Publications
- Annual Report 2005
- Community and Enterprise
- Arts Office
County Sligo Arts Department
In 2005 the County Sligo Arts Plan 2002-2005 The Brightening Air was successfully concluded.
The Plan articulated the strategic role of the Sligo Local Authorities both in terms of the Arts Department’s programme, and the broader role played by the County Council in supporting artists, arts organisations and arts development generally both directly and indirectly
2005 saw the final stages of the three-year Artists in Context (Theory Into Practice) and the Arts in New Technologies projects, creating new opportunities for artists in their professional development. Since 2003, the learning and experience gained from key-note presentations and workshops delivered by specialists in the fields of Arts and Health, Multiculturalism, Education and Disability, highlighted good practice nationally and internationally. The partnership between the Sligo Arts Department and Sligo Leader Partnership Company facilitated artists on the programme to carry out their own arts projects in communities throughout the County. A brochure for the Artists in Context III was published documenting each of the projects and a showcase exhibition, entitled Hands On was held in the Sligo Art Gallery during December.
Each year the Arts Department invests in grants and bursaries for arts programs and projects in the County. The call for applications was advertised through the local media in February and the number of applications was up on the previous year. Through the Community Arts Act Grants, the Arts Department assisted 26 artists, arts groups and organisations in both rural and urban areas to use the arts to build their communities. The Arts Project Fund ran for the second time in 2005 and of the 23 very high quality submissions, six were awarded the opportunity to develop and produce a new work or project. A two week residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre which is an artist’s retreat and workplace was awarded to three local artists to work on their specific projects in the artforms of music, literature and the visual arts.
In November 2005 the Sligo Arts Department launched the comprehensive website www.sligoarts.ie. The website provides information on all artforms in Sligo, to promote and support the ongoing development of arts projects and those who work in the arts. Important features of the website include a guide to what’s on in the region, a directory profiling local artists in all artforms and opportunities available to them and a features section which profiles those who work in the arts, and case-studies of projects.
Sligo hosted the Irish part of the International Visual Art Project, Site-ations, which involved ten artist led groups from across Europe responding to the theme of Sense of Place. After initial visits to Sligo in the spring, the eight selected artists returned in August for three weeks and worked on their projects and chosen sites. There was a series of lunchtime talks and education projects that took place in conjunction with an exhibition of work in the Model Arts and Niland Gallery. The Site-Ations International 2005/06 cycle of events will be completed in June 2006 with a colloquia taking place in Sligo.
Through the Arts Advisory/Mentoring Scheme the Arts Department supported the development of voluntary and community writing, amateur drama and the visual arts. The work carried out through the Mentoring Scheme in 2005 produced valuable findings that will be very useful in contributing to the next Arts Plan 2007-2010.
In 2005, the County Sligo Youth Theatre (CSYT) members visited both the Galway and Mayo Youth Theatres and developed links and friendships between the groups, sharing ideas as well as working together on group presentations. CSYT were especially proud to host Our Stories / Their Stories in schools and theatre venues as well as a re-run later in the year. Members of the youth theatre worked together with the Sligo Active Age Group, and directed by members of the Blue Raincoat Theatre Company, performed in the summer Cairde Festival in the Factory Performance Space. Ongoing workshops continued with professional practitioners from a wide variety of performance backgrounds, and the Open Day in September resulted in an intake of new members in both the junior and senior youth theatre groups.
The Arts Department continued to produce and advance the Sligo Events Quarterly, an arts and cultural listings brochure throughout 2005. This brochure includes events of all cultural venues in the County, a promotion service free of charge to the venues. The Sligo Arts E-Bulletin informed a wide and interested audience on a monthly basis of regional arts and cultural news, events and funding opportunities.
In 2005 the Arts & Health Working Group use themed programmes to demonstrate the potential and benefits of a more strategic approach to arts and health work within the Health Services Executive and Local Authorities. Initiated with St. Anne’s Youth & Community Centre, the programme expanded to include new groups in Ballymote, Calry, Easkey and Cliffoney. May is the month to celebrate creativity in older age through the national Bealtaine Festival and this festival provides an opportunity for all groups involved to showcase artwork created as part of the annual programme.
The Intergenerational Arts Projects continued in Abbeyquarter and Maugherow and a team of artists using various art forms delivered creative workshops to older people from the areas together with the teachers and primary school children. The aim was to improve the quality of people’s experience of arts in these contexts and the project budgets were expended on Artists Workshop Fees, Art Materials, Outings to local galleries, mounting annual community exhibition of art work and transport costs.
In music, the May Bank Holiday weekend welcomed the Vogler Spring Festival 2005. The focus was on Brahms and Schubert alongside lesser known repertoire by Russian composers and included a wide-ranging mixture of the best of Irish and international chamber musicians and singers. As a local partner in the Vogler Quartet in Sligo Residency Programme, Con Brio produced a very successful annual Sligo Music Series, including, for example Homage to Hayden concert in January performed by very special guests from Austria. There was also a look at music from Irish composers Elaine Agnew, Deirdre McKay and Ian Wilson and an opportunity to hear the up and coming Young Con Brio.
The programme of work in 2005 for appointed researcher of The Vogler Partners Steering Group involved the analysis of the Vogler primary curriculum support programme. The organising partners intend to channel their enhanced understandings of education and local music development into policy and provision at both local and national level. The music development findings produced by this process will be published in a report in 2006.
The Plan articulated the strategic role of the Sligo Local Authorities both in terms of the Arts Department’s programme, and the broader role played by the County Council in supporting artists, arts organisations and arts development generally both directly and indirectly
2005 saw the final stages of the three-year Artists in Context (Theory Into Practice) and the Arts in New Technologies projects, creating new opportunities for artists in their professional development. Since 2003, the learning and experience gained from key-note presentations and workshops delivered by specialists in the fields of Arts and Health, Multiculturalism, Education and Disability, highlighted good practice nationally and internationally. The partnership between the Sligo Arts Department and Sligo Leader Partnership Company facilitated artists on the programme to carry out their own arts projects in communities throughout the County. A brochure for the Artists in Context III was published documenting each of the projects and a showcase exhibition, entitled Hands On was held in the Sligo Art Gallery during December.
Each year the Arts Department invests in grants and bursaries for arts programs and projects in the County. The call for applications was advertised through the local media in February and the number of applications was up on the previous year. Through the Community Arts Act Grants, the Arts Department assisted 26 artists, arts groups and organisations in both rural and urban areas to use the arts to build their communities. The Arts Project Fund ran for the second time in 2005 and of the 23 very high quality submissions, six were awarded the opportunity to develop and produce a new work or project. A two week residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre which is an artist’s retreat and workplace was awarded to three local artists to work on their specific projects in the artforms of music, literature and the visual arts.
In November 2005 the Sligo Arts Department launched the comprehensive website www.sligoarts.ie. The website provides information on all artforms in Sligo, to promote and support the ongoing development of arts projects and those who work in the arts. Important features of the website include a guide to what’s on in the region, a directory profiling local artists in all artforms and opportunities available to them and a features section which profiles those who work in the arts, and case-studies of projects.
Sligo hosted the Irish part of the International Visual Art Project, Site-ations, which involved ten artist led groups from across Europe responding to the theme of Sense of Place. After initial visits to Sligo in the spring, the eight selected artists returned in August for three weeks and worked on their projects and chosen sites. There was a series of lunchtime talks and education projects that took place in conjunction with an exhibition of work in the Model Arts and Niland Gallery. The Site-Ations International 2005/06 cycle of events will be completed in June 2006 with a colloquia taking place in Sligo.
Through the Arts Advisory/Mentoring Scheme the Arts Department supported the development of voluntary and community writing, amateur drama and the visual arts. The work carried out through the Mentoring Scheme in 2005 produced valuable findings that will be very useful in contributing to the next Arts Plan 2007-2010.
In 2005, the County Sligo Youth Theatre (CSYT) members visited both the Galway and Mayo Youth Theatres and developed links and friendships between the groups, sharing ideas as well as working together on group presentations. CSYT were especially proud to host Our Stories / Their Stories in schools and theatre venues as well as a re-run later in the year. Members of the youth theatre worked together with the Sligo Active Age Group, and directed by members of the Blue Raincoat Theatre Company, performed in the summer Cairde Festival in the Factory Performance Space. Ongoing workshops continued with professional practitioners from a wide variety of performance backgrounds, and the Open Day in September resulted in an intake of new members in both the junior and senior youth theatre groups.
The Arts Department continued to produce and advance the Sligo Events Quarterly, an arts and cultural listings brochure throughout 2005. This brochure includes events of all cultural venues in the County, a promotion service free of charge to the venues. The Sligo Arts E-Bulletin informed a wide and interested audience on a monthly basis of regional arts and cultural news, events and funding opportunities.
In 2005 the Arts & Health Working Group use themed programmes to demonstrate the potential and benefits of a more strategic approach to arts and health work within the Health Services Executive and Local Authorities. Initiated with St. Anne’s Youth & Community Centre, the programme expanded to include new groups in Ballymote, Calry, Easkey and Cliffoney. May is the month to celebrate creativity in older age through the national Bealtaine Festival and this festival provides an opportunity for all groups involved to showcase artwork created as part of the annual programme.
The Intergenerational Arts Projects continued in Abbeyquarter and Maugherow and a team of artists using various art forms delivered creative workshops to older people from the areas together with the teachers and primary school children. The aim was to improve the quality of people’s experience of arts in these contexts and the project budgets were expended on Artists Workshop Fees, Art Materials, Outings to local galleries, mounting annual community exhibition of art work and transport costs.
In music, the May Bank Holiday weekend welcomed the Vogler Spring Festival 2005. The focus was on Brahms and Schubert alongside lesser known repertoire by Russian composers and included a wide-ranging mixture of the best of Irish and international chamber musicians and singers. As a local partner in the Vogler Quartet in Sligo Residency Programme, Con Brio produced a very successful annual Sligo Music Series, including, for example Homage to Hayden concert in January performed by very special guests from Austria. There was also a look at music from Irish composers Elaine Agnew, Deirdre McKay and Ian Wilson and an opportunity to hear the up and coming Young Con Brio.
The programme of work in 2005 for appointed researcher of The Vogler Partners Steering Group involved the analysis of the Vogler primary curriculum support programme. The organising partners intend to channel their enhanced understandings of education and local music development into policy and provision at both local and national level. The music development findings produced by this process will be published in a report in 2006.
Public Art
The current series of public art commissions, entitled, Unravelling Developments was launched in May by Mayor Declan Bree in City Hall. The ten commissions in the series running from 2004 to 2006 highlight the unprecedented level of capital investment in the infrastructure and housing provision of the Borough and County.
The Per Cent for Art Scheme funded by the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government allows the Local Authorities to commission original work from contemporary artists, adding to the impressive collection of art held by the Local Authorities for the public to enjoy.
2005 saw the launch of a CD of Sligo Stories and Songs by commissioned author, Jack Harte in Dromore West. A new music commission by composer, Ian Wilson was launched and aired in public locations in the city in November and over the summer a series of large scale photographs appeared on a billboard in Enniscrone by the artist Dara McGrath. A bronze sculpture by the artist, Elizabeth Caffrey was jointly commissioned with the Grange and District Development Company and was installed in the park in Grange.
The Per Cent for Art Scheme funded by the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government allows the Local Authorities to commission original work from contemporary artists, adding to the impressive collection of art held by the Local Authorities for the public to enjoy.
2005 saw the launch of a CD of Sligo Stories and Songs by commissioned author, Jack Harte in Dromore West. A new music commission by composer, Ian Wilson was launched and aired in public locations in the city in November and over the summer a series of large scale photographs appeared on a billboard in Enniscrone by the artist Dara McGrath. A bronze sculpture by the artist, Elizabeth Caffrey was jointly commissioned with the Grange and District Development Company and was installed in the park in Grange.
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