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‘Blow Your Own Trumpet’ Submission

Deadline: Monday, May 5, 2014

Forum Date: June 27, 2014, 9.30am – 5pm
Forum Location: National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks, Dublin

If you have been working on a new and innovative access, outreach & education project – or have an example of creative engagement and learning – that is happening on the ground in museums, galleries, libraries or archives, we want to hear from you.

Formerly known as ‘Blow Your Own Trumpet’, this annual meeting is now in its ninth year and has firmly established itself as a key event in the calendar for museum educators to meet and discuss topics of interest to their programmes. It is intended as a place for critical engagement, examination and experimentation of ideas, where a lasting contribution can be made to the development of education in the museum context.

From discussing resources to individual projects, the IMA Forums programme provides informal platforms to share your findings and engage with your colleagues and others working in museums & galleries, libraries, archives and other cultural institutions.

Submissions must be sent before Monday, May 5, 2014, to Gina O’Kelly, Irish Museums Association at office@irishmuseums.org and should contain:

• Full name, Job title and Institution/Organisation
• Email address and telephone number
• Personal Biography (150 words max)
• Proposed Title of presentation
• Presentation Abstract (200 words max)

The forum will consist of 6-8 short papers of 15 minutes duration with Q&A and ample time for discussion, followed by 2-3 topic-specific papers and a workshop.

Speakers must be available to present in person on June 27, 2014.

For information on previous forums and other activities of the Irish Museums Association, please visit www.irishmuseums.org

2014 John McGahern Seminar programme launched

Donal Ryan, Marina Carr and Fiach Mac Conghail are just some of the guest speakers at the eighth annual John McGahern Seminar which Leitrim County Council hosts from Friday 16th to Sunday 18th May with the support of Bord na Móna and the Arts Council.

The seminar was established in 2007 and combines panels, talks and readings which explore ideas central to and arising out of McGahern's novels, stories and theatre, drawing together writers and thinkers from many backgrounds to consider a wide-ranging and stimulating set of questions and themes.

The event opens on Friday 16th May in the Bush Hotel with a keynote speech by Senator Fiach Mac Conghail, Director of The Abbey Theatre. He will be joined by author Belinda McKeon and playwright Marina Carr in a panel discussion chaired by author and broadcaster Vincent Woods to talk about the significance of John McGahern, the importance of the arts and the contribution artists make to our society.

In the Dock Arts Centre on Saturday morning Donal O'Kelly presents an illustrated synopsis of his 2012 show Jimmy Gralton's Dancehall - a metaphor of what Ireland might be. Gerard Whelan, author of Spiked: Church, State Intrigue and the Rose Tattoo explores the mysterious story of the 1957 closing of the Pike Theatre while Luke Gibbons reflects on the cultural circumstances that prevailed at the time John McGahern’s book The Dark was banned. The three speakers are joined by Vincent Woods to explore the ‘weather of the times’ which was to have a lasting impact on Gralton, The Pike and John McGahern.

Born in Longford and now living in New York, Belinda McKeon is the author of the bestselling novel Solace, A multi-award-winner, Solace was praised for its subtle reconfiguration of territory related to the work of McGahern.  On Saturday afternoon she gives the first reading from her forthcoming second novel, Tender. Belinda is joined by Donal Ryan whose award-winning debut, The Spinning Heart, garnered unprecedented acclaim including nominations for the Booker Prize and Impac Dublin Literary Award, with The Thing About December confirming his status as one of the best writers of his generation.

In January Marina Carr became the first John McGahern writer-in-residence at St. Patrick’s College, Drumcondra and DCU. Early on Saturday evening the award-winning playwright reads from her work and talks to Vincent Woods before a screening of the documentary A Private World which was completed a year before McGahern's passing. Pat Collins’ exploration of arguably the defining Irish writer of the modern era was filmed just prior to the publication of Memoir, a definitive portrait of his life and times.

On Sunday morning the seminar moves to Aughawillan where Arigna-born author Brian Leyden reads from his book The Home Place: A Memoir. On return to Carrick on Shannon Neil Belton, senior editor at Faber & Faber is interviewed by Vincent Woods. As editor of Memoir, Belton had a unique insight into John McGahern's final and extraordinary book. Neil talks to Vincent Woods about editing Memoir, working with McGahern, and about his own writing. Bringing the 2014 seminar to a close Vincent Woods considers John McGahern's response to Des Guckian's book Deported, and draws on his own work to illustrate the power of memory in bringing old stories out of darkness into the light of art.

Speaking about the weekend, Leitrim County Council Arts Officer Philip Delamere, said: “The John McGahern seminar is a vital part of the county’s cultural calendar which we have curated as a wide-ranging literary event that broadens access to John McGahern’s work through a fascinating and diverse programme. We are delighted to be able to present such an impressive weekend which has been made possible through the support of Bord na Móna and the Arts Council.”  

For further information and booking for the seminar, visit www.leitrimarts.ie

Arts and Community “The Mutual Benefits”

Tuesday 6^th May – VISUAL Carlow

5.15pm – 7pm

A new and fresh initiative by Carlow Local Authorities Arts Service in association with CREATE – the national development agency for collaborative arts in social and community contexts.

The aim of this FREE event is to provide both Communities a! nd Artists with a mutually beneficial opportunity to explore and exchange the potential and possibilities that the arts can bring to a place.

Guest Speakers ● Sinead Dowling, Arts Officer, Carlow Local Authorities – Introductions and Context ● Emma Finucane,  Artist - Sharing her experience of working in community contexts (including working in Leighlinbridge, Co Carlow) ● Katherine Atkinson, CREATE - Project Su! pport & Professional Development – Outlining the Artist in Community Scheme on behalf of the Arts Council ● Rhona Byrne, Artist – Sharing her       experience of working in community contexts ● Colm O Muiri – Community Development Worker – Family Resource Centre Wexford – sharing his experience of how the arts act as a tool for building communities

This event will be very open and conversational and will provide us an opportunity to share experience and information with you as well as for you to share information and ask questions of us.  Guided Tour ! - For those of you who are interested at the end of this event you will have an     opportunity to have a FREE guided tour of VISUAL including the Patrick Scott current show IMAGE SPACE LIGHT and a tour of the GBShaw Theatre. 

Booking Information - Please RSVP

If you would like to come along please contact Carlow Local Authorities Arts Service by Monday 28th April e-mail ascully@carlowcoco.ieor phone 059 9136204 or text 0868200247 outlining the organisation you represent, your contact details and how many places you would like to book.

‘Encircling Worlds: Imagining Irish Suburbia’ Conference | Call for Papers

September 12-13, 2014
Carlow College and VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art

In the final decades of the twentieth century and in the early years of the new millennium, the spaces of Irish suburbia have been significantly transformed. From the enlargement of commuter belts, residential areas, and the commensurate construction boom in apartment complexes, to the redevelopment of housing estates and older forms of residences, the socio-geographical configuration of the Irish suburb has undergone unprecedented change.

This conference seeks to explore how Irish writers and artists have consciously responded to the evolution of the Irish suburb and also how the changed nature of the Irish suburb has placed new demands and pressures upon Irish cultural and artistic forms. We welcome papers on themes and topics including, but not limited to, the following:

- The aesthetics of Irish suburban literature. The amenability of the short story, the novel, drama, film, television, or photography to Irish suburban experience.
- Traditions of Irish suburban literature and the sublimation of older forms of Irish suburban art into contemporary narrative forms.
- Suburban identities: sexuality, gender, class.
- Suburban cultures: heterogeneity and homogeneity.
- Irish suburbia and the Celtic Tiger and/or legacies of the Celtic Tiger.
- Irish suburbia and childhood.
- The question of the Irish suburb as a site and source of creativity.
- Migration, emigration, immigration within and to Irish suburban spaces.
- Globalization/Glocalization in Irish suburbia.
- The ecological impact of Irish suburbia.
- Suburban Gothic.

The conference will run alongside the launch of the Autumn season in VISUAL, featuring Mary McIntyre’s ‘A Contemporary Sublime’ plus new place-specific commissions, in partnership with Carlow Local Authority Arts Office. Papers should last approximately twenty minutes maximum. Please send proposals of 200-250 words and a brief biography to the following email address: risbcarlow@gmail.com

Closing date for receipt of proposals: 30th May, 2014

Call for papers: IMA forums 2014: Education & Outreach
If you have been working on a new and innovative access, outreach & education project - or have an example of creative engagement and learning - that is happening on the ground in museums, galleries, libraries or archives, the Irish Museums Association will be accepting abstracts for their upcoming forum on 27 June. The deadline for submissions is 5 May. 

Are you an arts focused organisation? - Register to be part of The Common Room Café at Get Together 2014

Get Together 2014 will take place on Friday, May 23rd in IMMA. This third edition promises to be even more lively and vibrant with a wide range of talks, events, and networking opportunities spread throughout the day.

Central to Get Together is The Common Room Café. We have a slight change on previous years. As well as arts organisations and support networks, we will have a range of clinics and mentoring sessions in the Café spread throughout the day.

Organisations who have participated in previous years have included Festivals, Studio Programmes, Insurance Companies, Financial Advisors, Legal Practitioners, Artists Groups, Galleries, Multi-disciplinary Venues, Print Studios, and Shipping Companies.

We are now taking bookings for tables in The Common Room Café. The venue will be the Great Hall in IMMA but we want to avoid the crushes of previous years, so we are limiting the number of organisations.

To apply, send an email to director@visualartists.ie with details of your organisation.

Further details about Get Together 2014 will be made available in the coming weeks.

Art in Action

Art in Action is a 3-day arts & crafts festival where uniquely top artists and crafts people from many different disciplines are sponsored to demonstrate their work and skills live to the public.

Visitors come to see how it’s done and any so inspired can avail of the wide variety of practical classes available. These classes are designed to encourage the novice, where each delighted participant learns how to make a finished piece of art or craft for taking home. Adults and children are catered for separately.

The liberal arts are represented through a programme of music, drama, dance, story telling and lectures.

Located in the beautiful house and grounds of Farmleigh It is organised and staffed entirely on a voluntary basis and is renowned among visitors and artists alike not only for the breadth and quality of the art on show, but also for its wonderful organisation, relaxed family atmosphere and beautiful setting.

Art in Action is a not-for-profit event, an initiative of the school of philosophy and economic science which since 1994 has sought to acknowledge in this practical way, the refining power of the arts in society.

Art in Action is held this year (2014) over the 3 days of the May Holiday Weekend.  Further information at www.artinaction.ie

Call for Papers: International Conference on “Cultural Management without Borders”

The Annual Conference of the Association of Cultural Management in Germany, Austria and Switzerland will take place in the Heilbronn University Künzelsau Germany on 15 – 17 January 2015.

Some of the questions that the conference seeks to address are:

• What key competencies does a cultural manager require to work as a broker between different cultures and different cultural value systems?
• How can future cultural managers be prepared for tasks in an international environment?
• What roles do European cultural goods and national cultural management approaches play in the globalised world?

There is an open call for papers for the conference and the deadline for submissions is 18 June 2014.

You can download full details of the call on the Creative Europe Desk – culture office website here.

Visual Arts Workers Forum

You are warmly invited to join the third conference of the Visual Arts Workers Forum on Friday 9th May at Project Arts Centre, Dublin, for a day of stimulating debate, discussion, presentations, networking and a bit of provocation.

Tickets are on sale at www.projectartscentre.ie, in person from Project Arts Centre box office, or by calling +353 1 881 9613.

The Visual Arts Workers Forum is designed to engage and give a platform for debate for workers across the visual arts – artists, writers, curators, educators, funders, gallerists, shippers and framers to name a few.

Key issues for the 2014 forum include a session devoted to the case for artistic leadership, featuring presentations and opinions from Donal Maguire (National Gallery of Ireland), Anna O'Sullivan (Butler Gallery, Kilkenny), Mike Fitzpatrick (Limerick School of Art & Design) and Róise Goan (Freelance), chaired by Tessa Giblin (Project Arts Centre). This is followed by a session aimed at accounting for the visual arts’ contribution – artistically, structurally and economically – with the wisdom and reflection of Dr. Clare McAndrew (Arts Economics), Garrett Phelan (Artist), Una Carmody (Arts Audiences), and Francis Halsall (National College of Art and Design).

We are delighted to announce a keynote presentation by Annie Fletcher (Van Abbemuseum). This will be followed by the final panel discussion analysing good governance, including Dónall Curtin (Byrne Curtin Kelly), Eve-Anne Cullinan (MCO Projects), Martin O’Sullivan (Arts Council of Ireland), Barbara Dawson (Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane) and chaired by Vaari Claffey (Independent Curator).

The 2014 Visual Arts Workers Forum will culminate in an open Prime Time debate, chaired by Seán O Sullivan, enabling expanded questions and statements from the audience, an appeal for a hosts for the 2015 forum, and finally a place to let off steam – the bar, with ‘Wild Hearts Run Free’ into the night.

You can read more about the programme at www.vawf.ie

The Visual Arts Workers Forum is for you – please book your ticket, take your seat, and take the mic, as we hope to learn from each others’ triumphs, failures and potentials.

Save the Date!

• Where: Project Arts Centre, Space Upstairs
• When: 10am – 5:30pm, Friday 9th May, 2014
• Find out more: www.vawf.ie

Booking Tickets

Tickets are on sale now, and can be purchased online at www.projectartscentre.ie, in person from Project Arts Centre box office, or by calling +353 1 881 9613.

Tickets are €10 for independent practitioners and €20 for those institutionally affiliated. Proceeds from ticket sales help to fund independent speakers’ participation. Tickets also include lunch!

For any further queries, get in touch with us: contact@vawf.ie