Kilkenny Arts Festival Programme 2009 by Kilkenny Arts Festival

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Board of Directors Emer Foley (chair), Fergus Cronin, Susan Proud, Maureen Kennelly, Anna O’Sullivan, Conor Langton, Thomas O’Toole, Michael O’Toole, Isabell Smyth, Orla Kelly, Gobnait Kearney, Brian Kiely.

Festival Team Chief Executive Damian Downes Marketing Director Brendan Rice Office Manager Valerie Ryan Local PR Co-ordinator Cathy Power Programme Co-ordinator Jacqui Dempsey Production Manager Michael Burke Publicity Christine Monk Social Media Maestro Layla O’Meara Volunteer Co-ordinator Niamh Duffe Marketing Executive Bryan O’Regan Marketing Intern Emilie Le Goff Artist Liaison Liz Nolan Artist Liaison Gwen O’Sullivan Graphic Design A&D Web Design Pixel Design IT Support Tectrix Web Maintenance Spot On Festival image Alé Mercado

Curators Street Kilkenny Arts Festival Team Theatre/Dance Tom Creed Classical Music Susan Proud Music Gerry Godley Wired Matthew Nolan Literature Colm Tóibín Visual Art Aisling Prior Craft Angela O’Kelly Children’s Events Joe Brennan SYMBOLS GUIDE Wheelchair Accessible

Not Wheelchair Accessible

Funding Bodies

Kilkenny Arts Festival thanks the curators, artists and performers whose passion and commitment inspire us year after year. Thanks to the hard-working volunteers, especially those who have worked with the festival year after year. It could not take place without them.

Programme Sponsors

Thanks to the festival sponsors and friends without whose generosity the festival could not happen. Thanks to everyone who gets involved in the wonderful happening that is the Kilkenny Arts Festival. The Kilkenny Arts Festival gives special thanks to: Mary Butler and Kilkenny County Council Arts Office, Ger Cody and the Watergate Theatre, Caroline Coode, Niamh Finn, Office of Public Works, Kilkenny Tourist Office, The Dean, Chapter & Staff of St Canice’s Cathedral, Róisín McQuillan, Sharon O’Gorman, Mary Heffernan, Jaki Jordan, Anne Teehan, Frank Kavanagh, Ground Staff of Kilkenny Castle, Sally O’Halloran, Fr Louis Hughes, Willie Meighan, Philip Edmondson, The Order of Malta, John Cleere, Kilkenny Rhythm & Roots Festival, The Cat Laughs Festival, Eamon Walshe, Eamon Langton, Eddie Langton, Fiona Flood and the girls, Sunniva O’Flynn, Brian Tyrrell, Tony Walsh, Joe Crockett, Sgt Gary Gordon, Isabelle Etienne, Rolf Stehle, John Purcell, Sarah Quinlan, Una McCarthy, Imelda Rey, Rory McCarthy, Ken Maguire, Julia Compton, Keith Johnson, Des Doyle, Ann Mulrooney, Nathalie Weadick, Maeve Butler, Naoise O’Donovan, Brian Keyes, Tess Felder, Sue Nunn, Tomm Dowling, Lucy Yates, Cathal O’Neill, Deirdre Davitt, Sean McKeown, Kilkenny School of Music, Staff at Rothe House, Staff at Butler House, the Ormonde Hotel, St Canice’s Credit Union, the Hibernian Hotel, the Clubhouse Hotel, Declan Murphy, Kilkenny VEC, the Garda Síochána, Kilkenny Fire Brigade, Regina Fitzpatrick, Business2Arts, Theatre Forum, Heather Maitland and Susan Hallam.

Parking Available

Limited Parking Available

No Parking Available

KILKENNY DESIGN CRAFT CENTRE

Media Partners

General Sponsors KILKENNY INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT COMPANY LTD

Embassies and Cultural Institutions

Festival Partners Bluett O’Donoghue Poe Kiely Hogan Lanigan JC Minogue

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KILKENNY 400 and KILKENNY ARTS FESTIVAL

JIM AND DR NICK

TEATRO DO MAR (Portugal)

Fire juggling and two eight-foot unicycles make this a show for the whole family. And then you might get the chance to join in too.

present

NUSQUAM

TURBO AND DAI Saturday 8 August 9.45pm Kilkenny Castle Park Free tickets available at Festival box office Please note that this performance contains flashing imagery.

Nusquam is a sensuous and emotive production. It is an awesome performance of physical theatre, aerial acrobatics, music and film.

Turbo and Dai breakdance to old 80s classics like Paul Hardcastle’s Nah-nah-nah-nah-Nineteen and the theme tune from Beverley Hills Cop. It’s time to get that lino out, Pledge it up and windmill like you just don’t care. Unfortunately these two have had minor mishaps and have to wear their neck brace and leg cast until the fractures heal properly.

It is performed on four, seven-metre high mobile structures. It features big transparent spheres and projections onto a screen in front of which the actors hang over their worlds. It expresses how humans balance in the void, rootless. They are smothered by an avalanche of information that cannot be absorbed and cannot nourish them. Nusquam is a reflection on human nature, man in search of himself and his reason to exist in modern society. He is in a desperate search to survive the social pressures, imprisoning individuals in private bubbles of patterns and rules. Lack of communication, loneliness, adoration of television, the pursuit of perfection, alienation and illusionary views of freedom and happiness, drive the four characters within their own frustrations to lose touch with reality. Created in 1986 in Sines, Portugal, Teatro do Mar is a travelling, physical theatre group. It focuses mainly on a young audience. Its modern voice and artistic language encompass new circus, dance, music, visual arts, video image and animation.

PRICE CHECKERS These two checkout girls, with their scanners, price guns and lovely ‘muzak’ accompaniment, are ready to mark you up! Is your spouse reduced to clear? Does your friend need a special promotion? Could you be 2 for 1? Quick on the draw, this priceless pair of pricers take a funny look at the shopping side of life.

CARPET MAN AND LINO BOY Visionary fashion gurus Carpet Man and Lino Boy bring their incredible couture creations to the catwalk on the pavements of Kilkenny. Carpet Man has seen the future of fashion through the colossal highs and the bottomless lows of the retail carpet trade. With the family’s most resourceful nephew, Lino Boy, as his sidekick, Carpet Man proudly presents astounding couture creations fresh from the Garden Shed Studio.

JIM AND DR NICK Saturday 8 August 2.30pm MacDonagh Junction 5pm The Canal Walk

TURBO AND DAI Saturday 8 August 1pm, 3pm & 5pm Streets of Kilkenny

PRICE CHECKERS Sunday 9 August 2.30pm MacDonagh Junction 4pm & 5pm Streets of Kilkenny

CARPET MAN AND LINO BOY Friday 14 August 2.30pm MacDonagh Junction 5pm The Canal Walk

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KEYSTONE KOPS Saturday 15 August 1pm Kilkenny Castle Park 2.30pm MacDonagh Junction 4.30pm Streets of Kilkenny

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KEYSTONE KOPS MABOU MINES (US) The bungling Kops are trying hard but they can’t catch the elusive escaped convict Slippery Jack. On the run from law and order with his ball and chain in tow, Jack outwits the Kops at every twist and turn with his nimble guile and cunning disguises. Could the crazy Kops be even more stupid than they look?

GANDINI JUGGLERS

GANDINI JUGGLERS Saturday 15 August 4pm Kilkenny Castle Park 9.30pm Set Theatre, John Street 10.15pm The Canal Walk FUTTER’S CHILD Sunday 16 August 1pm Kilkenny Castle Park 2.30pm MacDonagh Junction 4pm Streets of Kilkenny EDMOND TAHL Sunday 16 August 2.30pm Kilkenny Castle Park 3.30pm & 5pm Streets of Kilkenny

Virtuoso juggling with balls, clubs, rings and bouncing balls from some of the most versatile technical jugglers in Europe. Elaborate patterns of objects fly through the air whilst the jugglers gracefully weave, leap and turn beneath them. Catch one of their spectacular nighttime glow shows.

FUTTER’S CHILD Gothic slaphead Futter finds himself a teensy bit out of his depth when he’s left minding the baby. Mr Futter is something like Uncle Fester from the Addams Family. You are welcomed into his unique world of love and horror. He is a misunderstood lovable misfit doing his best to look after a rather challenging baby.

EDMOND TAHL Poor Edmond tries to look the part of a bowlerhatted gentleman with a flower in his buttonhole. He is followed by swarming angry bees, finds himself in the middle of a spaghetti western gun fight and hears alarm bells. He meets huge monsters, hears ringing telephones, avoids crashing glass, low flying helicopters, packs of hunting hounds and squeaky prams. In the middle of it all he attempts to keep his composure.

LUCIA’S CHAPTERS of Coming Forth by Day Written and directed by SHARON FOGARTY Performed by RUTH MALECZECH and PAUL KANDEL Set and Lighting by JIM CLAYBURGH Music by CARTER BURWELL Projections by JULIE ARCHER Costumes by MEGANNE GEORGE Choreography by J’AIME MORRISON Dramaturgy JOCELYN CLARKE Lucia’s Chapters explores the life and death of Lucia, the adored daughter of James Joyce. As a young woman in Paris, Lucia’s life was filled with writers, artists and intellectuals. She was a dancer and a painter. Her father believed Lucia to be the true inheritor of his genius. While still in her twenties, Lucia’s behaviour grew erratic. Lucia spent the next 50 years in confinement, until her death in 1982. Following the sell out success of A Prelude To A Death in Venice in 2007, New York’s seminal experimental theatre troupe Mabou Mines returns to Kilkenny with another extraordinary production. Featuring set and lighting design by Wooster Group founder member Jim Clayburgh and music by Coen Brothers collaborator Carter Burwell, Lucia’s Chapters is an exquisite sensory experience.

“Lucia may be dead… but in the hands of the extraordinary actress Ruth Maleczech, she is brimming with life and full of mischief” BOSTON GLOBE

“…compelling work… subtle and beautiful” NEW YORK TIMES

Friday 7- Tuesday 11 August 8pm 70 minutes, no interval The Watergate Theatre Parliament Street Admission `25/`21 Ticket Deal Get this event (Mon or Tues) & Paula Meehan et al (p.39) for `29.50 Post-show discussion Mon 10th

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MOVING STILL (Ireland)

KRAPP’S LAST TAPE

C.I.C.T/THÉÂTRE DES BOUFFES DU NORD (France)

LOVE IS MY SIN

Sonnets by William Shakespeare

By Samuel Beckett

Saturday 8 & Sunday 9 August Saturday 15 & Sunday 16 August 6pm 45 minutes, no interval

Adapted by PETER BROOK Musician FRANCK KRAWCZYK Lighting design PHILIPPE VIALATTE With BRUCE MYERS NATASHA PARRY Artistic collaboration MARIE HÉLÈNE ESTIENNE

The Parade Tower Kilkenny Castle

Apart from his masterpieces, Shakespeare also wrote uncommonly beautiful sonnets. Chosen by Peter Brook, they will be performed by Natasha Parry and Bruce Myers.

Admission `15/`13

We are delighted to welcome Peter Brook and his long-time collaborators to Kilkenny for the first time, to present this simple and elegant staging of some of the most extraordinary love poetry ever written.

Ticket Deal Get this event & Love is my Sin (Sat 15) (see opposite) for `31 Post-show discussion Sun 9th

Directed by ART Ó BRIAIN Performed by FERGUS CRONIN On the occasion of his birthday Krapp sits alone at a desk replaying extracts from his journals, which he has gathered on old reels. Sadness and extreme loneliness combine with extraordinary humour to offer an emotionally powerful theatre experience. Galway based company Moving Still presents what is often described as one of Beckett’s most accessible works.

“This astonishing collection allows us to penetrate into Shakespeare’s own, most secret life. It is his private diary, in which we find his intimate questions, his jealousy, his passions, his guilt, his despair. Above all, he searches to discover for himself the deep meaning of being attracted by a man or by a woman, even by the act of writing itself.” (Peter Brook)

Thursday 13 - Saturday 15 August 8pm 50 minutes, no interval The Watergate Theatre Parliament Street Admission `25/`21 Ticket Deal Get this event (Sat 15) & Krapp’s Last Tape (see opposite) for `31

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REX LEVITATES DANCE COMPANY (Ireland)

UNSUNG

ALEKSANDAR MADŽAR (Serbia)

A unique traditional music and contemporary dance collaboration

piano

PROGRAMME L.V. BEETHOVEN

(1770-1827)

Bagatelles Opus 126 FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN (1810-1849)

Polonaise Opus 53 Nocturne Opus 62 Scherzo Opus 54, No. 4 F. CHOPIN Ballade Opus 52, No. 4

Saturday 15 August 9.30pm Sunday 16 August 3pm & 8pm 60 minutes, no interval The Great Hall Kilkenny Castle Admission `25/`21 Post-show discussion Sun 16th after 3pm show

Choreography by LIZ ROCHE Music by MÍCHEÁL Ó SÚILLEABHÁIN Performed by GRANT McLAY, MATTHEW MORRIS, KATHERINE O’MALLEY and LIZ ROCHE dance MÍCHEÁL Ó SÚILLEABHÁIN piano IARLA Ó LIONÁIRD voice KENNETH EDGE clarinet/saxophone KATE ELLIS cello Housed within the performance structure of the traditional Irish “session”, the formal and improvisational structures that form the basis of traditional dances and music are re-interpreted, creating a new fusion between modern bodies, traditional instruments and the audience. This collaboration features new and existing music performed live by Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, a cast of four world-class dancers and the voice of sean nós maestro Iarla Ó Lionáird. Originally co-produced by Éigse Carlow Arts Festival. Developed from the short film Unsung, commissioned by RTÉ and the Arts Council for the dance film initiative RTÉ Dance on the Box.

MAURICE RAVEL (1875-1937)

Gaspard de la Nuit

Friday 7 August 8.30pm Serbian pianist Aleksandar Madžar is among the most sought-after of the younger generation of musicians whose pianistic skills are described as a “flight on the wings of imagination, sensitivity and wide horizons”. (The Slovenia Times).

St Canice’s Cathedral Admission `22/`19 Ticket Deal Get this event & Roy Foster (p.36) for `27

His programme includes Beethoven’s late Opus 126 Bagatelles, four of Chopin’s most popular compositions and Ravel’s notoriously demanding Gaspard de la Nuit, a work considered to be one of the most difficult solo piano pieces in the standard repertoire. Since he first came to prominence at the Leeds Piano Competition in 1996, Madžar has worked with a host of British orchestras. He travels extensively in Europe and Asia and is professor at the Royal Flemish Conservatoire in Brussels and the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Bern.

MICHAEL O’TOOLE (Ireland) guitar PROGRAMME Martin Adams said in The Irish Times that his playing was “fluent, shapely and always apt”. Such accolades herald (1916-1983) (Argentina) Sonata in Four Movements a delight for Kilkenny audiences. Michael O’Toole is not only a leading classical guitarist, he is always rising to the NIKITA KOSHKIN challenge of performing new work. (b.1956) (Russia) Usher Waltz His commitment to contemporary music, the range of CARLO DOMENICONI composers with whom he has worked and his performances (b.1947) (Italy) with world famous pipa virtuoso Liu Fang set him apart. Koyunbaba ALBERTO GINASTERA

Saturday 8 August 3pm The Black Abbey Abbey Street Admission `15/`13

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Saturday 8 August 8pm

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LE CONCERT SPIRITUEL (France) HERVÉ NIQUET director

PRIYA MITCHELL (UK)

Splendour of the cathedrals under Louis XIV – The Sun King A musical voyage from Paris to Strasbourg

POLINA LESCHENKO (Russia)

violin piano

St Canice’s Cathedral Admission `30/`25

PROGRAMME MARC-ANTOINE CHARPENTIER (1643–1704)

De Profundis HENRI FREMART (1590-1646)

Motet

Harpsichordist, pianist, singer, composer, choirmaster and conductor Hervé Niquet made his debut as choirmaster at the Opéra National de Paris (1980). Under his baton, Le Concert Spirituel breathes new life into the stunning French repertoire of sacred and instrumental music of the 17th and 18th centuries. In this programme for twelve male voice soloists, five cellos and basso continuo, Le Concert Spirituel performs sacred music of the French high baroque written specifically for some of France’s most magnificent buildings such as Sainte Chapelle in Paris and the Cathedrals of Troyes and Strasbourg. The chamber organ used in this concert has been kindly loaned by the Irish Baroque Orchestra.

PIERRE HUGARD (1726-1765)

Motet

LOUIS LE PRINCE (c.1650)

Motet

SÉBASTIEN DE BROSSARD (1655-1730)

Stabat Mater PIERRE BOUTEILLER (c.1655-1717)

Requiem

Polina Leschenko, from St Petersburg, is a brilliant young pianist about whose performance a British critic wrote: FELIX MENDELSSOHN “There is something exceptional and compelling about her (1809-1847) combination of delicacy, fluency and well-timed bursts of Violin Sonata in F major fireworks.” She made her solo début at the age of eight with the Leningrad Symphony Orchestra. ALFRED SCHNITTKE (1934-1998) Priya Mitchell, from the other side of Europe, began Sonata No.1 violin lessons at the age of four. Five years later she was at the Yehudi Menuhin School. One critic described her BÉLA BARTÓK performance as “Tearing into its spiky atonalism and (1881-1945) finding exactly the right mood of glacial intensity for its Romanian dances lyrical interludes, this violinist was taking no prisoners”. EDVARD GRIEG In the splendid setting of St Canice’s Cathedral, this (1843-1907) promises to be an unforgettable evening. Sonata No.3 PROGRAMME

Tuesday 11 August 8pm St Canice’s Cathedral Admission `22/`19

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IRISH BAROQUE ORCHESTRA (Ireland)

MONICA HUGGETT director SARAH McMAHON cello

Thursday 13 August 8.30pm St Canice’s Cathedral Admission `25/`21 Ticket Deal Get this event & Heaney/ O’Driscoll (p.41) for `30

In 2009, music lovers around the globe commemorate the 200th anniversary of the death of Joseph Haydn. Haydn started his career as a member of the Vienna Boys’ Choir, the city to which he also returned after working for the Princes Esterházy in today’s Burgenland and Hungary. In this concert of ‘classical’ music the Irish Baroque Orchestra will move from its familiar homeground in the world of the baroque to the classical period of Haydn and Mozart under the inspirational direction of Monica Huggett, who has recently been appointed Director of Early Music at the prestigious Juilliard School in New York. Sarah McMahon, known to many as the cellist in the Callino String Quartet, performs Haydn’s sparkling cello concerto in C.

EX CATHEDRA CONSORT & BAROQUE ENSEMBLE (UK) HIS MAJESTYS SAGBUTTS AND CORNETTS (UK)

JEFFREY SKIDMORE director PROGRAMME JOSEPH HAYDN (1732-1809)

Symphony in F minor No. 49 La Passione J. HAYDN Cello Concerto in C W.A. MOZART (1756-1791)

Symphony No. 29 in A

From 1613 until his death in 1643 Monteverdi was the ‘maestro di capella’ at the famous Basilica of St. Mark in Venice. The acclaimed Ex Cathedra will endeavour to recreate the majesty and pomp of the religious services of that period in the beautiful surroundings of St Canice’s Cathedral, where the ensemble has performed memorably at previous festivals.

PROGRAMME CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI (1567-1643)

Marian Vespers of 1610

From its home in Birmingham, Ex Cathedra has established an international reputation as a leading UK choir and Early Music ensemble. Under founder and Artistic Director, Jeffrey Skidmore, Ex Cathedra is known for its vibrant performances and a passion for seeking out not only the best but the unfamiliar and the unexpected in the choral repertoire. His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts is a group of virtuoso wind players who specialise in playing Renaissance and Baroque music in historically appropriate styles on original instruments. The noble sound of cornetts and sackbuts was among the most versatile instrumental colours available to composers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This concert forms part of Kilkenny’s 400th anniversary celebrations.

KILKENNY DESIGN CRAFT CENTRE

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The chamber organ used in this concert has been kindly loaned by the Irish Baroque Orchestra.

Friday 14 August 8pm St Canice’s Cathedral Admission `30/`25

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RTÉ CONCERT ORCHESTRA

(Ireland) DAVID BROPHY conductor CARA O’SULLIVAN soprano

(Germany)

PROGRAMME SIR WILLIAM WALTON Prelude and Fugue from Spitfire JOHNNY MERCER/ HENRY MANCINI Moon River

GEORGES BIZET Beat Out That Rhythm (Carmen Jones) EDUARDO DI CAPUA O Sole Mio

Saturday 15 August 2pm

ROGERS AND HAMMERSTEIN Bill (Carousel)

VINCENT KENNEDY Dublin - Overture to My City

St Canice’s Cathedral

JOHN WILLIAMS ET Adventures On Earth

RON GOODWIN Theme from 633 Squadron

ERIC COATES The Dambusters

THE DRESDEN GROUP

Always one of the most popular events at the Kilkenny Arts Festival, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra plays a lunchtime concert this year in St Canice’s Cathedral. Bring all the family to hear this programme of tunes from well-known films and musicals. Guest soprano Cara O’Sullivan is sure to bring the house down.

Admission `20/`17

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PROGRAMME 1 FRANZ DANZI

PROGRAMME 1 Saturday 15 August 6pm*

Wind Quintet in D minor, Opus 68 No. 3

The Great Hall Kilkenny Castle

PAUL HINDEMITH

Admission `20/`15

Kleine Kammermusik for wind quintet Opus 24 No 2

*As another event will take place in The Great Hall later on Saturday night, this performance must begin at 6pm sharp. Latecomers will not be admitted.

(1763-1826)

(1895-1963)

GYÖRGY SÁNDOR LIGETI (1923 -2006)

Six Bagatelles LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)

Quintet for Piano and Winds in E flat Opus 16 PROGRAMME 2 MAURICE RAVEL (1875-1937)

Le Tombeau de Couperin CLAUDE-PAUL TAFFANEL (1844-1908)

Wind Quintet FRANCIS POULENC (1899-1963)

Sextet for piano and winds

BERNHARD KURY flute VOLKER HANEMANN oboe CHRISTIAN DOLLFUß clarinet JULIUS RÖNNEBECK horn ANDREAS BÖRTITZ bassoon with PAUL RIVINIUS piano Kilkenny Arts Festival continues its association with The Dresden Group who gave such powerful performances at last year’s festival. Five wind players from the world renowned Dresden Staatskapelle Orchestra are joined by the celebrated German pianist Paul Rivinius for two programmes of German and French music. The Irish Times’ Michael Dervan described The Dresden Group’s performance at last year’s festival as“exquisite in its floating delicacy”.

PROGRAMME 2 Sunday 16 August 11am The Great Hall Kilkenny Castle Admission `15/`13 Ticket Deal Get this morning event & O’Toole/Kilroy (p.40) for `22

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AKAMOON & BLACK MACHINE (Belgium/Mali)

GENTICORUM (Quebec) & THE TAP ROOM TRIO (Ireland)

FABRIZIO CASSOL alto saxophone MICHEL HATZIGEORGIOU bass STEPHANE GALLAND drums BABA SISSOKHO percussion

PASCAL GEMME fiddle, feet, vocals ALEX DE GROSBOIS-GARAND flute, fiddle, bass, vocals YANN FALQUET guitar, jews harp, vocals “Europe’s most innovative trio.” JAZZMAN MAGAZINE

Friday 7 August 9pm Kilkenny Ormonde Hotel Admission `22/`19

Saxophonist Fabrizio Cassol, electric bassist Michel Hatzigeorgiou and drummer Stephane Galland have created an enlightened and highly evolved understanding of rhythm, an exhilarating constant in their ever-changing and unique soundworld. In Kilkenny they unveil their latest creation, where jazz at its most rhythmically addictive gets an infusion of West African percussion, courtesy of Black Machine, a choir of Malian griots (sacred singers or bards) led by one of that regal culture’s most celebrated musicians: the talking drum master Baba Sissokho. Akamoon’s last Irish appearance was at the Dublin Dance Festival, performing with the celebrated Brussels company Ballet C de la B. It was another landmark in the continuous invention and renewal of this remarkable Belgian band, whose collaborative approach has yielded 12 landmark albums with artists as diverse as Indian virtuoso U.K. Sivaraman, The Brussels Opera and DJ collective Grazzhoppa.

“This is bracing stuff, replete with gorgeous three-part harmony singing and powerful instrumental work” HOT PRESS SAID OF GENTICORUM

Belfast and Montreal undergo a temporary festive twinning. It is celebrated by two outstanding trios, shedding light on the thriving traditional music life in both cities. Genticorum is an evolution in the Quebeqois sound of legendary groups like La Bottine Souriante. Sure footed three-part harmony vies with wooden flute, fiddle, acoustic guitar, jaw harp, bass and that all important foot stomping percussion to create a rousing evocation of lost nights in Acadia. Slightly less gregarious, but no less seductive is The Tap Room Trio. Belfast’s much remarked resurgence in flute-playing of the highest order, is brilliantly illuminated by the invention and drive of Harry Bradley. He is joined by fiddler Jesse Smith and guitarist John Carthy. HARRY BRADLEY flute JESSE SMITH fiddle JOHN CARTHY guitar

“There’s an astonishing lift and drive to their music and, at times, a dazzling degree of precision in evidence.” fROOTS SAID OF THE TAP ROOM TRIO

Saturday 8 August 9pm Hotel Kilkenny Admission `22/`19 Admission and Meal `47

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THE HEARTSTRING SESSIONS

THE XI’ AN SI (China )

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(Ireland)

LI KAI guzheng TANG WEI pipa XU ZHEN erhu

Sunday 9 August 4pm The Heritage Council/ Áras hOidhreachta Church Lane Admission `15/`13

Ireland knows comparatively little of China’s great regional diversity in traditional music but a young musician from Zhengzhou City is set to change that. Now living in Co Clare, Li Kai is bridging the geographical divide with The Xi’ an Si, a trio that reunites her with musicians from home and introduces us to the exquisite instruments and provincial styles of China. Together they will take you on a journey that starts on the Silk Road and ends a little closer to home, with Irish airs heard on Chinese instruments. It’s as if they were made for each other. NOLLAIG CASEY trumpet MAIRE NÍ CATHASAIGH tenor saxophone ARTY McGLYNN fender rhodes CHRIS NEWMAN guitar

ELECTRIC MILES (Ireland) JOE O’CALLAGHAN guitar PAUL WILLIAMSON trumpet MICHAEL BUCKLEY tenor saxophone RONAN GUILFOYLE bass JUSTIN CARROLL fender rhodes SEAN CARPIO drums

Sunday 9 August 9pm Set Theatre John Street Admission `18/`15.50

“A fearsome concentration of Irish jazz talent.”

The Heartstring Sessions, with two exceptional guitarists and two very gifted sisters, marries two renowned duos. Celebrated names in Irish music are here: guitarist Arty McGlynn, fiddler Nollaig Casey and harpist Máire Ní Chathasaigh with the UK’s finest flat-picker Chris Newman.

THE SUNDAY TRIBUNE

Eighteen years since his passing, Miles Davis casts a long shadow into jazz’s second century. In a 50-year career, his restless music reached peaks of creativity that few have seen since. In his productive middle years Miles served notice that a major shift in musical aesthetics was underway, bringing forth a series of electric albums whose impact has not yet subsided in creative music of all persuasions. Last heard at The Electric Picnic 08, Electric Miles convenes the elite of Irish jazz including saxophonist Michael Buckley and drummer Sean Carpio in a workout on the vintage 1970s Miles of the Bitches Brew and In a Silent Way period. It’s the spirit, not the letter of Miles that matters and this will be no arid tribute of worthy reconstruction. Sparks fly.

“Traditional music at its very best, crossing boundaries, tapping our own tunes alongside bluegrass and ragtime borrowings. Many lifetimes’ worth of music.” THE IRISH TIMES

It is the music they love: old airs and songs, dance music, Irish and otherwise, originals and old time standards, pulled from a collective trove gathered on four journeys that have taken in all points from Planxty to Riverdance. All that experience and kinship has distilled into a graceful, soulful debut album that has drawn effusive praise. Live in performance: a session to remember.

Monday 10 August 8.30pm Set Theatre John Street Admission `20/`17 Tuesday 11 August 11.30am & 2pm The Great Hall Kilkenny Castle Admission `13/`11 Ticket Deal Get this event (Mon) & GAA Night (p.38) for `25.50

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NORMA WINSTONE TRIO

MORLA & CAOIMHÍN Ó RAGHALLAIGH (Ireland)

“A surprising music whose kaleidoscopic colours, textures and original lines constantly confounded expectation” THE IRISH TIMES

Tuesday 11 August 8pm Cleere’s Pub and Theatre Parliament Street Admission `15/`13

SIMON JERMYN guitar, electronics SEAN ÓG alto saxophone, electronics CAOIMHÍN Ó RAGHALLAIGH fiddle, hardingfele Morla comprises two of the bolder spirits in Irish music today, and it’s also a product of Bottlenote, a Dublin creative collective that mirrors the emergence of similar coalitions of young musicians throughout Europe such as London’s F-IRE and Copenhagen’s Ilk. Guitarist Simon Jermyn has just released a debut CD for Barcelona’s Fresh Sounds imprint, and his beautifully textured guitar manipulations are a talking point in the Irish jazz scene. Similarly,

alto saxophonist Sean Óg has foregone the instrument’s more linear approach, opting for microtonality, electronica and the use of DIY instruments and objet trouvé to forge a personal vocabulary. The contrast of new and old, digital and acoustic, is made bold here with an additional solo set from that most adventurous of traditional fiddlers Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, before what promises to be an intriguing encounter with Morla in their own organic soundworld.

(UK/Italy/Germany ) “Winstone continues to show her juniors what it means to be a genuinely original jazz singer. Here, everything fits together – Winstone’s ethereal, gently sad tone, the softgrained soundworld and the harmonic subtlety of her comusicians.” THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

NORMA WINSTONE voice GLAUCO VENIER piano KLAUS GESING bass clarinet, soprano saxophone

Wednesday 12 August 8.15pm

Certainly England’s and possibly Europe’s finest ever jazz singer, Norma Winstone has saved some of the very best work of a 40-year career until now. A first CD in 10 years for ECM and a new partnership with two outstanding young musicians, Italian pianist Glauco Venier and German saxophonist Klaus Gesing, has drawn forth something special and intimate. Together they embrace an absorbing song-focused repertoire that spans Cole Porter and Peter Gabriel, Erik Satie and Pasolini, folk songs and Winstone’s own evocative, often poetic lyrics.

Admission `20/`17

In two players that are alive to a universe of musical possibilities, Winstone has found an empathic foil for her lissome voice and forthright delivery. It’s a style all the more affecting for its absence of histrionics and melodrama, attesting to the power of time, experience and a constant refining of the artist’s own voice.

St Canice’s Cathedral

Ticket Deal Get this event and Ivor Browne (p.40) for `25.50

BJH>8

HAZMAT MODINE (US )

WADE SCHUMAN harmonica, guitar, vocals BILL BARRETT harmonica, sheng, vocals JOSEPH DALEY tuba PAM FLEMING trumpet STEVE ELSON saxophones, duduk PETE SMITH guitar MICHAEL GOMEZ guitar, steel guitar RICH HUNTLEY drum

If you haven’t heard Hazmat Modine, it’s hard to describe what they do. After you’ve heard Hazmat Modine, it’s still hard to describe what they do. New York seeps out of every musical pore of this wilfully eccentric slice of Americana. Hazmat Modine embraces everything from jug bands and Jamaican rocksteady to country blues and klezmer. It’s all delivered with deadpan charm that includes harmonica, tuba, Hawaiian steel guitar, a bizarre Chinese reed organ and other staples of the self-respecting Waitsian junkyard orchestra.

Thursday 13 August 10pm Set Theatre John Street Admission `22/`19

The precarious balancing act is orchestrated by singer and virtuoso harmonica man Wade Schuman, flanked by seven equally brilliant, equally restless, musical orphans for whom one genre was never going to be enough. At the heart of the beast is a serious enough point about the melting pot of American roots culture, but trust us, you won’t need a degree in ethnomusicology to have a ball in their irrepressible company.

BJH>8

FRANCESCO TURRISI TRIO

(Ireland)

Turin-born Francesco Turrisi was the harpsichordist with acclaimed baroque ensemble l’Arpeggiata. He put the experience to use since becoming established in Ireland. He’s a pivotal member of Balkan group Yurodny and leads Tarab, a small group experimenting with different elements of Irish traditional, Mediterranean and medieval music.

“It’s as if 1930’s calypso legend Wilmouth Houdini, Sidney Bechet and a Haitian band all ran into each other at a Gypsy wedding” METRO LONDON

FRANCESCO TURRISI piano DAN BODWELL bass SEAN CARPIO drums

In piano trio, these elements are expanded and the debut CD Si Dolce È Il Tormento was said by The Irish Times to be ‘exquisite’.

Friday 14 August 1pm St Canice’s Cathedral Admission `15/`13

“Delightful, unusual, decidedly un-Irish jazz.” THE SUNDAY TRIBUNE

GRUPO FANTASMA (US ) “This freight train of a Latin band could easily hold its own in The Bronx…they’ll knock you down with the grooves. ”

ADRIAN QUESADA guitar JOHNNY LOPEZ drums JOSE GALEANO vocals, timbales GILBERT ELORREAGA trumpet BETO MARTINEZ guitar

KINO RODRIGUEZ vocals GREG GONZALEZ bass JOSHUA LEVY saxophones MATTHEW “SWEET LOU” HOLMES congas MARK “SPEEDY” GONZALES trombone

THE VILLAGE VOICE

These days Austin is on the map as home to SXSW, the world’s largest rock showcase. The Texan city is also HQ to Grupo Fantasma, currently the hottest ticket on the US Latin scene. Grammy nominated for their third album Sonidos Gold, this 11-strong orchestra has earned a reputation as the US’s hardest working and funkiest Latin band. They regularly open for Prince’s American shows. Unlike salsa from Cuba, this is founded in the harder Puerto Rican sound, evoking the 70s groove of Larry Harlow, Ray Barretto and the halcyon days of labels like Fania, whose music still reverberates through salsa dance clubs around the world. The ingredients are insistent grooves of timbales and congas, the percussive drive of the piano montuno, soaring brass and rock steady bass all rebooted with a funky edge for the 21st century.

Friday 14 August 10pm Set Theatre, John Street Admission `22/`19

BJH>8

L>G:9

JULIE FEENEY (Ireland)

JOHN SPILLANE (Ireland) Saturday 15 August 9pm The Parade Tower Kilkenny Castle Admission `12/`10

After decades on the Irish music scene, John Spillane seems to have become an overnight success with the launch of his new album, So Far So Good, Like. John Spillane has become a master of making us all relate to his songs. He is an artist who knows how to deliver all that he has to offer to anyone of any age, male or female, no matter the musical preference. Place him in the genre of folk, acoustic, traditional, world or pop - that’s fine with John. He’s a man who is very comfortable in his skin.

IBRAHIM ELECTRIC (Denmark) NICLAS KNUDSEN guitar JEPPE TUXEN hammond organ STEFAN PASBORG drums

Saturday 15 August 10pm Set Theatre, John Street Admission `22/`19 Get there early and catch The Gandini Jugglers (p.4) at 9.30pm

“The tunes are fresh, the energy is high, the chemistry perfect. ” JAZZTIMES

If the piano trio is the heartland of the jazz romantic, then the organ trio is where its mischievous alter ego comes out to play. It appears that way with Copenhagen’s Ibrahim Electric, who fairly barnstormed Stradbally when they closed out the Electric Picnic jazz stage last year. This is a glorious swamp thing of distorted sounds from a Lesley amp’s rotating horn, guitar riffs indebted to ’60s psychedelia and some brawny drumming that wouldn’t be out of place in stadium rock. This hugely enjoyable dancefloor proposition is brought to you by three outstanding Danish musicians on a mission to excite. Organist Jeppe Tuxen is well got as pianist with the group Endorfin but takes a robust approach to the Hammond console. Guitarist Niclas Knudsen exploits an interest in African music to inject a vibrant Afrobeat element. Mighty drummer Stefan Pasborg puts aside the colouristic devices for which he’s highly regarded in the Danish contemporary scene to bring only the good groove.

As her new album, pages, continues its meteoric rise to fame, Julie Feeney comes to Kilkenny to perform in St Canice’s Cathedral with a small string ensemble. The album has been described as a collection of songs performed with stirring, spellbinding elegance, yet delivered with a strange, almost whimsical sense of fun. Julie may be a dreamer, but she is also one of life’s achievers. She has three Masters degrees, plays ten instruments and was a professional singer for the National Chamber Choir in Ireland for five years. Not only did the multi-tasking composer-performer from Galway sing, compose and produce the album’s songs, she even conducted the top-flight full orchestra which performed them all in one epic sixhour recording session at the Irish Chamber Orchestra studio in Limerick. Saturday 8 August 1pm St Canice’s Cathedral Admission `13/`11

L>G:9

RSAG (Ireland)

L>G:9

and special guests Saturday 8 August 10.15pm Set Theatre John Street Admission `12/`10

Sunday 16 August 8pm Set Theatre John Street Admission `15/`13

RSAG is one man. RSAG is a multi-instrumentalist who records, performs and produces all his own material. RSAG is Kilkenny’s Jeremy Hickey. Live on stage, RSAG plays drums/percussion and sings. His backing tracks are pre-recorded in studio and are his support. RSAG shares his stage with a virtual band, projected on a screen behind him. Hickey is every member. Think of Joy Division, Talking Heads, Fela Kuti, New York rockers ESG with the visual impact of Gorillaz. This is so much more than just music. It is a friendly, full-sensory virus with no known cure.

in collaboration with DONAL DINEEN &

HALFSET (Ireland) with special guests

NICK CARSWELL and the Elective Orchestra 3epkano

Since its inception in 2004, 3epkano has made a name for itself with live silent movie shows in diverse venues in Europe and the US. Recent shows include several multimedia collaborations with Donal Dineen and his extraordinary film footage.Those who discovered 3epkano last year, will rush to experience a mix of experimental, soundtrack and rock music. There is a sense of taking a musical line for a walk, with democratic improv, starting with a structure but allowing it room to expand and compress. The genesis comes from an electronic framework kicked off by Stephen Shannon, with the other three offering their layers and interpretations. Hot Press said they create mini-masterpieces.

with KATIE KIM (Ireland) & GEPPETTO (Ireland) Amiina

3EPKANO (Ireland)

Halfset

AMIINA (Iceland)

Nick Carswell and the Elective Orchestra

Nick’s unique voice echoes John Lennon and Jeff Tweedy, with a hint of Joe Cocker’s soulfulness. Insightful lyrics cover ideas of hope and truth and span the breadth of human emotion.

Amiina’s collaboration with Sigur Rós started in 1999. Since then Amiina has been on most of their tours and collaborated with them on the albums ( ) and Takk. The organic sounds of Amiina merge with Kippi Kaninus´s fascinating world of electronics. With Magnús T. Eliassen’s dynamic percussion, it is an intriguing programme of new as well as recycled material. Amiina´s members have collaborated individually with many artists, performed at art festivals and toured in North America and Europe. Magnús Trygvason Eliassen started his music studies at the age of eight and has been active in the Icelandic music scene for several years. He played with K Trio among others.

Katie Kim

Perfect swellings, sedated, distorted chaos and sculpted slowburns somewhat describes the music that bleeds from Katie Kim. She left dreampop outfit Dae-Kim in early 2008 to record songs written over five years. A computer mishap had wiped over 50 of her works. The collection, born from the mourning of the loss, butterflied into Twelve. The debut vinyl-only album provoked an overwhelming response. Her performance here will be one of only a few live performances this year. Her second album, being recorded in seclusion, is out in October.

Geppetto

A visual and audio collaboration between artists is at the core of local act Geppetto. Paul Mahon’s idea has developed into a unique blend of live visuals and ambient melodic tunes to please the senses. Artist Mick Minogue provides live projection painting to the sounds of musicians Colm Ó Caoimhe on piano, Jane Murphy on cello and Paul Mahon on guitar.

Sunday 9 August 8pm St Canice’s Cathedral Admission `30/`25.50

L>G:9

J SPACEMAN (UK) &

SI SCHROEDER (Ireland)

LOW (USA)

MICK TURNER (Australia) ADRIAN CROWLEY (Ireland) Low One of the top live shows of 2008 was how The Irish Times described Spiritualized’s end-of-festival performance last year in St Canice’s Cathedral. J Spaceman is renowned as the driving creative force behind the pioneering drone/space rock band and now he returns to the Great Hall in Kilkenny Castle with a solo performance.

J Spaceman has been active with a host of free jazz players and improvisers. He provided much of the soundtrack to Harmony Korine’s film, Mr Lonely. He composed the original score for an art installation called Silent Sound by British artists Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard. He released his second solo work: a collaboration with Matthew Shipp, entitled SpaceShipp last year.

Si Schroeder Thursday 13 August 8pm The Great Hall Kilkenny Castle Admission `30/`25.50

Si Schroeder is a six-foot hairy male who makes ‘music’. It has generally sounded like the combined contents of his record collection (mostly classic sixties pop, scratchy old ethnic recordings and the odd bleep or two). On top, he layers ruminative, whispered vocals about the tough times we all go through. His shows create a bridge between live electronics, guitars, drums, percussion and the combined singing of men, women, children and machines.

Saturday 15 August 8pm

Low creates and records interesting and unique music.

St Canice’s Cathedral

The first album, I Could Live in Hope was pegged as “slowcore,” with minimalist soundscapes and the beautiful harmonies of Sparhawk and Parker. That was 1994.

Admission `30/`25.50

From Duluth, Minnesota, with Alan Sparhawk on vocals and guitar, Mimi Parker on vocals and drums and Matt Livingston on vocals and bass, Low released a stream of critically acclaimed albums. The trio toured the world and performed with the likes of the Dirty Three, Radiohead and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

Mick Turner

Described as “an Aussie wunderkind of meditative guitar poetry,” Dirty Three guitarist Mick Turner has played live and on recordings with Cat Power, Nick Cave, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and Bill Callahan. It seems that only in nature can a body find parameters worthwhile enough to describe the palpitating gorgeousness of Turner’s compositions. Mick is a renowed painter. An exhibition of his work forms part of the Visual Arts Strand Two programme. (See page 51).

Adrian Crowley

He was praised in the Sunday Times as “this great Irish songwriter [who] continues to creep under the skin and behind your defences …by stealth and without the slightest suggestion of an imminent explosion.” No doubt this gig combines explosive ingredients.

THE FESTIVAL HUB You told us you wanted a place to meet other festival visitors, so here it is!

92 High Street Kilkenny City 056 776 1822

Bang smack in the middle of the city, Paris Texas is a spacious bar and has seating for over 150. It serves an extensive daytime menu from 11am until 6pm and in the evening there is an early bird and à la carte menu until 9pm.

Paul and his team are looking forward to welcoming you. A great place to relax from a hard day’s festival-going or to discuss the finer points of the event you have just been to. You never know who you might bump into!

CHECK OUT THE GREAT VALUE PACKAGE DEALS Only available from the box office: Telephone 056 775 2175

GAA Night (p.38) & Heartstring Sessions (p. 19) Lucia’s Chapters (Mon or Tues) (p.05) & Paula Meehan et al (p. 39) The Dresden Group (Lunchtime) (p.15) & O’Toole/Kilroy (p.40) Roy Foster (p.36) & Aleksandar Madžar (p.09) Heaney/O’Driscoll (p.41) & Irish Baroque Orchestra (p.12) Ivor Browne (p.40) & Norma Winstone Trio (p.21) Krapp’s Last Tape (p.06) & Love is my Sin (Sat 15) (p.07)

CHILDREN GO FREE TO CHILDREN’S EVENTS THANKS TO TAXBACK.COM • • • • •

Tickets are only available at the Festival box office. Children can attend free of charge at children’s events only. Accompanying adults must pay for their tickets. Free tickets are restricted to two events per family. Each adult may bring five children to performance events and two children to workshops and smaller events. • Parents and guardians are requested to sign up to the Kilkenny Arts Festival mailing list when collecting their tickets.

€25.50 €29.50 €22.00 €27.00 €30.00 €25.50 €31.00

Every year the Kilkenny Arts Festival bring so many amazing events to the city that it is almost impossible to make sure you find what really appeals to you. So, we’ve put on our thinking caps and come up with this guide to suggest events you may not have considered. Simply find an event that you are interested in and chances are, there will be something else in the same column that you will also enjoy. Or, alternatively, pick the column that is of most interest to you and explore the events listed.

MY FIRST FESTIVAL

MY INSPIRING FESTIVAL

This is my first time at an arts festival. I want to see what this festival is all about. I haven’t heard of a lot of these names before and I’d like suggestions on what might be great to see.

I want to think. I want to get out of my comfort zone and confront the world head on. I don’t want to be spoon fed. I want to be blown away. I want to argue.

MY SUPRISING FESTIVAL I want to find those hidden gems - things I may not have heard of but once I’ve experienced I will never forget. 11 Priya Mitchell &

Polina Leschenko

10 Le Concert Spirituel

13 Ex Cathedra

45 Something Else Exhibition

12 Irish Baroque Orchestra

15 Dresden Group 2

09 Aleksander Madzar

15 Dresden Group 1

37 Kamila Shamsie &

14 RTÉCO (Lunchtime)

36 Roy Foster

35 William Trevor Film Day

(Hubert Butler)

38 GAA Night

40 Ivor Browne

41 Seamus Heaney &

16 Akamoon &

42 Garrison Keillor

25 Julie Feeney

43 Peter Murphy &

18 Miles Electric

17 Genticorum &

05 Lucia’s Chapters

Denis O’Driscoll

Colm Toibin

Tap Room Trio

19 Heartstring Sessions 22 Hazmat Modine 23 Grupo Fantasma 24 John Spillane 06 Krapp’s Last Tape 27 Amiina & Katie Kim 54 Craft exhibition 03 Other street acts

Black Machine

21 Norma Winstone Trio

Eugene McCabe

39 Paula Meehan, Don

Paterson & Susan McKeown

45 Fintan O’Toole interviews

Thomas Kilroy

18 The Xi’ an Si 20 Morla &

Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh

23 Francesco Turrisi Trio 24 Ibrahim Electric 08 Unsung 26 3epkano, Halfset 04 Gandini Jugglers

MY ALTERNATIVE FESTIVAL I want to see edgier, grittier more experimental stuff. I want to dance, have some fun. I want to stay up late. 09 Michael O’Toole 07 Love is My Sin 26 RSAG & special guests 28 J Spaceman &

Si Schroeder

29 Low 02 Nusquam

96N"7N"96N

33 33

FRIDAY 7 WATERGATE THEATRE

SATURDAY 8

05 Lucia’s Chapters 8pm

SUNDAY 9

05 Lucia’s Chapters 8pm

STREET (MacDONAGH JUNCTION, STREETS OF KILKENNY, THE CANAL WALK)

03 Turbo and Dai 1pm, 3pm 03 Price Checkers 2.30pm, & 5pm 4pm & 5pm

KILKENNY CASTLE

02 Nusquam 9.45pm

TUESDAY 11

MONDAY 10

05 Lucia’s Chapters 8pm 05 Lucia’s Chapters 8pm (& post-show discuss.)

WEDNESDAY 12

THURSDAY 13 07 Love is my Sin 8pm

FRIDAY 14 07 Love is my Sin 8pm

19 The Heartstring Sessions 11.30am & 2pm

28 J Spaceman & Si Schroeder 8pm

39 Paula Meehan & Don Paterson et al 10pm

PARADE TOWER

37 Kamila Shamsie & Eugene McCabe 11am 06 Krapp’s Last Tape 6pm (& post-show discuss.)

ST CANICE’S CATHEDRAL

36 Roy Foster 6pm Aleksandar Madžar 09 8.30pm

SET THEATRE

OTHER CITY VENUES

VISUAL ART Something Else Rothe House

46 46 47 47

CIARAN MURPHY CORBAN WALKER ISABEL NOLAN GARY COYLE

48 48 49 49

11 Priya Mitchell and Polina Leschenko 8pm

38 GAA: Blood and Thunder 6pm-8pm

26 RSAG and special guests 10.15pm

19 The Heartstring Sessions 8.30pm

JO ANNE BUTLER JOHN BYRNE KEVIN ATHERTON MICK WILSON

30 THE FESTIVAL HUB Paris Texas

Strand 2

50 50 50 51 51 51 52

41 Seamus Heaney & Dennis O’Driscoll 6pm

BUTLER GALLERY KILKENNY COUNTY COUNCIL ESTATE YARD 09 GRENNAN MILL CRAFT SCHOOL ENDANGERED STUDIOS MICK TURNER DONAL DINEEN

40 Ivor Browne interviewed 22 Hazmat Modine 10pm by Colm Tóibín 6pm

30 THE FESTIVAL HUB Paris Texas

18 The Xi’ an Si 4pm The Heritage Council/ Áras hOidhreachta

VISUAL ART

21 Norma Winstone Trio 8.15pm

23 Francesco Turrisi Trio 1pm

12 Irish Baroque Orchestra 13 Ex Cathedra Consort & 8.30pm Baroque Ensemble and His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts 8pm

35 William Trevor on Screen 18 Electric Miles 9pm 10.30am-4.30pm

30 THE FESTIVAL HUB Paris Texas 16 Akamoon & Black 09 Michael O’Toole 3pm The Black Abbey Machine 9pm Kilkenny Ormonde Hotel 17 Genticorum & The Tap Room Trio 9pm Hotel Kilkenny

07 Love is my Sin 8pm 04 Futter’s Child 1pm, 2.30pm & 4pm

04 Gandini Jugglers 4pm & 10.15pm

04 Edmond Tahl 2.30pm, 3.30pm & 5pm

15 The Dresden Group Programme 1 6pm

15 The Dresden Group Programme 2 11am

08 Unsung 9.30pm

08 Unsung 3pm & 8pm (& post-show (3pm) discussion

06 Krapp’s Last Tape 6pm 24 John Spillane 9pm

40 Thomas Kilroy interviewed by Fintan O’Toole 12.30pm 06 Krapp’s Last Tape 6pm

25 Julie Feeney 1pm 27 Amiina with Katie Kim & Geppetto 8pm Le Concert Spirituel 8pm 10

30 THE FESTIVAL HUB Paris Texas

SUNDAY 16

03 Carpet Man and Lino Boy 04 Keystone Kops 1pm, 2.30pm & 5pm 2.30pm & 4.30pm

03 Jim and Dr Nick 2.30pm & 5pm

06 Krapp’s Last Tape 6pm

SATURDAY 15

30 THE FESTIVAL HUB Paris Texas

42 Garrison Keillor 6pm 23 Grupo Fantasma 10pm

30 THE FESTIVAL HUB Paris Texas

14 RTÉ Concert Orchestra 2pm

BLACKBIRD GALLERY MARY LEE MURPHY SINEAD NÍ MHAONAIGH BLAISE SMITH GILLIAN FREEDMAN ALAN COUNIHAN & GYPSY RAY

Street Spectacle Theatre/Dance Classical Music Music Wired Literature

29 Low with Mick Turner & Adrian Crowley 8pm

Architecture 43 Peter Murphy & Colm Tóibín 3pm

26 3epkano & Halfset with special guests Nick Carswell and the 04 Gandini Jugglers 9.30pm Elective Orchestra 8pm 24 Ibrahim Electric 10pm

Visual Art

30 THE FESTIVAL HUB Paris Texas

Craft

30 THE FESTIVAL HUB Paris Texas

20 Morla & CaoimhÍn Ó Raghallaigh 8pm Cleere’s Pub and Theatre

52 52 53 53 53 53

COLOUR GUIDE

Visual Art Strand 2

Craft Strand 2

CRAFT Sterling Irish Castle Yard Galleries

54 54 55 55 55

CLAIRE CURNEEN CÓILÍN Ó DUBHGHAILL GRAINNE MORTON JENNIFER BROWNE JAMES TOAL

56 56 56 57 57 57

JOAN MacKARRELL SADHBH McCORMACK SUZANNE GOODWIN VICTORIA ROTHSCHILD CARMEL McELROY CJ O’NEILL

CRAFT Strand 2

58 NATIONAL CRAFT GALLERY 58 MADE IN KILKENNY 58 WORKHOUSE STUDIOS

ARCHITECTURE 44 THE LIVES OF SPACES Kilkenny Castle

8=>A9G:C½H 96N"7N"96N THEATRE/ PUPPETRY

SATURDAY 8

SUNDAY 9

A> I: G6I J G : MUSIC/STORYTELLING/FILM

WORKSHOPS

WILLIAM TREVOR ON SCREEN

Run, Run, The Little Goat and the Wolf (Age 3-10 yrs) 2pm & 4pm The Watergate Theatre

60 Run, Run, The Little Goat and the Wolf (Age 3-10 yrs) 2pm & 4pm The Watergate Theatre

61 Sticks and Stones (Age 8+ yrs) 12pm & 2pm The Heritage Council/Áras na hOidhreachta

THE LIST OF HONOURS BESTOWED ON WILLIAM TREVOR IS ALMOST AS LONG AS THE LIST OF HIS WORKS. IT IS THE WRY HUMOUR AND ECCENTRICITY OF HIS CHARACTERS THAT SAVES HIS WRITING FROM BEING GLOOMY IN ITS TREATMENT OF THEMES SUCH AS ENDURANCE OF THE INEVITABLE AND MARGINALISATION OF THOSE WHO ARE UNHAPPY WITH THEIR LOT.

62 Creative Dance: Fantasy Journeys Workshop 1 (4-6 yrs) 11.30am - 12.30pm Workshop 2 (7-9 yrs) 2pm - 3.30pm The Parade Tower

MONDAY 10

62 Creative Dance: Take Flight (Age 10-12 yrs) 3.45pm - 5.15pm The Parade Tower 63 The Secret of Kells 11.30am The Parade Tower

TUESDAY 11

62 Summer Tunes (Age 2-4 yrs with parents) 3pm - 4pm The Parade Tower 62 Masks (Age 2-4 yrs with parents) 4.30pm - 5.30pm The Parade Tower

62 Flat Felt Basics 61 Liz Weir Workshop 1 (7-9 yrs) 10.30am - 12.30pm (Age 6-8 yrs) 11.30am - 12.20pm Workshop 2 (10-12 yrs ) 2pm - 4pm (Age 9-12 yrs) 2pm - 2.50pm The Parade Tower The Heritage Council/Áras na hOidhreachta

WEDNESDAY 12

THURSDAY 13

63 Tales from the Workshop (Age 4+ yrs) 11.30am & 2pm The Parade Tower 63 The Bedmaker (Age 3-5 yrs) St Luke’s Hospital (Not open to the public)

FRIDAY 14

63 The Bedmaker (Age 3-5 yrs) 10.30am, 11.45am, 2pm & 3.15pm The Parade Tower

SATURDAY 15

60 Bedtime/Pa Cama (Age 1+ yrs) 2pm & 4pm Barnstorm Theatre

SUNDAY 16

60 Bedtime/Pa Cama (Age 1+ yrs) 2pm & 4pm Barnstorm Theatre

63 DIY Animation (Age 7-9 yrs) 10am - 12 noon (Age 10-12yrs) 2pm - 4pm The Heritage Council/ Áras na hOidhreachta

63 Extreme Arts Express (Age 10-12 yrs) 10.30am - 12.30pm (Age 13-15 yrs) 2pm - 4pm The Heritage Council/ Áras na hOidhreachta

CHILDREN UNDER 12 YEARS MUST BE ACCOMPANIED BY AN ADULT AT ALL TIMES TO ALL PERFORMANCE EVENTS

EGD<G6BB: 10.30am Introduction by Colm Toibin and Prof Roy Foster 10.40am Hidden Ground 11.10am Felicia’s Journey BREAK 1.10pm - 2.15pm 2.15pm 3.15pm

Access to the Children The Ballroom of Romance In Hidden Ground William Trevor explores the landscape of his childhood in Cork, visiting Mitchelstown, Youghal and Skibbereen as part of a BBC documentary first screened in 1990. It is directed by Tom McAuley. Felicia’s Journey (1999), stars Elaine Cassidy and Bob Hoskins. Felicia is an Irish teenager on a journey to Birmingham, searching for the young man who made her pregnant. She finds Joe Hilditch (Hoskins). He has a darker side than the one first perceived. The film is directed by Canadian-Armenian director Atom Egoyan.

Access to the Children (1985) created a sensation when it was screened by RTÉ as Ireland was working itself up to the first divorce referendum. Starring Donal McCann, it deals with middleaged Malcolmson, estranged from his wife, Elizabeth, after an unwise episode of infidelity. His delusional desire to be restored to his former life as faithful husband and father to his two daughters serves to highlight his decline into alcoholism and loneliness. The Ballroom of Romance, set in Ireland of 1959, was the very first RTÉ/BBC co-production. It follows Bridie, who has been going to the ballroom on Friday nights since she was 16 years old. Directed by Pat O’Connor, when it was shown on television in Ireland in 1982, the reaction was sensational in young and old alike. With subtle and wonderful performances by Brenda Fricker, Niall Toibin and Cyril Cusack, the one-hour production won a BAFTA for Best Single Drama and the Silver Drama Award in New York.

Saturday 8 August 10.30am to 4.30pm Set Theatre John Street Admission `16/`13 (full day) `13/`11 (two films)

A > I: G6IJ G :

The Hubert Butler Annual Lecture

ROY FOSTER (Ireland)

Carroll Professor of Irish History, Hertford College, Oxford

The Shark and the Jellyfish: Nationalism, Religion and Cosmopolitanism after Butler

Friday 7 August 6pm St Canice’s Cathedral Admission `13/`11 Ticket Deal Get this event & Aleksandar Madžar (p.9) for `27 The Hubert Butler Annual Lecture was established in 2007 to honour the Kilkenny writer, historian and broadcaster whose remarkable consistency of vision and clarity of mind made him unique among Irish essayists and whose work evinced an unsurpassed moral, political and literary integrity.

NATIONALISM AND RELIGION WERE ONCE TABOO SUBJECTS FOR POLITE CONVERSATION. BOTH PREOCCUPIED HUBERT BUTLER. BOTH HAVE BECOME MORE RELEVANT THAN EVER, IN WAYS THAT HE DID NOT ANTICIPATE. Professor Roy Foster, who is the most distinguished and influential historian of Ireland writing today, will look at interpretations of nationalism in Europe and beyond. He will deal with its revival and how it has changed since the upheavals of the late 1980s. He will discuss the implications for individual nationalisms of the European movement and international globalisation. The interaction of national and religious revival will be considered, as well as the ideal of ‘cosmopolitanism’ and the notions of ‘benign’ versus ‘toxic’ strains of nationalism. He has written biographies of Charles Stewart Parnell and Lord Randolph Churchill. Foster is the editor of The Oxford History of Ireland (1989) and author of Modern Ireland: 1600-1972 (1988), as well as several books of essays. More recently, he has produced a much-acclaimed biography of William Butler Yeats. His most recent book is Luck and the Irish: a brief history of change 1970-2000. Professor Roy Foster will be introduced by Catriona Crowe, Head of Special Projects at the National Archives and Chairperson of the Irish Theatre Institute.

A> I: G6I J G :

KAMILA SHAMSIE (Pakistan) EUGENE McCABE (Ireland) Reading from their latest works

Speaking of Burnt Shadows, Kamila Shamsie describes how the women of Nagasaki, who were wearing white kimonos when the atomic bomb dropped in 1945, were tattooed by the blast. While the white material reflected the blast away, the black pattern absorbed it and scorched it into their skin. Burnt Shadows covers five countries and 60 years starting in Nagasaki and ending in Afghanistan after 9/11. It is Kamila Shamsie’s fifth novel and like her other four, it has been showered with acclaim and award, including shortlisting for this year’s Orange Prize. Born in Pakistan in 1973, she now lives in London and besides novels, writes book reviews for The Guardian and other publications.

Sunday 9 August 11am

“Shamsie exerts a Miltonic control, not only is she watching her characters, she is guiding them through time, tragedy and contrasting cultures,” was Eileen Battersby’s verdict in the Irish Times.

Admission `13/`11

Most famous for his powerful and moving novel Death and Nightingales, Eugene McCabe’s new novella The Love of Sisters follows two traumatised women in mid20th century Ireland. It has been described as disturbing but funny in its treatment of different kinds of love. This latest work has delighted his readers, waiting since his 2004 short story collection, Heaven Lies About Us. Born in Glasgow in 1930, McCabe was raised in Monaghan where he still farms. Since 1964 he has written many plays, novels and stories and scripted films.

The Parade Tower Kilkenny Castle

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GAA: BLOOD AND THUNDER Hurling and Life in 1930s Ireland Monday 10 August 6pm - 8pm Set Theatre John Street Admission `13/`11 Ticket Deal Get this event & Heartstring Sessions (Mon) (p.19) for `25.50

IT WAS A SPECTACULAR HURLING DECADE FROM THE THREE-GAME CORK-KILKENNY ALL-IRELANDS OF 1931 TO THE THUNDER AND LIGHTNING FINAL OF 1939. In 1932 five percent of households held radio licences. A year later there were 100,000 when a new transmitter opened in Athlone. Isn’t it hard to imagine that the Kilkenny AllIreland champions in ’33 went to New York and attended a white-tie-and-tails banquet there? What did lads from rural Ireland make of New York in the jazz age? What was their social life at home? The stars of the day, the politics and economics, the anti-jazz crusade and the dispute with “foreign games” all will feature. An intriguing mosaic of film footage, audio recordings, photographs and documents will re-tell the local, national and international story of hurling during a fascinating decade in Ireland.

Diarmaid Ferriter Dr Paul Rouse Mark Duncan Regina Fitzpatrick

The event will be introduced by Diarmaid Ferriter, Dublin author, historian and university lecturer. He has written several books of Irish history. He went to school in Kilmacud and follows Dublin’s footballers, at times with heavy heart, he admits. Dr Paul Rouse is a lecturer at UCD’s School of History and Archives and an awardwinning journalist. Among other courses he teaches Sport and Society in Britain and Ireland, 1800-1939. Mark Duncan was central to the research project that underpinned the establishment of the GAA Museum in Croke Park. A former co-editor of High Ball magazine, he is a regular current affairs researcher with RTÉ. Regina Fitzpatrick is a researcher with the GAA Oral History Project. Her research interests include cultural and museum studies, oral history and the Irish language.

An evening of POETRY AND MUSIC

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with

PAULA MEEHAN (Ireland)

DON PATERSON (Scotland) SUSAN McKEOWN (Ireland) AIDAN BRENNAN (Ireland) From working class Dublin to Ancient Greece Paula Meehan shares her life’s experience and knowledge with great wisdom and authority. One critic says of her latest volume Painting Rain, that she “makes music that is a powerful confluence of themes: a field lost to a housing development, a north wind that whines through the dunes, an Irish mother whose daughters ‘taught their mother barring orders and legal separation’”. Don Paterson says he chooses what to read to an audience only after he “sees the whites of their eyes”. He is an accomplished jazz musician as well as an acclaimed poet. His poetry reads like a score: undeniably composed, even when deceptively colloquial. His delivery is sharp, with a distinctive tang and in a melodious Scottish accent. His latest volume is called Rain.

Many of the greatest songs are poems that begged to be sung, says Susan McKeown, a Grammy winner for The Klezmatics’ Wonder Wheel album. She will perform some original and some traditional songs accompanied by fellow Dubliner, guitarist Aidan Brennan. “McKeown grabbed both song and audience by the throat, dragged them through heaven and hell and back again, and left the stage to the loudest applause heard all evening.” Rolling Stone.

Tuesday 11 August 10pm The Great Hall Kilkenny Castle Admission `13/`11 Ticket Deal Get this event and Lucia’s Chapters (Mon or Tues) (p.5) for `29.50

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IVOR BROWNE (Ireland)

psychiatrist, musician, author interviewed by COLM TÓIBÍN (Ireland)

Wednesday 12 August 6pm Set Theatre John Street Admission `13/`11 Ticket Deal Get this event and Norma Winstone Trio (p.21) for `25.50

A psychiatrist who looks to the heart as well as the head is a rare thing. Rebellion comes easily to Ivor Browne, he has been doing it for over 50 years at the forefront of psychiatric care in Ireland. Music and Madness is not just autobiography, it is a fascinating insight into Ireland in the context of how it treats its mentally ill. Ivor Browne is deeply dissatisfied with Irish psychiatry. He notes “the world-wide pandemic of mindless prescription drug misuse by psychiatrists and other physicians to patients who may not need them”.

interviewed by FINTAN O’TOOLE (Ireland)

The Parade Tower Kilkenny Castle Admission `13/`11 Ticket Deal Get this event and The Dresden Group (16 Aug) (p.15) for `22

SEAMUS HEANEY (Ireland) DENNIS O’DRISCOLL (Ireland)

“WE DON’T SAY THAT SOMEONE IS BROKEN-MINDED, WE SAY SOMEONE IS BROKEN-HEARTED; SWEETHEART, SOFT-HEARTED, HARD-HEARTED. THE HEART IS THE ONLY ORGAN THAT NEVER STOPS…”

THOMAS KILROY (Ireland) Sunday 16 August 12.30pm

Thomas Kilroy, is a Kilkennyman whose literary achievements span 50 years. His novel The Big Chapel has been republished by Liberties Press. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the Guardian Fiction Prize and the Heinemann Award when first published in 1971. His adaptations have been lauded as much as his original works and he is the author of nine plays. No important political or social event in Ireland in the past 20 years has happened without Fintan O’Toole’s analysis and opinion adding to the public debate. His literary criticism is studied and valued widely. He has written for The Irish Times for the past 20 years as well as being author of many nonfiction works, including The Irish Times Book of the Century in 1999.

Thursday 13 August 6pm St Canice’s Cathedral Admission `13/`11 Seamus Heaney came to Kilkenny Arts Festival’s debut in 1974. The young poet spellbound an audience in the back room at Kyteler’s Inn. He wasn’t world famous then, but he was a joy to listen to and to observe as he read and enlightened. Some things never change and he has been invited back regularly ever since. Kilkenny Arts Festival is honoured that as he turns 70, Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney has managed a festival date. In the magnificent setting of St Canice’s Cathedral he will read with eminent Tipperary poet, Dennis O’Driscoll. What Heaney is to the rural landscape and life of Ireland, O’Driscoll is to Celtic Tiger Ireland. He is said to give expression to those feelings that are closest to us and so go unobserved. According to Adam Kirsch in Slate, he makes “how we feel about work and possessions and ageing”, seem exciting. Seamus Heaney and Dennis O’Driscoll will be introduced by television and radio broadcaster, Olivia O’Leary, who has presented programmes on RTÉ, the BBC and ITV for the last three decades.

Ticket Deal Get this event and Irish Baroque Orchestra (p.12) for `30

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GARRISON KEILLOR (US)

Author, storyteller, humorist, columnist, musician, satirist, and radio personality

PETER MURPHY (Ireland) COLM TÓIBÍN (Ireland)

Peter Murphy’s first novel John the Revelator is the story of an introverted adolescent in rural Ireland, with a chain-smoking, bible-quoting mother. It is said to be a novel to fall in love with. The author is best-known as a writer and critic for Hot Press. He is a contributor to the Anthology of American Folk Music and it is from that genre that he found the title for his book.

Friday 14 August 6pm Set Theatre John Street

Saturday 15 August 3pm Set Theatre John Street

Admission `13/`11

GARRISON KEILLOR IS RENOWNED FOR HIS WRY HUMOUR AND HIS EXTRAORDINARY VOICE. He is best known as host of the Minnesota Public Radio show A Prairie Home Companion which airs to over four million listeners every week on 580 US public radio stations. He broadcasts regularly on RTÉ Choice and the BBC and is a regular contributor to The Irish Times. The programme features comedy sketches, music, and Garrison’s signature monologue, “The News from Lake Wobegon”. Imagine seeing him as well as hearing that voice. Garrison Keillor will read from his latest book, Pontoon: A Novel of Lake Wobegon. His characters as well as his stories meander along in the distinctive, hypnotic voice recently employed in Honda’s Power of Dreams advertisements.

Undoubtedly one of Ireland’s greatest living writers, Colm Tóibín, is the curator of the literature strand of Kilkenny Arts Festival. Here he will read from his acclaimed sixth novel, Brooklyn. It is a heartbreaking and beautiful story. Eilis Lacey is a young Wexford woman in the early 1950s who crosses the Atlantic to make a new life for herself. After finding a kind of happiness in Brooklyn, she is summoned home by tragedy and there finds she must choose between personal freedom and duty.

Admission `13/`11

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THE LIVES OF SPACES

Ireland’s participation at the 11th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice 2008 8 August - 6 September 9.30am-5pm

COMMISSIONERS AND CURATORS The Irish Architecture Foundation (IAF) DIRECTOR Nathalie Weadick CO-COMMISSIONER AND CO-CURATOR Dr. Hugh Campbell, Professor of Architecture at UCD

Visual Art 2009

AISLING PRIOR curator IT IS VERY EXCITING TO HAVE BEEN INVITED TO CURATE THE VISUAL ARTS STRAND OF KILKENNY ARTS FESTIVAL 2009.

Kilkenny Castle

PARTICIPANTS Hassett-Ducatez Simon Walker & Patrick Lynch McCullough-Mulvin Gerry Cahill Architects Grafton Architects dePaor architects TAKA O’Donnell + Tuomey Dara McGrath

SOMETHING ELSE

Daily emails from around the globe, announcing block-buster exhibitions, international biennales, major survey shows and so on, may have one believe that everything is happening elsewhere!

The title, The Lives of Spaces, deliberately invites multiple interpretations, suggesting that, while spaces can contain many lives, they can equally live many lives themselves. The story of a space can be traced through its emergent life in design, its life in construction, its life in use and reuse, its life in individual and collective memory and its life within a culture. For each of the nine spaces explored in this exhibition, life is at a different stage. Some are still in various stages of design and construction, some are only beginning to be inhabited, while others have already accumulated long histories of occupation and, in one case, are about to fall finally out of use. This exhibition proceeds from the modest proposition that the designed spaces that architects produce, play a crucial role in supporting, shaping and framing our lives. The exhibition consists of a series of filmic representations displayed in specially-designed armatures. Most display film on single or multiple LCD screens; some break film down into its constituent elements of sound, light and time. This exhibition is presented with the kind support of the Office of Public Works.

Unlike curators in previous years, I decided to centre the visual arts element of the Festival in one place. The interior rooms, courtyards and formal gardens of Rothe House, the magnificent 17th century Irish merchant’s town house in the centre of Kilkenny city, are the tranquil venue for this year’s exhibition.

I want to question that assumption. With the emergence of so many post-graduate courses across this island, many significant art commissions and award schemes and a Something Else is an exhibition of host of new artist-led galleries, the Irish art surprises, with each artist showing two scene is undergoing a renaissance. entirely different manifestations of their practice: live performances, sound works, So, I decided to curate close to home, to film and digital work, sculpture, text celebrate what is being made right here, or web-based work, music, paintings right now. and drawings. We hope it will be an Something Else is an exhibition of work by interesting way to spend a few hours in the afternoon or evening. Ireland’s most interesting contemporary artists, whose practice is not confined to a singular mode of expression, or concerned with a definitive point of view. It defies expectations.

Aisling Prior

e s l E g n i h t e m o S

7 - 16 August Fri 7, 5pm-10pm Sat 8 & Sun 9, 10am-9pm Mon 10 - Wed 12, 10am-7pm Thurs 13 - Sat 15, 10am-9pm Sun 16, 10am-7pm Rothe House Parliament Street

Visual Arts performances: CIARAN MURPHY Fri 7, 6pm Sat 8 & Sun 9, 7pm Fri 14 & Sat 15, 5pm Sun 16, 5pm Sarod performance by artist Ciaran Murphy The Sarod is a type of lute originating in Afghanistan but often identified with styles of music in India. GARY COYLE Fri 7, 9pm Sat 8 & Sun 9, 8pm At Sea A spoken word performance based on artist Gary Coyle’s daily swimming routine at the Forty Foot in Dun Laoghaire. JOHN BYRNE Fri 14 - Sun 16, 6pm Performance by artist John Byrne Byrne explores the idea of investing belief in ‘High Culture’ and the notion that Art is somehow a route to salvation.

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CIARAN MURPHY GARY COYLE

The habitual collecting of imagery forms an important part of Ciaran Murphy’s practice. Images spanning vastly different eras taken from art history, natural history, scientific enquiries, nature documentaries and other more arbitrary sources, serve as a starting point for his work. His work takes the form of large and small-scale paintings. The finished paintings depict objects treated in isolation, tiny snippets of time and ambiguous contexts or sites that seem to hold out the vague anticipation of an event. As well as working as individual paintings, the grouping of the works becomes important; meaning and interpretation in individual works become both reliant and unhinged within the context of the larger group. Murphy is also an accomplished musician and will give a number of live Sarod performances throughout the Festival. The Sarod is a type of lute originating in Afghanistan but often identified with styles of music in India. Ciaran Murphy studied at NCAD and Dun Laoghaire College of Art and is represented by Mother’s Tankstation, Dublin. Murphy was the recipient of the Eurojets Futures Award in 2004. In 2008 he had solo exhibitions in Philadelphia and Chicago.

CORBAN WALKER Corban Walker has gained international recognition for his installations, sculptures and drawings that relate to perceptions of scale and architectural constructs. Local, cultural and specific philosophies of scale are fundamental to how he defines and develops his work, creating new means by which viewers can interact with, and navigate, their surroundings. Walker will exhibit drawings and a new installation. Corban Walker graduated from NCAD in 1992 and has lived in New York since 2004. He has mounted solo exhibitions throughout Europe and America and realised numerous public commissions including the Bank of Scotland Headquarters, Dublin and Mitsubishi Estate, Tokyo. His work is part of numerous public and private collections around the world. Walker is represented by PaceWildenstein, New York, where he had a solo show in September 2000 and again in 2007.

ISABEL NOLAN The intimacies and distances inherent in relationships; the ambiguity of language; desire and self-consciousness; depictions of the natural world and symbolic abstraction are recurring sources for both motifs and themes in the work of Isabel Nolan. Though there are frequent shifts in tone, between coldness, bemusement, melancholia and yearning, a point of entry common to much of Nolan’s work is its recognition of our seemingly implacable need to define our relationships with others. The artist’s hypersensitive, even neurotic, persona is both sceptical of and empathetic to humanity’s relentless compulsion to understand everything - from our inner lives to the inscrutable nature of the universe. Nolan’s practice encompasses drawings, paintings, animation, mixed media and fibreglass sculptures and most recently, embroidery and fabric wall-hangings. Isabel Nolan represented Ireland at the 2005 Venice Biennale as part of a group exhibition. Recently she has presented new work at the Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin and ARTSPACE, New Zealand and this summer, has shown as part of ‘Coalesce Happenstance’, SMART, Amsterdam, at the Doggerfisher Gallery in Edinburgh and at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Saint Etienne Metropole, France. Her work is represented in various collections, public and private, in Ireland and abroad. Nolan is represented by the Kerlin Gallery, Dublin.

Gary Coyle lives and works in Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin, a place that informs much of his work. He works in a variety of media including drawing, film, photography and, more recently, performance. Over the past number of years Coyle has photographically recorded his daily swimming ritual at the Forty Foot in Dublin and has recorded, in his notebooks and diaries, the mood of the sea and the idiosyncrasies of the characters who swim there regularly. At Sea, commissioned by Project, Dublin is a spoken word performance based on his daily swimming routine. Gary Coyle has exhibited in the Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris, the Tate Liverpool and the Irish Museum of Modern Art. Coyle, who was recently elected into Aosdána, is a member of the RHA and is represented by the Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Dublin. He is working on a major solo exhibition, which will be held in the RHA Gallery, Dublin in March 2010.

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JO ANNE BUTLER

KEVIN ATHERTON

MICK WILSON

What do we value? And how does the way in which we interact with, build and destroy our environment encode these value systems? Jo Anne Butler makes installations, drawings and animations that aspire to poetry, whimsy and protest, disregarding the conventional boundaries of art, architecture and design. Recent work, such as The Folly (2008), evolves from the moment between unravelling and evolving, a notion derived both from current economic chaos and personal loss. Her installation work for Kilkenny will take as its starting point a comment by RIAI president Sean O’Laoire at the recent National Housing Conference. “After the 2008 crash we need new local and global paradigms, developed by people who are not tied to the constructs that have collapsed”. Jo Anne Butler will also make a work in collaboration with Gearoid Muldowney, (Superfolk Design Studio).

Kevin Atherton was a part of a generation of artists in Britain who pioneered video and performance art in the ’70s and early ’80s. For Something Else Atherton will present a new installation that develops his ongoing interest in the relationship between the virtual and the fictional. He will also exhibit the twoscreen video installation In Two Minds - Past Version 1978-2006. This video installation is also running at The Museum of Modern Art San Francisco (SFMOMA) from June - September 2009.

By way of an artist’s statement, a short act of confession: I hate making things with other people’s help but then I make stuff really badly, and sloppily, because I am lazy, fickle and undisciplined. I’m ok with that though. Is that irritating? I’d just ignore it then if I were you. Not much of an artist’s statement, but hey… I spend a lot of time advising people not to use ‘I’ in formulating a sentence. By way of controversy, I would like to suggest that you need never bother your arse to read The Irish Times on art, or listen to RTÉ for interesting ideas about culture for that matter, and while I’m at it, ‘God bless all in the holy orders’ - at least now, finally, we can think sociologically in public together. Well, that’s the nugatory wisdom that I have for you. God bless, best of luck and don’t squander it.

Jo Anne Butler graduated from NCAD in 2005 and began to study Architecture at UCD in 2007. Her continually evolving art practice includes a number of curatorial and collaborative projects with Tara Kennedy under the name Culturstruction. Gearoid Muldowney is a graduate of the Craft Design department at NCAD and is founder of Superfolk Design Studio.

JOHN BYRNE John Byrne’s work explores the idea of investing belief in ‘High Culture’ and the notion that art is somehow a route to salvation. Byrne is interested in areas and instances where ‘Art’ and ‘Faith’ overlap or replace each other - a contest perhaps between Art and God. “I believe in the visual as the foremost articulation of meaning, mapping the ridge between perception and conception, navigating contested spaces, seeking the expression of a distillation of experience in and of nature.” John Byrne was born in Belfast and studied art in Belfast before attending The Slade School of Art in London. Previous work includes ‘Border Interpretative Centre’ (2000), a week long visitor centre project on the border, ‘Would you die for Ireland?’ (2003) and ‘Dublin’s Last Supper’ a large photowork on Blooms Lane, Dublin. Byrne is currently working on a permanent sculptural work commissioned by Breaking Ground. He has performed throughout Ireland, the UK, Denmark and Poland.

Kevin Atherton teaches at NCAD and lives and works in Dublin and Co Kilkenny. He has exhibited at The Serpentine Gallery and the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London and in major survey exhibitions of British Art such as ‘Un Certain Art Anglais’ at the Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris in 1979, and the ‘British Art Show’ at the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham in 1984. Forthcoming exhibitions include “Of Art and Television: Changing Channels” at the Museum of Modern Art, Vienna (MUMOK) in 2010. Recent performances include ‘In Two Minds’ at Tate Britain in 2006, which he also performed with Sarah Pierce at Four Gallery, Dublin in January 2009.

Mick Wilson is an artist, writer and educator. He stopped making art in the early 2000s following a series of one-person shows and projects including: ‘Trains Made Mary Vague’, Temple Bar Gallery (2000) and ‘The Tuileries Incident’, Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin (1999). He recently returned to artmaking when invited to participate in several group exhibition projects: ‘Float’, SSP, New York (2007) ‘Blackboxing’, Project, Dublin (2007); ‘Coalesce: Happenstance’, Smart Project Space, Amsterdam (2009); and ‘Reach Out and Touch Faith’ (with Isabel Nolan) Gallery For One, Dublin (2009). Recent published work includes: Emergence, in Nought to Sixty, ICA, London (2008) and Autonomy, Agonism, and Activist Art: An Interview with Grant Kester, Art Journal, v.66: n.3. (2007).

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BUTLER GALLERY

DAVID GODBOLD (UK)

The end of the beginning of the beginning of the end Godbold is described as an artist who has found a curiously viable reason for making old master quality drawings with an acidic relevance to the contemporary world. Language and humour are central to his practice, which ranges from intimate “imagetext” drawings to mural-scale installations and recent large canvases. They form irreverent and iconoclastic commentaries on the philosophical struggle with daily life.

9 August - 4 October 10am-5.30pm Opening Saturday 8 August 3.30pm-5.30pm Kilkenny Castle

GRENNAN MILL CRAFT SCHOOL Seven artists with local links exhibit their work in the beautiful Grennan Mill Craft School. The artists are: George Vaughan (painter), Jock Nichol (painter), Caroline Conway (relief printmaker), Eva Lynch (jeweller), Cathy Dineen (illustrator), Mary Ann Gelly (painter/sculptor), Tania Mosse (sculptor).

ENDANGERED STUDIOS

THE MUSEUM OF BROKEN RELATIONSHIPS

with 11 local artists working in a range of disciplines. Endangered Studios began in 2003 with six artists in a disused factory: the first artists’ studios in Kilkenny to be supported by the county council. Though there has been a consistent founding core, the group continues to fluctuate in size allowing new artists to utilise the space and opportunities, whilst other members of the group have left to continue study and career paths.

Romantic letters and gifts, teddy bears and photos, are exhibited alongside more unusual items such as a gallstone or a prosthetic leg donated by a war veteran who fell in love with his physiotherapist. 31 July - 31 August Mon - Sat, 10am-5pm Sun, 11am-5pm 76 John Street

Olinka Vištica and Drazen Grubiši founded the Museum of Broken Relationships to create a space of secure memory, preserving the material and nonmaterial heritage of broken relationships. Individuals have donated mementos, turning them into museum exhibits, participating in the creation of a preserved collective emotional history.

Since March 2007 the group has been housed in the old Workhouse in Callan. The artists exhibiting here are: Andrew Ryan, Bridget O’Gorman, Caroline Schofield, Conor Cleary, Etaoin Holahan, Gary Tynan, Jennifer Hughes, Richard Coghlan and Tracy Sweeney.

ESTATE YARD 09 Six artists from the Art & Craft studios in Castlecomer present new work in a joint exhibition in Kilkenny City. Andrew Ludick (ceramics), Maeve Coulter (textiles), Ruairí Carroll (sculpture), Rachel Burke (painting), Lucy McKenna (mixed media) and Ross Stewart (painting) all share the same working environment at the Estate Yard, whilst creating their own varied personal artworks. 7 August - 16 August 10am-6pm 4 William Street/ Castlecomer Estate Yard

Endangered Studios is Kilkenny-based

Born in the UK, David Godbold lives in Ireland and holds a PhD from the NCAD in Dublin. His solo exhibitions were in Antwerp, Dublin, Hong Kong, Munich and New York. He is represented by the Kerlin Gallery, Dublin.

KILKENNY COUNTY COUNCIL ARTS OFFICE GALLERY

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8 - 16 August, 11am-6pm Fennelly’s Bridge Street, Callan

MICK TURNER (Australia)

7 August - 16 August 10am-6pm Thomastown

Grennan Mill Craft School

He is best known as a musician with Australian instrumental combo The Dirty Three, but he also has a longstanding practice as a painter. His work deals with the embedded psychology and emotion of Australian and European landscapes. His paintings include an array of human and animal characters and a lyrical use of colour and gesture.

7 - 16 August 12 noon-6pm Opening Friday 14 August, 5pm The Maltings Tilbury Place, James’ Street

BLACKBIRD GALLERY PATRICK SCOTT Works on Paper 2002-2009 (Ireland)

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DONAL DINEEN (Ireland)

This is the first time that Patrick Scott’s entire body of work on paper has been shown. He began collaborating with Stoney Road Press in 2002. By this year he had made 13 major prints and one piece of sculpture using his signature applied gold and palladium leaf.

Donal Dineen says he sees music as the framework through which all creativity passes, so pretty much every attempt he’s made to start a film or photographic project has turned into a music video.

At 87, Scott feels he has freedom to draw on the imagery of a long career, re-working many important themes of his life’s work. He is one of Ireland’s greatest living artists.

“Usually what happens is the track I’ve been listening to most while shooting Super 8 film becomes the eventual soundtrack for the resulting pictures. The visual records I make and keep of these songs are my attempts at a tribute and more often than not simply a labour of true love,” he says. This exhibition will incorporate Donal’s early photographic work and more recent super-8 projects.

7 - 16 August, 12 noon -7pm daily 18 William Street

A mixed show of 16 acclaimed artists will also be at the gallery during the festival, including works by Donald Teskey, William Crozier and Felim Egan and local artists such as Patrick O’Connor and Kathleen Holahan.

MARY LEE MURPHY (Ireland)

Batik

Waterford artist Mary Lee Murphy paints through the medium of wax resist and dye, traditionally known as batik.

SINEAD NÍ MHAONAIGH (Ireland)

Sinead Ní Mhaonaigh’s work to date has explored space and non-spaces in the form of abstract images. She describes these spaces and non-spaces as portraying a void. Portraying a void on the canvas surface relates to a journey into the unknown or the work being exiled on the edge of this space. These concerns are central to this exhibition. 7 - 16 August , 10am-6pm Ryan’s Electrical, High Street

BLAISE SMITH (Ireland) Weapons obsess western society. They appear relentlessly on television and in the media. We are martial, whether we like it or not. As a painter, an observer, Kilkenny artist, Blaise Smith believes we have a duty to look closely at something that is central to society. He has done the looking for you. Blaise Smith was granted unprecedented access to the Army’s weapons and made 14 paintings of different forms of weapon, including the soldiers themselves. There will also be a sideshow of other current work.

She has exhibited widely, both nationally and internationally. Her latest commission has been a series of works for a church in Florida, USA designed by architect Michael Graves.

7 - 16 August, 12 noon-6pm Opening Friday 14 August, 5pm The Maltings Tilbury Place, James’ Street

“As an artist I am inspired by nature, the land, the light and the colours. Inspiration is a movement of the spirit, and as an artist I am drawn to create works that reflect something of the beauty of Creation,” she says.

7-16 August, 10am-6pm daily The Black Abbey Abbey Street

7 - 16 August, 10am-6pm Zavvi Store MacDonagh Junction

GILLIAN FREEDMAN

(Ireland) Surfacing

The aim is to address continuing thoughts of growth and regeneration: a life force that drives itself through hard ground to surface despite all odds. Gillian Freedman has made a strong individual statement with her eye catching contemporary tufted art rugs and hand woven tapestries and with an innovative use of paper, lead and silk. 7 - 16 August Mon - Fri 10am-6pm, Sun 12 noon-5pm Rudolf Heltzel Gallery, Patrick Street

ALAN COUNIHAN and GYPSY RAY (Ireland)

Townland 1 explores the townlands in the Townland 1 specifically parish of Rathcoole, Co Kilkenny in all their resonant complexities. The work is informed by the rural community in which they live and Gypsy’s childhood in an American farming community. Alan Counihan has realised many large public sculpture commissions in Ireland and the USA where his work is in many collections. Gypsy Ray’s social documentary photography is renowned in the US. The Poetry of Place is her book of landscape imagery. An exhibition of her drawings, Concealment is on tour. 7 - 16 August, 11am-6pm Johnswell Community Hall Johnswell

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STERLING IRISH:

Irish contemporary craft artists living in England, Scotland and Wales GRAINNE MORTON uses found objects as the main inspiration for her jewellery. Using a diverse range of materials, she works on a miniature scale, in order to create attention and draw the onlooker into the piece. She references traditional ornament and kitsch to create quirky, nostalgic pieces that are evocative and entertaining. She is based in Edinburgh.

ANGELA O’KELLY curator FOR THE FIRST TIME, KILKENNY ARTS FESTIVAL IS HOSTING A CRAFT STRAND TO RECOGNISE AND CELEBRATE THE CONTRIBUTION OF CRAFT TO THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE, BOTH IN IRELAND AND INTERNATIONALLY. AS PART OF THIS STRAND, STERLING IRISH IS A CURATED EXHIBITION OF WORK FROM LEADING IRISH CRAFT ARTISTS BASED IN ENGLAND SCOTLAND AND WALES. THE DIVERSITY AND QUALITY OF THEIR WORK DEMONSTRATES HIGH LEVELS OF ORIGINALITY, INNOVATION AND FINE CRAFTSMANSHIP. The exhibition aims to heighten awareness and showcase exceptional talent by 11 Irish craft artists. It features contemporary jewellery, silversmithing, glass, ceramics and textiles from established and new makers. Some of the artists are concept driven, working with themes such as personal identity, culture and heritage, whereas others focus on design processes and the manipulation of materials. Contemporary jewellery, silversmithing, glass, ceramics and textiles from established and new makers, will feature.

Castle Yard Galleries 7 - 16 August Mon - Sat 10am-6pm Sun 11am-6pm

CLAIRE CURNEEN’S trademark white porcelain figure depicts St Sebastian suffering the ordeal of martyrdom yet at the same time seeming almost unaware of it. She emphasises that dual nature of matter and spirit through the depiction of his blood, - the visceral reality of his situation - in gold, an indicator of preciousness and value. She is based in South Wales.

CÓILÍN Ó DUBHGHAILL’S work centres around the development of specialised alloys and patination techniques that explore the application of colour on his metal vessels. This exhibition will showcase work resulting from his recent time as Senior Research Fellow at Sheffield Hallam University, on a project examining the production and application of Japanese alloys and patination. He is based in Sheffield.

JENNIFER BROWNE’S work is based around Biomimicry, which is the study of processes, systems, structures and behaviour in the natural world. She is particularly interested in the efficiency of nature’s methods of building and growing, and in the manner in which individual organisms are intrinsic parts of eco systems in which they all contribute and benefit from one another. This model of co-operation and multifunctionality forms the basis for her working practice. She is based in London.

JAMES TOAL is interested in the opacity of the colour black and how it is transformed through the transparent qualities of glass. When black pigment is applied to glass in varying quantities, it absorbs and reflects light, creating and revealing different depths of tone and colour. This allows the true nature of the colour black to reveal itself - to come out of darkness and become truly luminous. He is based in London.

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Other festival craft events: Friday 7 August Jack Doherty Ceramics Workshop Pottery School, Grennan, Thomastown

JOAN MacKARRELL’S enamel pieces evoke fragments of childhood memories spent on the Atlantic coast of Donegal. Her use of materials is central to her practice, and in her recent work she pushes the boundaries of her chosen medium to the limits of fused glass and metal. These pieces combine unusual, talismanic stones with textured matt-finished glass, resulting in highly individual necklaces imbued with an elemental and spiritual feeling. She is based in London.

SADHBH McCORMACK’S current jewellery pieces had their origin in her photography of bodies in motion. These photographs formed the basis of a drawing series that explored the inner workings of the bone structure and spine, and in turn led to her jewellery pieces. She photographs her finished pieces on male bodies, whose strength and form provide the perfect sculptural backdrop for the work. She is based in London.

SUZANNE GOODWIN’S current work is based on her interest in the environment. In response to her concerns about climate change and rapidly evolving weather patterns, she has produced a range of innovative fabrics that react to changing weather, and are embedded in our natural behaviour. Her responsive scarves, anoraks and dresses offer a vision of our future daily lives. She is based in London.

VICTORIA ROTHSCHILD investigates the possibilities of combining hot blown work with different techniques in kiln work and cold decoration. Her inspiration is drawn from nature, in particular the seashore. The inherent qualities of glass - such as transparency, reflection and light - work perfectly to convey the movement and energy of water. She is based on London.

CARMEL McELROY is a multidisciplinary designer who combines the practices of textiles, three-dimensional, and product design in her finished pieces. Her work is based on her passion for materials, ideas and form, and is rigorously informed by research and development in these areas. This approach results in innovative and ingenious work designed to enhance the relationship between the object and the user. Her exploratory approach is combined with exquisite craftsmanship and attention to detail in the finished and manufactured product.

CJ O’NEILL is inspired by nostalgia, captured in discarded domestic objects and graphic lettering. Recognising the evocative qualities of the second-hand, she takes old and vintage pieces, sourced in charity shops or closed down factories, and re-interprets their use. She converts her ideas, thoughts and drawings to surface decoration through cutting and juxtaposing sections, patterns and words. She hopes to imbue these pieces with a new story, another lifetime, to provoke conversation and inspire new ways of seeing objects.

Saturday 8 August 4.30pm Official opening of all Craft exhibitions Castle Yard Galleries and National Craft Galleries Saturday 8 August 6.30pm Pecha Kucha Night Short, stimulating presentations around the 2009 craft strand in 20 images, 20 seconds each. Castle Yard Galleries and National Craft Galleries Sunday 9 August Sterling Irish artists’ talks CJ O’Neill, ceramic artist, 1pm Cóilín Ó Dubhghaill, silversmith, 2.30pm Castle Yard Galleries Curators’ talk Aisling Prior, festival visual arts curator Brian Kennedy, Crafts Council of Ireland, Objects exhibition curator 4.30pm Castle Yard Galleries Throughout the festival 11am to 12 noon Exhibition tours Castle Yard Galleries National Crafts Gallery Daily Craft Workshops For children 5-12 yrs Details at exhibitions

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NATIONAL CRAFT GALLERY National Craft Gallery 8 August - 27 October 10am - 6pm

National Craft Gallery 8 August - 28 October 10am - 6pm

JACK DOHERTY (Ireland) Potter A solo exhibition celebrating the work of this internationally reknowned potter from Derry, who was resident at the Kilkenny Design Workshops in the 1960s.

OBJECT An exhibition juxtaposing abstract work from the Arts Council Collection with contemporary Irish craft, linked by shared interests in line, form, texture and colour. Curated by Brian Kennedy, the exhibition includes work by SiobhĂĄn Hapaska, Fergus Martin, Michael Moore and Frances Lambe.

MADE in Kilkenny Butler House Patrick Street 7 - 16 August 10am - 6pm

MADE in Kilkenny launches with new innovative works influenced by Kilkenny 400. MADE consists of 26 professional craftspeople who work to the highest standard of excellence using a wide range materials including glass, clay, stone, metal, wood and textiles. Their studios are open to visitors throughout the county of Kilkenny.

WORKHOUSE STUDIOS 2 Rose Inn Street 7 August - 16 August Mon - Sat, 10am-6pm Sun, 12 noon-5pm

At Red Aesthetic

Workhouse Studios was established late in 2008. It is one of Irelandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s newest craft groups, in a studio equipped for several disciplines, including textiles, glass and jewellery. This talented mix of young designers has already achieved international success and has been selected for Origin, the leading craft fair based at Somerset House in London.

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Children 3-10 yrs

RUN, RUN, THE LITTLE GOAT AND THE WOLF (Italy)

(Scappa Scappa - Le Caprette e Il Lupo presented in English) Written by Tiziana Lucattini

Saturday 8 & Sunday 9 August 2pm & 4pm each day The Watergate Theatre Admission `10 Duration 60 minutes

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STICKS AND STONES (Ireland)

Music and rhythm, interactive performance for families With MARION GAYNOR

Children 8+ yrs and their families

It’s funny, it’s beautiful and it’s a fairytale. You’ve got a clever wolf, a curious child, a worried parent and a twist in the tail when the baddie turns out to be not so bad after all.

Sticks and Stones is all about beat and groove and having fun with rhythm. You bring your own sticks and stones. As well, you can bring your parents and friends, your neighbours or anyone you want!

It is based on a Slovenian folktale and the dancing is great. You will never forget it!

You can make rhythm sticks from wood or plastic pipes about ¾ of an inch wide. They should be 8 to 12 inches long. And the stones, well, stones are stones: bring rocks or pebbles, but try them out for the sound they make first.

We are going to clap hands, bang stones together, tap sticks together and have fun together. All you have to do is turn up with a pair of rhythm sticks or a pair of stones.

Sunday 9 August 12pm & 2pm The Heritage Council/ Áras na hOidhreachta Church Lane Admission `10 Duration 60 minutes

LIZ WEIR (Ireland) Storytelling

Children 1+ yrs Saturday 15 & Sunday 16 August 2pm & 4pm each day Barnstorm Theatre Church Lane Admission `10 Duration 45 minutes

BEDTIME/PA CAMA (Spain)

An original idea by Carolina Ramos and Kevin Stewart. Directed by Omar Alvarez and Kevin Stewart Everyone loves sleepovers. You get to eat treats, to have fun and the last thing you want to do is fall asleep even though you have to pretend to try. Join two friends having a sleepover, who use their imagination to turn the bedroom into a world of unexpected things and daring adventures. There is no talking but loads of music, moving around and puppets. You will love it.

Admission for children is free, thanks to

(see page 30 for details)

Wednesday 12 August This woman has been all over the world and everywhere she goes she tells stories and listens to people telling stories and then comes back and tells those stories to us. And you know what? The children in other places are really just the same as the ones here. They all love magic, being happy, being amazed and more than anything else, having a good laugh. Her stories will do all that with fairies, talking animals, mermaids, ghosts and adventures.

Children 6-8 yrs 11.30am - 12.20pm Children 9-12 yrs 2pm - 2.50pm The Heritage Council/ Áras na hOidhreachta Church Lane Admission `8

Liz Weir has so many stories she had enough to fill two brilliant books called Boom Chicka Boom and Here There and Everywhere. As well, she wrote a book about a child whose father is in jail called When Dad Went Away. Everyone loved her when she was here before, so come and enjoy again.

Admission for children is free, thanks to

(see page 30 for details)

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The Parade Tower Kilkenny Castle Monday 10 August Fantasy Journeys Children 4-6 yrs 11.30am - 12.30pm Children 7-9 yrs 2pm - 3.30pm Take Flight Children 10-12 yrs 3.45pm - 5.15pm Max. 30 children Tuesday 11 August Summer Tunes Children 2-4 yrs with their parents 3pm - 4pm Masks Children 2-4 yrs with their parents 4.30pm - 5.30pm Max. 15 children with accompanying adults Wednesday 12 August Flat Felt Basics Children 7-9 yrs 10.30am - 12.30pm Children 10-12 yrs 2pm - 4pm Max. 10 children

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Creative Dance with JOKE VERLINDEN of MYRIAD DANCE (Ireland) Fantasy Journeys

Forget hip hop. This is the real deal. All you need is a big imagination and to want to dance. Through dressing up, exploring our imaginations and dancing, we will create a magical world. We will play with time, rhythm, space and dreams. We will have the best of fun and at the end we will have a really cool dance put together by ourselves. You can bring your parents and if you want you can let them join in.

Take Flight

You want to take flight? Come along and learn to roll, jump, tumble, fall and recover, lift and float and take off using each others bodies, balloons, parachutes and small trampolines. Dancers will show you how to do really cool things with your body and at the end you will have made up a brilliant dance using all those movements. So, if you have energy and imagination and are the kind of boy or girl who can’t resist a dare, then this is the place to be on Monday afternoon. Wear a tracksuit and bring a drink (not a fizzy one because you will be jumping around). You can wear whatever shoes you like, because you will be taking them and your socks off when you’re dancing.

Art Workshop for Toddlers and Parents with Artist SARAH RUBIN of C3 (Ireland) Summer Tunes

This art and craft workshop will have you humming and gazooing all your summer songs. So, come with some cardboard toilet roll tubes and join the fun.

Masks

Come and see how you can transform yourself with a mask and explore the new you through different bright colours and simple shapes. Children must be accompanied by a participating adult.

Felt making with Felter NICOLA BROWNE (Ireland) Flat Felt Basics

In just one afternoon you can learn how to create felt. People did it in ancient times with simple raw materials. It is not a woven fabric so it is easier to make. Now you can do it too. When you come home after this workshop you will have a lovely piece of felt that you have designed and made. Then you can hang it on your wall, stitch it into a bag or stick it onto the cover of a book.

Admission for children is free, thanks to

(see page 30 for details)

FILM

DIY Animation with Filmmaker MICHAEL FORTUNE and artist AILEEN LAMBERT

THE SECRET OF KELLS Adventure, action and danger await 12-year-old Brendan who must fight Vikings and a serpent god to find a crystal and complete the legendary Book of Kells. The film, which was made by Cartoon Saloon here in Kilkenny, will be followed by a talk by its director, Tomm Moore. Tuesday 11 August 11.30am The Parade Tower Kilkenny Castle

This fun and interactive workshop gives you the chance to make your own short animated film. The films will be put up on YouTube so you can show all your friends and family.

Extreme Arts Express facilitated by MICHAEL WAY This exciting workshop will use drama, drawing and story composition to challenge the imagination and give you the opportunity to reflect on your experience of the world around you.

MONKEYSHINE THEATRE in partnership with TALLAGHT COMMUNITY ARTS CENTRE (Ireland) Children 3-5 yrs Thursday 13 August Children’s Ward St Luke’s Hospital (Not open to the public) Presented in association with St Luke’s Art Committee and HSE

Friday 14 August 10.30am, 11.45am, 2pm & 3.15pm The Parade Tower Kilkenny Castle Duration 45 minutes

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The Heritage Council/ Áras na hOidhreachta Church Lane Thursday 13 August DIY Animation Children 7-9 yrs 10am - 12 noon Children 10-12yrs 2pm - 4pm Max. 10 children Friday 14 August Extreme Arts Express Children 10-12 yrs 10.30am - 12.30pm Children 13-15 yrs 2pm - 4pm Max. 20 children

YOUR MAN’S PUPPETS (Ireland)

TALES FROM THE WORKSHOP

Going to bed will never be the same again after you’ve seen The Bedmaker. Stories, puppets and clowning around in your bed turns it into a very different place altogether. The Bedmaker is an intimate show with just six children joining in the performance on an oversized bed!

What happens when a storyteller meets a gang of noisy puppets by chance? A show that is full of magic and fun. It is presented by master puppeteer Tommy Baker and gifted storyteller Clare Murphy, who you will remember from last year’s festival.

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Family show, Children 4+ yrs Thursday 13 August 11.30am & 2pm The Parade Tower Kilkenny Castle Duration 45 minutes

Devised by Helene Hugel with support from the Arts Council.

Admission for children is free, thanks to

(see page 30 for details)

For great deals and to book your accommodation visit

Kilkenny City Map

www.kilkennyarts.ie

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Take a bow! The arts really matter to us in Ireland; they are a big part of people’s lives, the country’s single most popular pursuit. Our artists interpret our past, define who we are today, and imagine our future. We can all take pride in the enormous reputation our artists have earned around the world. The arts play a vital role in our economy, and smart investment of taxpayers’ money in the arts is repaid many times over. The dividends come in the form of a high value, creative economy driven by a flexible, educated, innovative work force, and in a cultural tourism industry worth A5 billion a year. The Arts Council is the Irish Government agency for funding and developing the arts. Arts Council funding from the taxpayer, through the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism, for 2009 is A75 million, that’s about A1 euro a week for every household. So, at the end of your next great festival experience, don’t forget the role you played and take a bow yourself! Find out what’s on at www.events.artscouncil.ie Find out what’s on at

www.events.artscouncil.ie You can find out more about the arts here: