Arts and Cultural Services

VOLUNTEER CENTRE 2009:

Sligo Arts Service and Programme 2009

Sligo Arts Service develops the arts in Sligo, so that the distinct contribution of the arts to people’s lives is fostered. Sligo Arts Service makes available high quality experiences across the arts to the benefit of Sligo citizens, visitors and artists. Employing a range of support mechanisms and working with a variety of partners, Sligo Arts Service works to ensure that Sligo’s long-standing reputation as a cultural county is secured and built upon.

In its Annual Budget Sligo County Council made funding provision that supports the individual artist, together with vital support for arts venues, networks, festivals, events, commissions, residencies, programmes and projects. Budgetary cutbacks impacted on the allocation of grants and on programme provision.

Under Contribution to the Arts, Sligo County Council provides significant support to Sligo’s important network of arts organisations who have national and international reach, namely The Model, Blue Raincoat Theatre Company, Sligo Art Gallery, The Hawk’s Well Theatre and Sligo Live. These organisations act as core infrastructural pillars that support artists and arts projects. Furthermore, they provide employment and do important outreach and education work with communities across the city and county. Maintaining support to these organisations through the downturn will be crucial to sustaining Sligo’s reputation as a ‘cultural county’.

Sligo County Council also provides essential financial support to a broad range of voluntary and community based festivals and events and to individual artists through contributions and advertised grant/bursary schemes. Sligo Arts Service regards this network as the backbone of arts and cultural activity at local level.

Sligo County Council Arts Service delivers high quality public arts services for the people of Sligo, together with a highly regarded annual arts programme that is responsive to local community need. Through its strategy ‘Space for Art’ (Sligo Arts Plan 2007-2012) provision is made for safeguarding the cultural and artistic life of the city and county.

Culture Night Sligo

Sligo City celebrated its first Culture Night on Friday the 25th September from 6-10pm and the phenomenal success of the initiative has illustrated the transformative power of Arts and Culture in a time of recession. The streets of Sligo were alive on Culture Night with thousands of people pouring into the city streets to socialise and to take advantage of the diverse range of free events on offer. Sligo’s offering was one of the largest of the nationwide Culture Night programme, and illustrated the rich diversity of artistic life in the county.

Culture Night was co-ordinated locally by Sligo Arts Service, nationally by Temple Bar Cultural Trust. The event was funded by Sligo Borough Council, Sligo County Council, the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism and RAPID and delivered by artists, local arts organisations, cultural groups and the individuals listed in the programme of events. Bus Eireann Sligo came on board as a key partner through the Sligo Music Bus concept.

Culture Night Sligo offered Sligo citizens of all ages a great opportunity to explore a creative Sligo. 50 free cultural events and workshops provided a snap shot of Sligo’s arts and cultural offer.

Peace III

In 2009 Sligo Arts Service successfully secured funding to deliver two innovative Peace III projects; The Yeatsian Legacy with partners The Model, Institute of Technology Sligo and Omagh District Council; and The Legacy of Belief. Over a 2 year period 2009-2010, these projects will engage with communities in Sligo, Derry, Omagh, Belfast and Portadown through cross border, cross community and cross cultural programmes that work towards peace and reconciliation, and, through creating these events and opportunities, celebrate the rich cultural diversity that exists in Sligo. These Projects are delivered by Sligo Arts Service and Partners, supported by the PEACE III Programme, managed for the Special EU Programmes Body by Sligo County Council on behalf of Sligo Peace and Reconciliation Partnership Committee.

Per Cent for Art

In 2009 the Public Art commissions series Unravelling Developments concluded having produced 10 art projects in the county and city. These projects were funded solely by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government “Per Cent for Art Scheme”. The commissions involved significant levels of community involvement, which proved to be very popular. Feedback from the public confirmed that the projects completed are of high artistic quality and capture distinctive aspects of Sligo. 

 
- Art at Salmon Amenity Area 

MUSIC PROGRAMME

Sligo celebrated the 10th Vogler Spring Festival with another gathering of outstanding Irish and International performers. Having secured a place as one of Ireland’s most distinguished classical music festivals, the festival at St Columba’s Church Drumcliffe once again played host to many of the world’s great musicians and composers. Over the four-day May Bank Holiday weekend capacity audiences attended nine concerts covering three hundred years of music. Music critic Michael Dervan was commissioned by Sligo Arts Service to write an article marking 10 years of the Vogler Spring Festival 2000-2009. The article looked at classical music performance/promotion in Ireland, and the issues affecting Sligo and the regions, as a background to the Vogler Quartet in Sligo residency 1999-2004 and the first Vogler Spring Festival 2000.

SLIGO MUSIC FESTIVALS

The Sligo Music Festivals Report by Fergus Sheil offered the commissioners (Sligo Arts Service and The Model) a range of individual recommendations to maximise the work of the three key festivals at the centre of the report - Sligo New Music Festival, Sligo Festival of Baroque Music and the Vogler Spring Festival - as well as making a significant recommendation to the development of music more broadly in Sligo. Sligo Arts Service presented the findings and recommendations of the report to the music sector in Sligo and work is ongoing and will be further developed in 2010 to promote and develop Sligo Music.

Sligo Arts Service funded Con Brio to run the high calibre Sligo Music Series and Sligo Jazz Project in hosting the annual August event which brings top international jazz professionals to tutor and perform in Sligo town.

LOCAL AUTHORITIES AND MUSIC: KNOWING THE SCORE

Following the completion of a two year research project examining Local Authorities’ contribution to music development in Ireland, a National Music Symposium was held during March 2009 to launch the research report. Entitled “Local Authorities and Music: Knowing the Score,” this publication is the result of a partnership project between Wexford County Council, Sligo County Council, St. Patrick’s College, Drumcondra and the Arts Council, which was undertaken by Research Fellow Ailbhe Kenny, St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra. This publication recognises Local Authorities as a vital part of the current and future infrastructure for music development in Ireland.

ARTS AND EDUCATION

For over a decade Live Music in the Classroom Phases 1 and 2 and Visual Arts Awareness Programme Primary Colours have fostered innovative, longterm partnerships between primary schools and creative professionals in County Sligo. These partnerships involve artists, performers and teachers working in new ways to inspire thousands of children, and to challenge how they work and experiment with new ideas.

ARTS AND HEALTH

Sligo has an adopted policy and strategic framework for arts and health, as expressed in the ‘HE+ART’ Arts and Health Strategy 2007-2012. In the intervening two years aspects of the strategy such as the implementation of core programme strands focusing on Older People and Children and the Arts in Mental Health have been implemented, but due to the economic downturn the setting up of an Arts and Health Service for Sligo has been put on hold. Augmented by local, national and international research, ‘HE+ART’ taps into over a decade of learning acquired by health service users, older people, children, artists, arts administrators and health professionals.

The annual programme of arts and health work in partnership with the HSE West Services for Older Peoples and Health Promotion is ongoing in schools and community groups and the Bealtaine Festival Sligo again celebrated creativity in older age community with a month long festival of events, workshops and exhibitions. Among numerous events, singer Cathy Jordan was commissioned to write and perform a new song ‘These Old Feet’ and photographer James Fraher exhibited a stunning exhibition of portraits of older people from around the city and county.

COUNTY SLIGO YOUTH THEATRE

Never has there been a time where it is more important to provide forums and opportunities for young people to develop and explore their creative talent. Sligo Arts Service views youth theatre as a pivotal resource for the development of youth arts in the city and county invests in it accordingly by funding the independent Board of County Sligo Youth Theatre and its professional Director to deliver one major production and a weekly programme of workshops. It is worth highlighting that a number of former Youth Theatre members have set up their own enterprises in Sligo e.g. Daft Antics.