Skibbereen is alive with the sounds of music and culture as festival fever engulfs the town. Skibbereen Arts Festival, which is in its 10th year, runs from the 27th of July to the 6th of August. Its presence has made itself truly felt throughout the town as music, art and culture can be found around every corner.
I found a beautifully designed exhibition Terra Incognita in The O' Driscoll Building on The Old Quay. The exhibition curated by the Doswell Gallery's Roisin Foley, includes work by Rachel Doolin, Tom Doig, Sarah Roseingrave and Tomas Penc amongst others. Tomas Penc is currently in residency here at Studio 2 in West Cork Arts Centre. He will be giving what promises to be a very interesting talk entitled 'Present.Makes.Future' on the 2nd August as part of the Festival.The free talk will be held in Uillinn and is an open discussion on technology, science and the contemporary mind-set around this issue. Another exhibition housed in the The Old Driscoll Building is Elements: West Cork Landscapes. I found this to be a particularly celebratory feature of the festival as artists exhibit glorious explorations of the West Cork landscape. These artists include Christine Thery, Donald Teskey and William Crozier. Christine Thery's uses masses of oil paint to striking effect in what I consider to be a must-see exhibition.
The Festival was officially opened Saturday evening by the acclaimed, Irish, artist Robert Ballagh. The artist is a popular figure in both the art establishment and public life. West Cork Arts Centre facilitated a lively talk with the artist on Saturday prior to the festival’s opening. Robert’s oil painting Roimh forms part of the Coming Home exhibition and he spoke at length about the impact of the Famine on the Irish psyche.He began his talk with a lament for the recent downgrading of history as a subject in the Irish curriculum.
I still have plenty to see in the coming week and an event I’m particularly excited about is the arrival of the Domestic Godless here at Uillinn This unusual trio is made up of Stephen Brandes, Mick O' Shea and Irene Murphy and they will be in action over the Bank Holiday weekend. Although they are not chefs, they concoct interesting platters of food, occupying the unfamiliar territory between art and gastronomy! I am also eager to take one of Skibbereen Heritage Centre's Historical Walking Tours. The only complaint anyone could possibly have with Skibbereen Arts Festival is that they haven't enough time to see everything!
For the full programme of events you can visit the website http://www.skibbereenartsfestival.com/
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