This year’s Galway Cartoon Festival promises to be the biggest and best yet, with international exhibitions, fascinating talks, public interviews, film screenings, art trails, workshops and competitions taking place around the city from September 29 to October 4.
Since its inception in 2017, the Galway Cartoon Festival has been on a mission to bring the art of cartooning, caricature and illustration to the west of Ireland, and to make the event an important fixture in the calendar of international pop art.
Now in its seventh edition, the 2023 festival has something for everybody with even a passing interest in what the French call ‘the ninth art’.
Special guests this year include Ed Steckley, vice president of the American Cartoon Society and best known for his contributions to the legendary MAD magazine; Martin Rowson, chair of the British Cartoonists’ Association and contributor to the Guardian and Daily Mirror; renowned French caricaturist Jean-Michel Renault; and award-winning Portuguese artist Cristina Sampaio.
Although unable to travel because of the war, Ukrainian cartoonist Vladimir Kazanevsky, of the international group Cartooning for Peace, will be participating in the festival via Zoom.
These famous pencil-slingers will be joined by Irish dignitaries Tom Mathews (Hot Press, The Irish Times, Sunday Independent ), Harry Burton (Irish Examiner ), Jim Cogan (Sunday Independent, Irish Farmers’ Journal, The Phoenix ), Dean Patterson (Private Eye ), and Irish language cartoonist Caoimhe Lavelle. Iconic water safety cartoons by Terry Willers will also be on show.
Most events will be happening in venues throughout the city – including the new Portershed, the Town Hall Theatre, An Taibhdhearc, Pálás Cinema, Galway City Library and Galway City Museum. Beyond the city limits, Áras Éanna Arts Centre on Inis Oírr will be showing Irish language cartoons and facilitating drawing demonstrations in local schools.
All the festival events are completely free to the public. For full details on this year’s Galway Cartoon Festival programme, visit galwaycartoonfestival.ie
