The strangest of years for the arts is to have some familiarity at last, with Culture Night 2020 set to take place on Friday September 18th.
Having started in Dublin in 2006, this year’s Culture Night will comprise of a mixture of physical and virtual events, spread across all 32 Irish counties and as far as Berlin, London, Paris and New York.
Culture Night’s hybrid programme of online and physical events will be free for all, with the aim of making culture as accessible as possible for all audiences.
The Arts Council is the main funder for Culture Night for the first time in 2020, and ahead of the event their new director Maureen Kennelly said: "While this year presents new challenges for the cultural sector, we see Culture Night as a fantastic opportunity for artists, arts organisations and audiences to connect, online and offline, and to celebrate the value that the arts brings to our lives.
“The Arts Council’s ‘Paying The Artist’ and ‘Equality, Human Rights and Diversity’ policies are key considerations in the planning for this year’s event, and we envisage that Culture Night will be part of our path to return to creativity and culture in new, inclusive and exciting ways.”
With many people pining to be able to absorb some culture after the Covid-19 lockdown put things on hold, here is a look at some of the physical events you can attend on Culture Night:
- Galway International Arts Festival has commissioned Irish artist John Gerrard to create two extraordinary artworks responding to the escalating climate crisis. ‘Mirror Pavilion’ will be installed first in Galway City and then in Connemara as part of Galway 2020, European Capital of Culture.
- The Kildare Covid Notebook project will launch insights from 150 Kildare residents– from cocooners to teenagers– showcasing to future generations their experiences during Covid-19.
- Experience Tilt by Croí Glan in Skibbereen, County Cork, an Aerial Dance Theatre show centred around a pole that flies, falls and circles, a metaphor for instability and change in an unstable world.
- At Roscommon Arts Centre and King House in Boyle, view an outdoor visual representation of Douglas Hyde's poem 'A Poem To be Said On Hearing the Birds Sing'.
- Iseli-Chiodi Dance Company and The Source Arts Centre in Tipperary present ‘Miss Orbit’, a durational and swirling in situ dance performance on the boardwalk of the Centre for audiences to witness behind glass.
- Dunamaise in Laois will host the first of a season of Live Gigs as they welcome back audiences after long months of lockdown.
- Clonbur le Chéile invites you to an interactive sound walk of Clonbur woods in County Galway.
- Explore the world of puppetry with the children’s theatre company Branar Téatar do Pháistí in a special puppet making online workshop hosted by the Model in Sligo .
Culture Night was launched in Dublin on Wednesday through the unveiling of Culture Night Trailblazers: “a group of artists and performers that showcases the scale and diversity of culture in Ireland.”
Comedian, author and podcaster Maeve Higgins was named the Inaugural International Culture Night Trailblazer for 2020.
Culture Night also confirmed that: “As per government guidelines on Covid-19 social distancing measures will be adhered for physical happenings and performances.”
A full list of events for Culture Night 2020 - both online and physical - can be found at culturenight.ie.
