Arts Service

In 2007 the Arts Department of Sligo County Council celebrated its 10th birthday with a special programme of arts events, performances and new commissions. Access to the arts, education, culture and design will be key elements in the development of an environment that promotes diversity, creativity, tolerance and the exchange of ideas.

Sligo Arts Service is a department of Sligo County Council, working in partnership with Sligo Borough Council, The Arts Council of Ireland, and key stakeholders locally, regionally and nationally to deliver a high quality Arts Service for the people of Sligo. Operating from the County Council offices in Market Yard,  the personnel of Sligo Arts Service deliver a programme of arts activities covering all artforms, and provide advice, grants and information to individuals and groups who wish to set up arts projects in their own communities.

Sligo Arts Service celebrated its 10th year of existence in 2007 and it was a particularly good year for the arts department. The birthday celebratory programme culminated in the launch of the new Space for Art, Sligo Arts Plan 2007-2012 in September 2007 which will map the way forward for Sligo Arts Service.

From January to March the input received from the arts community was essential to the development of the County Arts Plan. Space for Art, Sligo Arts Plan 2007-2012 will guide and inform the planning and delivery of the arts service and annual programmes over the coming years.

Public art (widely defined) has been a hallmark of Sligo Local Authorities arts work since 1997. In 2007 a retrospective and documentary exhibition entitled ‘10 Years of Public Art in Sligo 1997 – 2007’ featured each artist commissioned through the Per Cent for Art Scheme since its inception. The exhibition provided a good opportunity to celebrate the achievements and innovations of public art in Sligo and all projects to date are profiled in a brochure available from the Arts Department.

Tribute was paid to the County Manager for this early impetus and to the members of the Sligo Local Authorities Public Art Working Group for their openness and willingness to engage with the process.

The idea behind ‘Per Cent for Art’ is to promote collaboration between the artist and the community, as former Minister for the Arts John O’Donoghue put it to “make an impact and create lasting memories”,

VOGLER SPRING FESTIVAL

The Vogler Spring Festival 2007 featured seventeen world class performers and spanned four days in the picturesque setting of Drumcliffe, County Sligo. A welcome addition for the 2007 festival was a late night concert of Klezmorim – music based on traditional Jewish music. As part of the Arts Department’s Birthday Celebratory Programme the Festival commissioned Elaine Agnew to write a work for children’s choir and string quartet which was premiered as part of the festival. Six primary schools – St Patrick’s NS (Calry), St Joseph’s NS (Kilmactranny), St Michael’s NS (Cloonacool), Ardkeerin NS (Riverstown), Owenbeg NS, SN Chriost Rí (Enniscrone) – which were part of the Vogler Music Education Programme 1999-2004, took part in the composition project with Elaine Agnew and writer Eibhlín Nic Eochaidh. Sligo Arts Service continues to fund Con Brio in running a high calibre programme through Sligo Music Series.

CINEMA NORTH WEST

The re-designed mobile cinema is in response to the new partnership developed between the board of Cinema North West and funders Sligo County Council and Leitrim County Council. Local authority offices involved are the Sligo Arts Department, Leitrim’s Department of Community and Enterprise and with support from Sligo County Council Library Services. This partnership is unique to the area and committed to developing and reaching audiences for film culture in the northwest. The Tubbercurry screenings that took place from September to December 2007 were the first fruits of Sligo County Council’s five year commitment to the mobile cinema as planned for in ‘Space For Art’, County Sligo’s Arts Plan 2007-2012. Sligo Arts Department are considering how the mobile cinema model might be extended to other rural parts of County Sligo and are working with the board of Cinema North West in planning the future locations for our world cinema screenings in 2008 and beyond.

BEALTAINE SLIGO 2007

The highlight of Bealtaine Sligo 2007, a festival celebrating creativity in older age was a 4-day Intergenerational Arts Celebration and Exhibition Programme at the Factory PerformanceSpace. The celebration opened with a Discussion Forum on Building Community and Exploring Place. A screening of Our Sense of Place, a short film created by Maugherow Intergenerational Group in collaboration with Dermot Healy, Joanna Parkes,Catherine Fanning and Johnny Gogan created an opportunity for teachers, principals, active retirement groups, artists/facilitators and agencies to engage with the participants of the Intergenerational Projects. Sligo Active Retirement Association staged their original drama, in collaboration with actors John Carty and Sandra O’Malley from Blue Raincoat Theatre Company.

COUNTY SLIGO YOUTH THEATRE

Rehearsals for “The Crucible” got underway in early January with Galway-based director Niall Cleary and the production team consisted of both professionals as well as ex-youth theatre members who acted as lighting technicians and general prop and costume. The production was a great success and received praise from all who went to see it, both for its excellent performances and production values.

SLIGO OMAGH JOINT CULTURAL EVENTS PROGRAMME

Omagh District Council and Sligo County Council have been working together since 1996 through the Omagh Sligo Partnership. Since early 2007 the Omagh Sligo Joint Cultural Events Project has been providing both councils and its partners the opportunity to share experiences, develop joint actions and promote best practice approaches undertaken by the two authorities. One of the objectives has been to integrate the Arts/Cultural Departments in Sligo and Omagh and to develop a cross border cultural programme of events and activities through the mediums of performance, drama, music and visual arts. Development has been undertaken in the areas of youth arts, visual arts, arts and disability and ethnic minorities. The project has also facilitated networking amongst groups, organisations and cultural providers in the two local authority areas.

A series of weekend workshops during June culminated in a week long intensive summer school in early July, when Omagh Youth Theatre welcomed a group of young people from County Sligo Youth Theatre to their new space in the Strule Arts Centre in Omagh. Together they spent the week preparing a lively and colourful show for Strule Arts Centre that incorporated masks, live music, and puppets. The performance was staged in Sligo during November.

VISUAL ART

In the November - December issue of the Visual Artists’ News Sheet, published by Visual Artists Ireland, the Sligo Arts Department secured a regional profile of the visual arts activity and resources in Sligo. The profile, extended nationally and to an international visual arts audience included an outline of the work of the Sligo Arts Department, the future plans for the Model Arts and Niland Gallery in advance of its temporary closure for redevelopment, the visual arts programme of the Sligo Art Gallery and the four programmes related to the arts and design in the Institute of Technology, Sligo along with interviews with four professionally established visual artists living and working in County Sligo.

ARTIST SUPPORT

Sligo Arts Service, with other partners, provides a programme of professional development directed at supporting artists of all disciplines to work collaboratively in a range of contexts. The purpose of this programme is to support artists in Arts and Health and Arts and Education. In 2007 Sligo Arts Service, via Sligo Music Education Partnership, commenced a training programme for musicians and teachers, working in collaboration with Sligo Education Centre. Professional development opportunities for artists is also at the core of the Visual Arts Awareness Programme which has been delivered in partnership with Sligo Art Gallery since 2004 - incorporating an annual curated exhibition in Sligo Art Gallery for young people and an artist-led participative programme in the gallery and schools.

GRANTS AND BURSARIES

Each year the Arts Department invests in grants and bursaries for arts programmes and projects in the county. Through the Community Arts Act Grants, the Arts Department assisted over 20 artists, arts groups and organisations in both rural and urban areas to use the arts to build their communities. A two week residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre which is an artist’s retreat and workplace was awarded to local artist Heidi Wickham to work on a specific visual arts project. Through the Annual Grants Programme the Arts Department supports a number of important arts festivals that take place in Sligo throughout the year as well as numerous cultural events, such as the ever growing Sligo Live Festival.

INFORMATION AND RESOURCING

Sligo Arts Service continue the day-to-day provision of a high quality arts information service. The resources on the website www.sligoarts.ie include a guide to what’s on in the region, art features profiling art projects and artists, a directory of local artists and the Sligo Arts Monthly E-Bulletin.