Tonight (Friday ), Kilkenny’s galleries, venues, studios, and theatres will open their doors late into the evening, offering free events for all to enjoy.
Locals should take the opportunity to enjoy a diverse range of fun and entertainment, including music, visual art, craft, stories, poetry, and plays — all right on our doorstep.
Katie Kim and band
An evening with Katie Kim and band will take place in the Hole In The Wall.
Katie Kim is the pseudonym of Katie Sullivan when she performs and records her slowcore, ethereal, ambient folk/pop. Paired with vocals that have been compared to Zola Jesus, CoCo Rosie, Cat Power, and Joanna Newsome, the music revolves and swims around layers of fuzzy drips and murky clouds but always seems to come to an elegant conclusion.
Play3some
Following Katie Kim is Jeffrey Gormly’s play Play3some.
With tones of Beckett mixed with hip-hop, Play3some is a play about love, romance, and confusion. Appealing to anyone who has ever been in a relationship or is looking for one, it is funny, shocking, cheeky, and tender.
It pushes the boundaries of theatrical expectation during an hour long interactive playreading where audience members are invited to read from the script and become vocally entangled with the other players. This event is not for under 16s, as it contains moderately explicit content.
The Butler Gallery
Everything is a remix at the Butler Gallery with a ‘smoke and mirrors’ viewing of Ian Burn’s Supreme Fiction exhibition.
Experience a host of talks, screenings, performances, and ‘interruptions’ programmed by curatorial collective. Additional activity on the night platforms the gallery’s work with audience groups, including an exhibition of children’s work from Solas workshops, a display of hedge school sketchbooks, and input from the youth group, Red Square.
Craft Gallery
Enjoy a crafty Culture Night at the National Craft Gallery for an eclectic and eccentric mix of music, performance, and making in celebration of Culture Night and Year of Craft 2011.
Enjoy hourly guided tours of the Modified Expressions exhibition where artists who work with the manipulation of books and paper respond to the work of authors participating in the Kilkenny Arts Festival literature strand.
You can also take the opportunity to participate in a paper-making workshop or make your own bespoke hat for Crafted Cabaret with milliner Rebekah Patterson.
Let down your hair
Hosted by the Kilkenny Writers Group, ‘Let Down Your Hair’, is a subtle blend of culture and art in the Parade Tower, Kilkenny Castle.
The evening will feature a guest poet reading from his/her own collection and sharing valuable insight. Come along, stay and be entertained while you have a drink and get to know your local voice.
Fine art printmaking
Blackstack Studio will host an evening of workshops and demonstrations to give an insight into the processes involved in fine art printmaking.
The workshops will focus on drypoint printing and aim to give a brief introduction to intaglio printmaking. The event is suitable for all levels.
Up-cycle your clothes
At MacDonagh Junction Shopping Centre Deirdre Harte will host Up-Cycling Demonstrations, giving an insight into the processes of how to upgrade your old clothes into amazing outfits using skills such as simple stitch, embellishment, and embroidery.
In using fashion, clothing, and textiles as a medium to create art these demos engage the public and spread the message that the fashion industry and our choices in general can and should be better. The audience will be taken through the basic skills needed to embrace reinventing and rethinking textiles and items of clothing.
And more...
The Heritage Council of Ireland presents an evening of atmospherically-lit music recital, while the Blackbird Gallery will open its door to the public late into the evening.
Treasures of Kilkenny can be seen at City Hall – providing the public with an opportunity to see selected items from Kilkenny City Archives, including the Liber Primus and the charters of 1608 and 1609.
Kilkenny City Library will celebrate Polish culture with music, dance, storytelling, art, reading and samples of Polish cuisine.
Hosted by the Irish Conker Championship committee, the book reading Old Friends: The lost tales of Fionn Mac Cumhaill by Tom O’Neill will take place at St Lachtain’s Church in Freshford.
All Culture Night events are free of charge.
So make the most of it with family and friends and enjoy a night of entertainment, discovery, and adventure in Kilkenny. For further information, contact Kilkenny County Council Arts Office at 056 7794138.
