3 December 2009

Design Contract Signed and UCC to Partner with Arts Centre

The recent official signing of the Design Team contract between West Cork Arts Centre (WCAC) and Donaghy + Dimond Architects signals the imminent application for full planning permission for the much anticipated New Building for the Arts in West Cork to be constructed on the site of the old Wolfe’s Bakery in Skibbereen.

This past year has been very eventful at WCAC with the implementation of a full Visual Arts Programme in its Gallery space along with a comprehensive Education and Community Programme involving schools, hospitals, day care centres and partner bodies all over the West Cork region.

In January this year the results of the international Architectural Design Competition for a New Building for the Arts in West Cork were announced and this was followed by an exhibition in February at WCAC of the winning entry by Donaghy and Dimond Architects and other shortlisted entries which garnered a lot of interest locally and nationally. It also made the long-proposed new building more real to many people – not least the staff of the Arts Centre who continue to work in very limited spaces on the ground floor of the Sutherland Building.

An exhibition of work by the first cohort of students to graduate from the groundbreaking BA in Visual Art, Sherkin Island took place in March. West Cork Arts Centre’s links to third level educational institutions are further consolidated by the very recent agreement by UCC to partner with the Arts Centre to deliver some of their art related Adult Education courses from the new building. This is in keeping with one of WCAC’s guiding principles of bringing the arts into the community and decentralising arts education, where appropriate and practical, in line with demand from people in the west Cork area. As 80% of UCC students come from Cork county, this need is certainly present. Further levels of co-operation are also taking place between WCAC and the Glucksman Gallery, Cork.

WCAC’s annual Children’s and Youth exhibitions and events took place in March and April and about a thousand young people passed through the doors of the Arts Centre during this time either as part of school groups visiting the exhibitions or partaking in various workshops and events on offer. The Bealtaine celebrations and exhibition in May were another great success and WCAC worked in partnership with Health Service Executive -South (Community Work Department) and West Cork Adult Education Services (Education & Community Department) as well as Age and Opportunity.

The second half of the year saw a number of interesting exhibitions in the Gallery space at the Arts Centre. None more so than Limerick born artist Kate Byrne’s nobody photographs me anymore...which explored societal attitudes to ageing and struck an emotional chord with all who viewed her photographic portraits of older women. Anita Groener’s exhibition Mesh will be the focus of next year’s Children’s Exhibition and Sarah Iremonger’s exhibition, I thought I dreamed of you opened this week and continues to the end of January 2010.

WCAC Director, Ann Davoren says “it’s difficult to know what the next year will bring in the arts but we remain optimistic that the new building for the arts in West Cork will be well under construction by the end of 2010 and will provide a wonderful new facility for the region”

27 July 2009

Skibbereen Arts Festival 2009 : SOUND AND VISION

A major component of Skibbereen Arts Festival 2009 is Sound and Vision, a new and innovative audiovisual event for West Cork.

Skibbereen Arts Festival is delighted to include the debut live performance of RTE Radio 1’s innovative Sound Stories. On Thursday 30 July at 9pm, Abbeystrewery Church is the venue for the Sound Stories team - producer Kevin Brew and presenter Luke Clancy will be joined by Chris Watson, one of the world’s greatest sound recordists to present Sound Stories Live followed by Midnight at the Oasis - a sound installation of the Kalahari Desert at night by Chris Watson.

On Friday 31 July and Saturday 1 August, another sound installation by Chris Watson will again run in Abbeystrewery Church, this one re-creating the sounds and atmosphere to be experienced at sunrise in the Amber Mountain rain forest of Northern Madagascar. People will be free to wander in, walk around or sit down and listen and contemplate the natural world in all its wonder.

Throughout the town there will also be an intricate Art Trail of film and sound installations, a treasure hunt of sorts, where the public are taken on a journey of discovery. It includes work by Ailbhe Ni Bhrian, Si Schroeder, Paul Cialis, Kevin Brew, Desperate Optimists and a selection of films from Cork Film Centre. There’s also an outdoor screening of a movie classic on Wednesday night in the beautiful and atmospheric Abbeystrewery Church grounds, a talk on cinema by Katherine Waugh at West Cork Arts Centre and a lunchtime play called An Rón Dall / The Blind Seal narrated by Dara O Tuairisg, original music by Vinny Kilduff and live art by Dara McGee.

The premier of The Yellow Mountain by Amanda Coogan and the Friday Night Youth Arts Group will take place on Thursday 30 July at 7pm and this new performative video installation will run at WCAC's Wolfe's Bakery on Friday and Saturday from 11am to 5pm each day.

WORKSHOPS
On Saturday 1 August, the Arts Festival will host three workshops, the first will be a Documentary Workshop with Adrian McCarthy, one of the countries top documentary makers with over ten years experience of directing and producing. Award winning actor Karl Shiels will present an Actor’s Workshop, which will be specially targeted at members of amateur theatre groups. Finally, there will be a workshop by the Sound Stories Team, aimed at people interested in or experienced in radio, sound, film sound and music. Places on these workshops are limited so booking essential. Contact West Cork Arts Centre at 028-22090.

For further information on all the events please check the website or contact the box office below. The Arts Festival Box Office
No. 2 Main Street, Skibbereen, Co.Cork.
Tel: 028 51495.
info@skibbereenartsfestival.com

28 January 2009

28 January 2009
DONOGHY + DIMOND ARE WINNERS OF THE WCAC / RIAI ARCHITECTURE DESIGN COMPETITION

West Cork Arts Centre is delighted to announce the winner of the West Cork Arts Centre’s Architectural Design Competition is Irish firm Donaghy + Dimond Architects based in Francis Street, Dublin.

This highly prestigious international Design Competition attracted a remarkable 216 entries for the design of a new Arts Centre for the West Cork region. The Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI) administered the competition on behalf of the promoters West Cork Arts Centre (WCAC).

The competition entries were anonymously assessed by the jury who did not know the identity of the winners, or any competitor, until after the final decision had been made. It is now known that many of the most distinguished and well known contemporary architectural firms from Ireland, Britain and around the world submitted designs for consideration. Along with the winning firm, O’Donnell + Tuomey Architects, Clancy Moore Architects and Matter Design / Office dA comprised the four shortlisted finalists.

On announcing the winning entry, Majella O’Neill Collins, Chairperson of West Cork Arts Centre said; “We have been overwhelmed by both the number of entries to the competition and the high standard and imaginative creativity contained in them. The architectural firms wholeheartedly embraced the challenge and their vastly different interpretations of the competition brief impressed us greatly. Along with the jury, I believe the winning design has the potential to make a significant and positive contribution to the urban fabric of Skibbereen while offering enhanced arts facilities to the people of the whole West Cork area. This is a landmark design that will attract people from far and wide to Skibbereen.”

Competition winners Will Dimond and Marcus Donaghy of Donaghy + Dimond Architects said: “Donaghy and Dimond Architects are delighted to have been selected as winners of the open design competition for the new West Cork Arts Centre. It has been a privilege to develop a design for WCAC in the context of Skibbereen and West Cork, and we are now excited by the opportunity to realise this project to reinforce the Arts Centre as an important institution for the whole community of West Cork and beyond. We were inspired by the brief and, on our various visits to Skibbereen, were enthused by the ambition of WCAC’s programme and its significance to a widespread community. It is our aspiration to make a building that will allow this programme to flourish and expand.”

Ann Davoren, Director, WCAC and Chair of the Competition Jury commented;” The selection of the winning design is a most important development for County Cork and is significant architecturally, culturally and economically. The new Arts Centre will provide a wonderful new facility for the region. We were also extremely fortunate to have a jury consisting of dedicated professionals who unequivocally committed themselves to the task of scrutinising each and every submission to the competition until the winner was selected.”

The judges for the Architectural Design Competition were representative of the various interested bodies and brought their professional expertise and experiences to the project. They are as follows:
· Denis Deasy, County Architect, Cork County Council
· Emmett Scanlon, Architectural Advisor, Arts Council
· Mary McCarthy, Executive Arts & Culture Manager, Dublin Docklands Development Authority
· Maud Cotter, Artist
· Helen Collins, Solicitor, Former Chair of West Cork Arts Centre
· Patrick Creedon, Architect, Magee Creedon Kearns Architects and
· Ann Davoren, Director, West Cork Arts Centre.

The WCAC building development project is funded by grant-aid from the Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism’s ACCESS II Programme, Cork County Council, a philanthropic donation from Willliam and Judith Bollinger and other generous donations from the west Cork community.

Further information and images available on request.
Contact: Susan Harrington,
Publicity & Exhibitions Co-ordinator,
West Cork Arts Centre,
Skibbereen,
Co Cork
Tel: 028 22090
susan@westcorkartscentre.com
www.westcorkartscentre.com

28 July 2008

28 July 2008
Significant Boost to West Cork Arts Centre’s Fundraising Campaign

West Cork Arts Centre is delighted to announce that it has received a donation of up to €375,000 towards its building development fund for a new centre for the arts in West Cork. This significant boost to WCAC’s fundraising efforts comes courtesy of international financiers and philanthropists William and Judith Bollinger. The Bollingers will match all donations to the building development fund up to their pledged amount of €375,000.
Their donation is a strong inducement to individuals and businesses in the community to join our exciting development project. It follows the anchor funding of €1.5 million from the Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism’s ACCESS II and €1.4 million from Cork County Council. The estimated total cost of the new arts centre is €4,455,050 with construction expected to begin in September 2009.
The Bollingers, naturalised Irish citizens, own a home in West Cork and are passionate about the arts, architecture and education. Their intent is to make a significant, positive contribution to the locality with the goal of increasing the accessibility of the arts to both residents and visitors.
The Bollingers have a history of active involvement in the design and renovation of major artistic venues, such as the recently reopened jewellery gallery at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. They are also avid supporters of Independent Opera at Sadler’s Wells, the British Library and the Vatican Museums so WCAC is in very favoured company. William Bollinger is the founding partner of Egerton Capital limited, a leading fund management business in London. Judith Bollinger is the Chairman of ABG Sundal Collier, a Nordic investment bank, and a Trustee of the University of Pennsylvania.
News of the donation was shared with Dr Martin Mansergh TD, Minister of State for the Arts when he launched WCAC’s Architectural Design Competition last weekend. He said "I would like, on behalf of the State, to thank William and Judith Bollinger for their generosity and support for the new West Cork Arts Centre building development in an area well known for the vitality of its arts activity. Their exemplary contribution to the success of the voluntary fundraising effort is deeply appreciated."
Majella O’Neill Collins, Chair of the Board of WCAC said she was thrilled at the donation and sees it as the acceleration needed to further boost fundraising efforts. “It looks increasingly likely” she commented, “that West Cork Arts Centre will be housed in its new premises in 2012”.

26 April 2008

Official Launch of Visual Art Degree Programme on Sherkin Island

Sherkin Island, off the coast of Baltimore in West Cork, is now an official venue for a full Honours Degree Programme in Visual Art. This is a hugely innovative and significant educational development for the West Cork region as Sherkin is the first island location to host such a course.

This four-year modular honours degree programme offers a dynamic and creative education in the visual arts and is fully accredited, managed and delivered by the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT).

The programme evolved from a pilot programme in Art and Culture that took place on the Island from September 2000 to June 2003. This consisted of a series of accredited short courses developed by the School of Art, Design & Printing at DIT in partnership with the Sherkin Island Development Society (SIDS) and delivered in the Community Hall on Sherkin. West Cork Arts Centre (WCAC), another partner, collaborated in delivering a series of professional practice workshops for the pilot student participants.

A generous annual grant to be delivered over the next four years has been secured from the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs towards the practical provision of the programme on Sherkin Island. This commitment to lifelong learning by the Government, in addition to acknowledging the importance of community involvement in developing a programme appropriate for local needs, is a welcome move.

The BA in Visual Art combines delivery through live and electronic media. The methodology employed presents a viable model for linking third level institutions with isolated communities and presents the opportunity for future collaborations.

The BA in Visual Art Programme on Sherkin Island will be officially launched by Minister for Rural, Gaeltacht and Community Affairs, Éamon Ó Cuív TD on Saturday 26 April at 2.30pm at the Community Hall on Sherkin Island.

Comhdháil Oileán na hÉireann is holding its AGM on the Island on the same day and is also hosting a public seminar on the subject of Third Level Education and the Islands. It will be Chaired by Senator Denis O’Donovan.

Further information available from Margaret O’Reilly: sherkinart@gmail.com or 028 20802

SITE BY ROCKETMEDIA

News / press

Book Launch

3 December 2009

27 July 2009

12 February 2009

28 January 2009

28 July 2008

26 April 2008