It is astonishing how the streets of Cork still resound with the complaint that "there's nothing on!" Admittedly, the publicists for Cork 2005 are tardy with their advance notices, and media releases advertising events taking place within 24 hours or even on the same day are increasingly the norm.
On Friday, November 11th, for example, the notice for the opening, on Friday, November 11th, of the Bursary Award Exhibition at St John's College was sent out. This show involves six graduates of the college's Photographic Studies course who were selected by curators John Blakemore and Miranda Walker as recipients of bursaries from Cork 2005. The show, which continues until December 20th, was launched by Sean Kelly, programme co-ordinator of the National Sculpture Factory.
Notice of Designing Ireland, the retrospective exhibition based on the Kilkenny Design Workshops, organised by Cork 2005 and the Crafts Council of Ireland and launched on November 12th, was received on November 11th. Curated by Joanna Quinn, this is the first Kilkenny Design exhibition since the closure of the workshops in 1988. It runs at 21 Lavitt's Quay, Cork, until December 14th (workshops run until the same date) and then at the National Craft Gallery in Kilkenny from February 4th to April 2nd next year.
Also launched recently was Giants of Cork, a survey of Cork's sporting history by sportswriter Dave Hannigan, commissioned by Cork 2005 with the Cork Evening Echo.
Although last weekend marked the end of the Peripheral Visions programme, with a symposium on video art presented by the Cork Film Centre, exhibitions in the series continue at the Cork Film Centre until December 16th. The weekend symposium included lectures from Christine von Assche (chief curator at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris), Sacha Craddock and Caoimhin Mac Giolla Leith of Dublin, with a keynote address from Prof Declan McMonagle.
And just as writer Neil LaBute and actor Ed Harris are about to light up the Everyman Palace with the forthcoming premiere of Wrecks, so Cork 2005 sets off on its last month with the glitter of Christmas illuminations in Patrick Street on Sunday, November 27th, beginning at 5.30 pm. Whatever about media releases, the brochure advertising the closing celebrations (delivered promptly to every Cork household last week) includes the International Celebrity Opera Gala at City Hall on November 27th, Polish musicians at the Crawford Gallery at lunchtime on November 29th and Sir James and Lady Jeanne Galway at City Hall with the Cork Youth Orchestra on December 1st.
Nothing happening?
