Festivals in Limerick

Excursions: January 24th - 26th
Excursions is an interdisciplinary performance festival that will take place in Limerick City from Thursday 24th January to Saturday 26th January 2008. The festival acts as a platform for contemporary performance artists and will include Irish artists’ performances alongside international invited artists. Venues include The Belltable Arts Centre, Limerick City Gallery of Art and public spaces.  Supported by Limerick City Council and The Arts Council

Location : Belltable Arts Centre, Limerick City Gallery of Art, City centre venues
Email : artsoffice@limerickcity.ie
www.limerickcity.ie

Unfringed: 13th – 23rd February
Limerick’s landmark performance festival.  Belltable and other venues in Limerick.  Unfringed is back with a packed programme of drama, music, comedy and multidisciplinary events.
www.belltable.ie

Mamuska – 15th February
Mamuska Nights is an independent organization dedicated to the creation of socially meaningful arts events and the development of collaborative networks. Mamuska Nights are  a multi-disciplinary art event conceived as an open space for encounters and artistic expression - where to be inspired and socialise. A cash bar is provided. Admission is free

Location : Daghdha Space, John’s Square
Email : mail@mamuskanights.net or web page www.mamuskanights.net

Kate O’Brien Weekend: 29th February – March 2nd.
In 1984 Arlen House held a seminar in Limerick to mark the tenth anniversary of Kate O'Brien's death, Arising from the success of this event, the Kate O'Brien Committee was formed and it was decided to hold an annual literary weekend in Limerick in honour of the city's most famous deceased author. This hear the theme of the Weekend is ‘The Transforming Power of Money’ and speakers include Don Thornhill, John Bird, Siobhan Barry, Mrs. Moneypenny, Conor Bowman
Email : info@kobweekend.com
www.kobweekend.com

Fresh Film Festival: 3rd – 9th March
The Fresh Film Festival is a unique event in the Irish Cinematic Calendar. Now in its ? year, the Fresh Film Festival caters solely for a youth audience and has at its core Ireland’s Young Filmmaker of the Year Award, which holds creativity as its maxim. This competition is aimed at encouraging young people to make films about their own lives and the things that interest them. The festival is non-profit making, aimed specifically at the 7 to 18 age group.
Location : Belltable Arts Centre, 69 O’Connell Street
Email : info@freshfilmfestival.net
www.freshfilmfestival.net

Limerick Festival of Church Music 29th February - 2nd March
This Festival, which was founded in the 1940s, continued until the Millennium Year, went into abeyance for a few years but was re-established in 2004.  It utilises Limerick City Churches as venues and choirs from all around the country come to participate.  The events include a Primary School Choirs Competition, a Post-Primary Schools (Equal Voice) Competition, a Post-Primary Schools (Mixed Voice) Competition, a Youth Choirs Competition, a Sacred Music Competition, Church Choir and Plainchant Competitions www.churchmusiclimerick.com

ev+a exhibition of visual art. March 7th to May 26th
OPEN / INVITED e v+ a 2008

Curator: Hou Hanru (China/France/USA)
The 32nd annual e v+ a exhibition brings before Limerick audiences the international expertise of the prominent contemporary, Curator Hou, whose work in 2007 included the Istanbul Biennale and the Chinese pavilion at the Venice Biennale.  For Limerick he has selected 14 artists for INVITED e v+ a and 23 artists for OPEN e v+ a  whose origins and artistic practices stem widely from cultures in Asia, Europe and the Americas, and broadly in the media, styles and genres that characterise the best of contemporary art. Hou’s guiding theme expressed in the working title of the e v+ a project, Too Early For Vacation, rather than standing for any kind of escape from reality calls for actions of engagement with all those pressing issues that transform today’s globe.

Locations : Limerick City Gallery of Art, Belltable Arts Centre, St. Mary’s Cathedral, The Hunt Museum, King John's Castle
Email : info@eva.ie
www.eva.ie

Limerick Spring Fest & International Band competition: March 14th – 17th
Limerick plays host to the St. Patrick’s Spring Fest and Limerick International Band Festival with something for all the family. Highlights of the week include the Limerick International Marching Band Competition, St Patrick’s Day Parade and post parade festivities at the Pery Square Fair bringing music, dance, markets and street theatre to Georgian Limerick.   A wealth of exciting concerts and events running in various venues around the city provided even more choice for festival-goers, with music, comedy, theatre and sport events adding to a week-long programme of wonderful entertainment for all tastes. www.festivalslimerick.com

Limerick River-Fest: May 1st – 5th
Riverfest is limerick's biggest annual event, a developing festival designed to showcase and celebrate all that's great about limerick city, from the resource of the river Shannon, to our music, sporting, fashion, artistic, food communities and many more.  Join us over the may bank holiday weekend, and enjoy everything and anything. whether you're 6 or 66, you'll find plenty to keep you smiling in limerick during the may bank holiday weekend, and indeed, all year round. www.festivalslimerick.com

Bealtaine, celebrating creativity in older age May 2008

Bealtaine 2008 will be the 13th national festival celebrating creativity in older age.  The programme in Limerick includes

National Drawing Day at Limerick City Gallery of Art 24th May
The Sapphaire Trio from Limerick’s sister City of Spokane
A bus tour of e v+ a 2008
Story telling at Limerick City Library

The Hunt Museum Summer Exhibition Programme : June 6th - 31st August
Irish Women Artists 1940's to the present day.  A comprehensive exhibition celebrates the achievement of women artists in Ireland from the irish Exhibition of Living Art in 1943 to the present day.  Featuring established and emerging artists.
www.huntmuseum.com

Blas International Summer School of Irish Traditional Music & Dance: June 23rd to July 4th
Blas International Summer School of Irish Traditional Music and Dance is an internationally accredited summer school hosted annually by the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance and set on the magnificent campus at the University of Limerick, Blas follows the ethos of the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance where practical performance skills in music and dance are given equal footing with the academic study of the tradition. This ethos permeates the Blas programme structure and design. www.blas.ie

MBNA Shannon International Music Festival 9th - 13th July
The Irish Chamber Orchestra, which is resident at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, is at the heart of the emerging College of Performing Arts at the University of Limerick, where an International String School offering a Master of Arts Degree in classical string performance has been established.  During the month of July a five day fest of vivid music making features twelve lunctime, afternoon, evening and candlelight concerts with celebrated national and international guest artists from Europe to the USA.
email : ico@ul.ie or check the web page www.irishchamberorchestra.info

Summer Music on the Shannon: July 21st – August 15th 2008
Ever since its inaugural season in 1994, Summer Music on the Shannon (SMS) has been committed to a programme designed to provide accessiblity to international standards of music instruction and performance excellence. Summer Music on the Shannon combines the enthusiasm and excitement generated by young performers with the high performance standards of professional musicians from Ireland and other countries. www.summermusicontheshannon.com

Limerick Acoustic Academy and Guitar Festival – 19th - 25th August
A festival of instrumental music, that includes classes, workshops, lunchtime concerts and performances. www.dolans.ie

Cuisle, Limerick City International Poetry Festival:October 15th – 18th
Limericks’ long association with poetry makes Cuisle the perfect opportunity and place for audiences to extend their experience of poetry during four festival days of convivial discussion readings, book launches and workshops with the leading contemporary poets of our time.

Location: Belltable Arts Centre, The White House Pub, Limerick City Library, Daghdha Space
Email : artsoffice@limerickcity.ie or check the web on  www.limerickcity.ie

Cuisle, Young Poet of the Year Competition
How to write a good poem
Poems can be about anything - your brother, your pet hamster, going swimming - anything that matters to you. Things that happen in your life: special occasions or everyday events, a friendship, a smile, a broken window. Things that amuse or disappoint you, scare you or make you happy.  Send your poems to The Arts Office, Limerick City Council, City Hall, Merchant’s Quay.

o Entries are invited in THREE CATEGORIES:
(i) age 8-12;
(ii) age 12-15
(iii) age 16 -18
o Poets must be under 12, 15, 18 years old on 26th September, 2007, in accordance with the categories of the competition.
o There is no entry fee
o Entries for Cuisle Young Poet of the Year Competition 2007 may be on any subject.
o Poems may not consist of more than 30 lines
o Entries are welcomed in both Irish and English
Closing date for receipt of entries is 31st August 2008

Sionna Festival of Music & Dance: November 10th to 16th
The Sionna Festival, hosted by the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick, is a celebration of music, song and dance, featuring performers from Ireland, England, Scotland, Hungary, France, India and the USA, taking place in venues throughout Limerick city.
Location : UCH, and City Centre Venues
www.sionna.com

Gravity & Grace: December 11th to 14th
The Gravity & Grace Festival annual International Dance Festival that presents profound dancing in a pleasantly alternative environment. The festival embodies the energy and exploration of contemporary dance by Irish and international artists. Everyone is welcome to attended from dance enthusiasts to weary shoppers keen to escape the cold winter days, nights and the hustle and bustle leading up to Christmas Day.

Location : Daghdha Space, John’s Squar
Email : info@daghdha.ie
www.daghdha.ie

The White House Poets - Every Wednesday at 9pm
Every Wednesday during the year a poetry reading takes place in the White House Pub on O’Connell Street.  The event includes an open mic session beginning at 9pm following by a reading of poetry by an established poet.

Limerick City Gallery of Art Spring Season
Date: January 17th - February 24th (Truckscapes)
          January 22nd – February 14th (DA °8)

This year the Spring Season consists of two events. The first is the exciting Truckscapes, Drawings from a mobile Studio by Sligo based artist nick Miller. Truckscapes presents work made over the last ten years of large-scale ink drawings which make a direct engagement with the landscape. The second event is the DA °8, Limerick School of Art & Design Drawing Awards. This is the third annual instalment of this event that puts emphasis on drawing. The curator of DA °8 is prominent Dutch artist Arno Kramer. Ultimately the event concentrates on the practice of drawing while celebrating the diversity, talent and innovation of LSAD students. 

Location: The Limerick City Gallery of Art.
Website: www.limerick.ie/LCGA/ContactLCGA/
Email: artgallery@limerickcity.ie
Contact: 061 - 310633

Limerick City Gallery of Art Summer Season
Date: 13th June – September 21st.

Three exceptional shows will run at LCGA from June 13th to September 21st. The first of these is Works from the Stedelijk which is a major exhibition of works from the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Pieces are to be selected by curator Mike Fitzpatrick. The Stedelijk possesses a vast collection from late 19th to early 21st century Art. The Limerick City Gallery of Art exhibition will make a representative selection of the collections internationally renowned artists, with a focus on drawings and prints. Simultaneously the Gallery presents Walter Verling Retrospective. This is the first major retrospective of honoured painter Walter Verling HRHA, who worked in Limerick for many years. Verling’s lyrical use of paint and strong passion for recording natural occurrences is placed in the context of Irish landscape painting.  

The Summer Season continues to promote emerging artists with ConTemporary, an investigative platform for contemporary art practices. Emerging artists confront the gallery space by creating both site specific and temporal works. Curated by Susan Holland, Shinnors Scholarship and LCGA.

Location: The Limerick City Gallery of Art.
Website: www.limerick.ie/LCGA/ContactLCGA/
Email: artgallery@limerickcity.ie
Contact: 061 - 310633

Limerick City Gallery of Art Autumn Season
Date: October 3rd – November 23rd.

This year artist development is focal with the commissioning of two major solo exhibitions for the Autumn Season.

Limerick City Gallery of Art presents Simon Starling the first exhibition of the Turner Prize-winner’s work in Ireland. The exhibition will show existing work together with a newly commissioned site specific work which is currently in development. Starling process involves the breaking down of specific histories which he re-uses and reconstructs through his evolving transformation of objects.                   

It’s Good to Be Back is a major solo exhibition at the Gallery by artist Michael McLoughlin. The exhibition is currently evolving from interaction with the local community, including the artists participation in bingo events; both in Limerick and in his own locality in Dublin. McLoughlin presents a series of light and sound based installation pieces, which represent his own efforts to document and make tangible the movement of people.

Location: The Limerick City Gallery of Art.
Website: www.limerick.ie/LCGA/ContactLCGA/
Email: artgallery@limerickcity.ie
Contact: 061 - 310633