 20 Dublin Street 10am - 4pm / after 7pm Dermot O’Brien’s attic took so long to clear, that he unearthed a photographic archive of life in Carlow that had aged into quite a significant collection. He used a social media site to reveal his find, with the result that multitudes of others added to the trove. In 2014 he published a book of 700 photographs. This exhibition is a selection from that book.

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The aim of both these workshops is to help participants to loosen their painting style and to make their own intuitive response to the subject matter. Workshop costs include materials, stimulating exercises and demonstrations, oneto-one tuition, lunch, gallery tour, field trip and take-home notes.

‘Abstracting the Landscape’ (€175 per person) 31 May – 1 June, Carlow Town, including a barge ride to a field location

Busking on 3 stages

Food and craft vendors

Caravan Club Extravaganza SYMPHONIC WIND BAND

Junk Kouture Fashion Show

3pm @ tcu v s ecz TH n cz

Gospel Hootenany 2 pm @ tv o ecz ST n cz

Firework Display 10.45 pm @ tv o ecz ST n cz

‘Adventures in Abstract Art’ (€195 per person) 6 - 7 June 2015, Carlow Town Book a place direct with Cora call 087 3275131 29

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