Irish Arts Festivals Archive Booklet

Irish Arts Festivals Archive Irish Arts Festivals Archive

What is it?

What does it contain?

The Irish Arts Festivals Archive captures and preserves the diverse landscape of festivals held across Ireland from the late 20th-century onward.

The Arts Festival Archive contains materials in paper and digital form, including business plans and funding applications

It is: minutes of board meetings a central repository of festival archives. correspondence with artists and sponsors a curated secure collection that ensures festival archives are made accessible and preserved for the future. a resource of national scope and significance that will map the rich landscape of Irish festivals past, present and future.

programmes and posters film footage and photographs press coverage

Why bring festival archives together?

Many festival archives are held in unsuitable conditions— in multiple locations or in temporary storage or domestic settings. These archives often contain fragile materials that are at risk of being damaged or lost over time.

Creating a central repository for current and historic festival archives will ensure they are preserved and made accessible to the public. These arts festivals are key platforms for cultural expression and creative development, and make a significant contribution to the social and economic strength of the community.

This collection will provide researchers from multiple disciplines, including art history, cultural geography, literature, performing arts and social policy, with a single repository containing a rich array of materials relating to recent and contemporary festivals.

Arts festivals are key platforms for cultural expression and creative output.

Why choose to have your festival represented in the archive?

The Irish Arts Festivals Archive, which is an ongoing initiative of UCD Library, includes materials from current and past arts festivals in Ireland. It is curated by UCD Archives, a cultural heritage unit within the Library.

UCD Archives specialises in the acquisition of archival collections documenting the history and development of the modern Irish State, of which cultural provision is an important part.

We are happy to talk to festival organisers based anywhere on the island of Ireland about the possibility of adding their archives to this central repository. The process of moving a festival archive to UCD, to become part of these cultural heritage collections, may require preparation on the part of festival representatives.

However once done, it will ensure the legacy of the festival will be preserved, and will reside alongside the archives of other similar but distinct festival histories.

Partnerships Launched in 2020, the Irish Arts Festivals Archive is curated

by UCD Archives.

UCD Library has worked in partnership with David Teevan, Arts Consultant and Researcher, to develop the vision for this archive. Our planning has also been informed by colleagues from the UCD College of Arts and Humanities, and representatives of the Arts Council of Ireland.

We are grateful for the opportunity to work with festival organisers, community groups and local authorities. We look forward to developing new partnerships as part of this initiative.

UCD Cultural Heritage Collection UCD holds a rich variety of heritage collections comprising unique materials spanning four centuries of Irish history and culture. These encompass such diverse subjects as literature, Gaelic language and folklore, music, genealogy and political history. The Irish Arts Festivals Archive, held in UCD Archives, is part of the UCD Heritage Collection.

We are very grateful to those who have already committed or deposited their festival archives in UCD. More information is available from ursula.byrne@ucd.ie, archives@ucd.ie or lucy.collins@ucd.ie ©UCD Library 2020.

Design: Seán Ó Domhnaill

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