SOCIETY MUST continue to “take risks with art” and allow for failure, which is an integral part of creativity, the Arts Council chairwoman Pat Moylan has said.
Opening the Galway Arts Festival last night, Ms Moylan said that while the economy was “risk averse”, society cannot “turn on and off” its commitment to those who are creative.
“Any time we put an artist in front of a canvas, we don’t necessarily have any guarantees about the result, but this is how art is created – not in a foolproof way, and there is always a risk it won’t succeed,” she said.
“If we don’t continue to fund the arts, we could find ourselves in a few years’ time in an artless society,” she said.
Paying tribute to the Galway Arts Festival for its energy and enthusiasm for “risk”, Ms Moylan noted that the event’s economic value was close to €20 million in 2009, with 190,000 visitors.
“One has to continue to make an economic argument,” she said, but it shouldn’t have to be the case.
Ms Moylan noted NUI Galway’s partnership with the festival this year, through its new volunteer programme involving 10 graduate students.
The selected group have been given passes for shows, post-show talks, workshops and masterclasses, while also assisting organisers as part of a “hothousing” training initiative.
The festival's opening show last night was the world premiere of Enda Walsh's Misterman, starring Cillian Murphy, in the Black Box Theatre.
Artists from Africa, North America, Asia, Australia and Europe have been booked for this year’s programme, along with Irish productions.
Highlights include the return of the all-male Shakespeare theatre company Propeller, under the direction of Edward Hall, with a double-bill of Shakespeare's Richard IIIand The Comedy of Errors.
Corcadorca is presenting Request Programme, with Eileen Walsh and directed by Pat Kiernan, in a city centre apartment, while Fishamble Theatre Company is staging Silentby Pat Kinevane in the Druid Theatre.
The Macnas parade, which includes a strong volunteer element drawn from the city populace, takes to the streets next Sunday night from the Spanish Arch – with the title This Fierce Beauty.
French acrobatic and circus artists Les Philébulistes are also part of the street programme, with Arcane, in Eyre Square tomorrow and Thursday at 2pm and 6pm.
The festival's extensive visual arts programme opened on Sunday with Hughie O'Donoghue's The Road. He speaks about his work today at 2pm at the temporary festival gallery in Galway Shopping Centre on the Headford road.
Some 14 separate free art exhibitions, including the work of Charles Lamb in Connemara, are at the Galway City Museum.
Music ranges from Blondie to Afrocubism to Iarla Ó Lionáird and Iris DeMent, and Brassroots, who played at the festival opening last night.
Also opening this week for a fortnight is the Galway Loves Theatre festival at Nun’s Island Theatre.
The concept behind this new event is to allow greater participation by Galway artists, according to director Paraic Breathnach.
Only one of two Galway Youth Theatre submissions to this year’s arts festival was accepted, which effectively meant that the city-owned Nun’s Island venue would have been booked for only one performance a day. It will now present five different productions.
Among highlights are Grenadesby Tara McKevitt, Electric Bridget's new comedy Chat Show,while Woody Allen's Writer's Blockis also on the programme, with tickets at €12 and €14.
