My Culture Night

What will people be doing on Culture Night?

Leslie Ryan

National Craft Gallery

I’ll be facilitating tours of the two current exhibitions in the National Craft Gallery in Kilkenny. I’ll also be coordinating a project called Illuminating – a paper lantern installation by artist Jean Conroy and about 20 community group members. We have a gig on with Jennifer Evans. We don’t normally have music in the gallery so to have different art forms is really positive. I’ll be giving guided tours of the Jewellery is Life exhibition at 5.30pm and I’ll co-ordinate workshops and bring community groups into the events.

I hope to get to other events and after we finish, I’ll head to the Set Theatre to the after party.

Denise Donnelly

Bad Art Gallery

I’ll have four artists painting live in the gallery windows from 5pm until 9.30pm. There is an art class from 7pm to 11pm, which consists of burlesque girls posing in the gallery and the public is invited to come in and draw them. My job is to make sure it all runs smoothly. Last year, there was such a nice clientele. It’s mainly families, so you spend the whole night talking and selling work. It didn’t stop last year so we have music and refreshments this year. We didn’t sell a lot on the night last year but people came back. It puts you on the map. It’s great this year for our customers to see artists draw live, especially if you are a fan of the artist.

Andrew Duggan

Visual artist, Kerry

In Dingle there will be numerous outdoor projections and people will be able to navigate the town via these artworks. I have organised and curated the night with the artists so I’ll be projecting their work on the gable end walls of the town. My plan for the night is to go from site to site, and I’m planning performance and poetry events at each projection.

This is the first culture night here. We’re not opening the galleries; instead we’re making the Gaeltacht a cultural space in itself. I will judge its success in how people respond to the projections. It goes on until dawn.

Avril Ryan

The Ark, Cultural Centre for Children

Culture night is a real chance for me to be on the ground. There’s a fantastic vibe in the building – you look outside and Temple Bar is buzzing, and it shows the huge interest people have in culture. We work flat out until 10pm. The one drawback when you are running a venue is that you don’t get to see anything else. This year I am particularly excited about seeing Cormac De Barra and Sinéad Madden play here. I also love seeing the children’s excitement. It might be their first time here. For me, seeing new people discover the Ark is so rewarding.

Mervyn Horgan

Lifetime Labs, Cork

Our venue is in the old Cork City waterworks. This year we are hosting a site-specific drama production. Our building dates back to the 18th century so we will bring the building alive with actors and scenes.

This is mainly an environmental and educational centre. The night allows us to dabble in the arts and it also opens the building to a different type of audience. We wrap up by 9pm so I hope to be able to take in one of the other events as well.

Last year we had close to 700 people on the night. Our production will tell the story of what life was like before people had water in their houses.