ARTS Festival’s art segment opens early for Culture Night

An exhibition by Westport potter Roger Harley opens in Absolutely Pottery, Quay Hill, on Culture Night, Friday, September 23.

Westport Arts Festival wakes up blinking early for Culture Night


BLINK, the visual art segment of Westport Arts Festival, is celebrating Culture Night by opening many of its exhibitions early this year, a week before the rest of the festival. Eleven of this year’s exhibitions open this Friday, September 23, extending the duration of the shows and benefiting artists and art lovers alike.
BLINK attracts quality visiting exhibitions and supports both established and emerging local artists. This year boasts more than 30 events, exhibitions, workshops and activities, with a strong selection of work in photography, print, painting, ceramics and mixed media.

Living work
The centrepiece of this year’s visual arts programme is the stunning photographic work of Jackie Nickerson’s ‘The Past is Another Country’ at Custom House Studios, which officially opens the festival on Friday, September 30.
This exhibition, created for the Millennium Court Arts Centre in Portadown, takes the viewer beyond the local and gives them a glimpse at the global, investigating the nature of identity and exploring how globalisation has affected indigenous and local culture.
The question “What aspect of your local identity would you like to preserve for future generations?” is also asked, introducing the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage, where living traditions are given recognition in an attempt to help them survive in a globalised world. There is nothing from Ireland on this list of living heritage, and one of our strongest candidates for inclusion is Sean-nós – the traditional song and dance of the West.
Visitors will be asked to think about their own cultural heritage, to write their suggestions for the UNESCO list on a ‘post-it’ and leave it for others to read and contemplate, creating a living work during the show. 
Jackie Nickerson will also give a gallery talk on her work on Saturday, October 1, at 11.30am. 

Other highlights
Other visual arts highlights this year are: ‘LORG Inc’, an exhibition of works of some of the country’s top printmakers at Westport Tourist Office; The quirky ‘Things That Matter’, an open submission exhibition at McGing’s pub on High Street featuring works made on or from beer mats; 20 pieces painted on driftwood entitled ‘Off the Boat’, by Francois Gunning at The Creel, The Quay; a sensitive work dealing with depression and suicide entitled ‘I Am Alive’, by William Hamilton at the Andrew Stone Gallery on Bridge Street; and ‘When I Say You I Mean Me’, by Fintan Friel at Brawn’s Flower Shop.
There are also works, exhibitions and workshops by many established festival favourites, including The Octagon Quilters, Seamus Gavin from iStore, the Wright Artists.

For more information and to buy tickets visit westportartsfestival.com. To keep up with the latest news, find it on Facebook at facebook.com/westportarts and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/westportarts. For more details on what’s on around the county for Culture Night, see the back page of this week’s Mayo News.

BLINK Culture Night openings
‘Unseen’, by Michael Gannon at Photography Gallery, Bridge St, 6-9pm • ‘Patterns’, by Roger Harley at Absolutely Pottery, Quay Hill, 6-9pm • ‘Nature’s Flow’, by Suzie Sullivan at Kaleidoscope, Bridge St, 6-10pm • ‘Shadows of times past’, from iStore in the Octagon Room, Wyatt Hotel, the Octagon, from 7pm • ‘Home’, by Andrea Rossi at Clew Bay Hotel Gallery, opening at 7.30pm • ‘52-54 Degrees North’, by Charlotte Fernie in the Dornish Suite, Wyatt Hotel, the Octagon, opening at 7.45pm • ‘I Am Alive’, by William Hamilton at Andrew Stone Gallery, opening  at 8pm • ‘Ultramarine’, by The Wright Artists at Marine Gallery Shop, 7-9pm • ‘The Height of Summer’, at Sea Sky Shore, James St, 6-10pm • ‘New Way Home’, by Diarmait Grogan at Andrew Stone Gallery, 6-10pm • ‘Printmaking’, by Peter Brennan at Waterfront Gallery, The Quay, 6-10pm.