THE WORD mùscailt means to celebrate and inspire and the arts will be celebrated at Múscailt, NUI, Galway’s spring arts festival, from Monday February 9 to Friday 13, with plenty of concerts, exhibitions, talks, and events to inspire both the campus and wider public.
Music
Múscailt has something for everyone in terms of music concerts this year. Tuam singer-songwriter Noelie McDonnell, described in The New York Post as a “startlingly good new Irish talent” and in Hotpress as “the real deal”, will perform a concert.
Trad fans can look forward to a gathering of titans when Cahill Hayden (fiddle ), Mairtín O’Connor (accordion ), Ronan Brown (uillean pipes ), Seamie O’Dowd (guitar ), Roisín Elsafty (sean-nós singing ), Roisín Ní Mhainín (sean-nós dance ), Mary McPartlan (folk ), and Louis De Paor (poetry ), take to the stage.
There will also be the Witless Battle of the Bands.
Theatre
Galway University Musical Society this year presents Disco Inferno, a musical full of fantastic hits from the 1970s, including ‘Hot Stuff’, ‘Celebration’, and ‘Disco Inferno’. Colours Street Theatre Company will perform Stolen Apples, Billy Goats Gruff will be staged by Your Man’s Puppets.
Sculpture and photography
People walking through the college campus will encounter Versus, an installation by Ben Geoghegan, which was commissioned by NUIG for Múscailt 09.
Living and working in Galway and a member of Artspace Studios, Ben completed a master’s in visual art practices at IADT in 2008 and exhibited as part of the celebrations to commemorate 100 years of The Hugh Lane Gallery in the summer of 2008.
Metal artist Luca Ciavarella will create an art sculpture in the campus tennis court throughout the course the festival. His piece, entitled Living Sculpture, will be auctioned at the NUIG Gala Banquet and Alumni Awards in March in aid of Habitat for Humanity.
The photographer Sue Fox said the focus of her work is “the unusual, the taboo, the sexual, the abstract, the absurd, the surreal… anything edgy, uncensored.”
Currently a lecturer of photography at Manchester Metropolitan University, her provocative work promises to inspire debate at Múscailt. Sue will be a guest speaker at the festival opening and present an illustrated talk Contemplations On The Corpse.
Leanaí I Limbo by Lorraine Tuck is a haunting collection that depicts the final resting places of unbaptised stillborn babies around Ireland. Moving in their simplicity the images speak to a time when the Roman Catholic Churchs power forced their flock to bury their stillborn babies in unconsecrated ground.
For tickets and more information contact the SocsBox the Hub, Aras na Mac Léinn on 091 - 492852 or email [email protected]. For programme details visit www.muscailt.nuigalway.ie or www.socs.nuigalway.ie
