Details of this year’s Burning Bright festival — an annual event celebrating creativity in older age — are set to be announced at a launch in the city this afternoon (Thursday ).
Burning Bright is part of the nationwide Bealtaine Festival, which takes place across the country throughout May.
Burning Bright was initiated by Galway County Council arts service in 2005. The county council was later joined in the project by Galway University Hospitals Arts Trust, Age Action West, and Galway City Council.
Burning Bright sees professional visual artists conduct workshops in residential care facilities, day centres, and hospitals in the city and county each spring, with a focus on reigniting creativity, discovering art materials, and connecting with each other through making artwork together.
After eight weeks of workshops, Galway Arts Centre holds an exhibition of the work created in its Dominick Street gallery. The work is always bright, colourful, based on real events and communal experience, in a variety of media. This year viewers will see painting, mosaic, sculpture, and a performance by St Brendan’s CNU, Loughrea, at today’s opening.
The launch will take place in the Galway Arts Centre today at 2pm, and will be followed by a tea dance in Nuns Island with a jazz band formed specially for the occasion, and food by The Kitchen in Galway City Museum.
The festivities will continue into Saturday with a theatre performance Seeing and Dreaming by Dog and String Theatre Company. Tickets are €10, available at the door, and performances begin at 3pm and 8pm.
