Galway Arts Centre’s Nuns Island Theatre will this weekend host an array of events - for young people and by young people - covering theatre, film, visual arts, and literature - as part of Cruinniú na nÓg 2023.
Cruinniú na nÓg, Ireland’s national day of free creativity for children and young people under-18, takes place on Saturday June 10.
Galway Arts Centre will present A Space for Our Voices at Nuns Island Theatre from 11am to 5pm showcasing the centre’s youth arts programmes – Red Bird Youth Collective, Galway Youth Theatre, and Cúirt Labs writer-in-residence.
The day begins at 11am when Galway Arts Centre and Galway Youth Theatre present a selection of readings from Pat McCabe’s The Adventures of Shay Mouse - The Mouse from Longford suitable for those aged 4+.
Shay Mouse lives peacefully in Bornacoola Wood in Longford, smoking his pipe and inventing boastful stories for young Tom Pat Badger and Mickey Slug.
When an evil band of rats are burnt out of a barn in Mullingar, they take over the wood, making the small animals their slaves. Shay is forced to flee his home, and so begins a series of wonderful adventures across the Irish midlands.
Galway actors Eilish McCarthy and Peter Shine will read stories from this fun and witty novella for children followed by the Galway Youth Theatre choir’s first live performance at 12pm.
Staying with all things books and writing, Cúirt Labs will present a workshop for children and young people with writer and artist Aoife Casby at 12.30pm. Participants will engage with language in a very practical way. By having fun with the dynamics of word and image, young people will explore the possibilities of the book and work together to produce work in a variety of creative forms. Cúirt will also launch a zine created in collaboration with schools in Galway during the 2023 festival.
Galway Arts Centre’s Red Bird Youth Collective, will launch an exhibition of radio and print work made with sound artist Anne Marie Deacy and print artist Aoife Barrett, which looks at mapping Galway City through the eyes of young people. The exhibition opens at 1.45pm with a short introduction from the members and their collaborators. Broadcasting live on the day from the theatre from 1pm to 3pm, Red Bird will also present a mix of live sounds and pre-recorded pieces live on Flirt FM.
At 2.30pm, Galway Arts Centre Dancer in Residence, Magdalena Hylak, will give a dance ‘teaser workshop’, as well as a presentation about the artistic ideas she and composer Lionel Kasparian will be exploring, and what they plan to do as part of the residency scheme.
At 4pm, there will be a screening of the short film, Wings, written and produced by Galway Youth Theatre. The film centres on two sisters, one a teenager, the other a child. They share wholesome laughs in front of a bedroom mirror, just before the teenage sister leaves for a “party”. This 20 minute film deals with innocence, and how it can be breached far too early in life. The screening will be followed by a Q&A by some of the GYT members who wrote and created Wings.
For more information on how to get involved in Galway Arts Centre’s youth arts programme, visit www.galwayartscentre.ie or contact [email protected]. Information will also be provided on the day.
Admission is free and the event is suitable for all ages. For more information see https://www.galwayartscentre.ie/whats-on/a-space-for-our-voices and https://cruinniu.creativeireland.gov.ie.
Galway Arts Centre’s events for Cruinniú na nÓg are supported by Galway City Council and Creative Ireland.
Founded in 1982, the Galway Arts Centre is the hub for the arts in Galway city. Inclusive and welcoming, it is dedicated to providing programmes featuring visual art exhibitions, events, films, music, literature, workshops, residencies, festivals, theatre, and performance.
The centre has two venues - the gallery at 47 Dominick Street, which runs a year-round visual arts programme, and the Nun’s Island Theatre, which delivers a multi-arts programme.
Galway Arts Centre has been the nurturing seed bed for some of Galway’s leading cultural events and resources, including Cúirt International Festival of Literature, Galway Youth Theatre, Red Bird Youth Collective, TULCA Festival of Visual Art, and Galway Theatre Festival.
