Culture Night Roscommon 2010

On 24th September 2010 Roscommon had the opportunity to treat itself to a free evening of exciting entertainment and culture throughout the county from 6pm til late. Culture Night Roscommon 2010 retained some prime tasty morsels from the 2009 programme including the ever popular Comhaltas Céilithe and candlelit tours of Strokestown Park House. Also added to the menu for 2010 were a feast of new delights from classical music marathons to an artists fun-fair.

In Cootehall, the carnival atmosphere of the traditional fun fair was reinvented by local artists into a series of stalls, games and installations to excite, puzzle and tickle the audience's fancy throughout Cootehall village.

Comhaltas Céilithe

One of the most popular events of Culture Night, the Comhaltas Céilithe, were held by six Comhaltas branch members living rooms in Athleague, Athlone, Castlerea, Keadue, Roscommon and Strokestown.

Abbey Music continued its music in the monastery series with a fantastic five hour marathon of choral and instrumental classical music in St. Coman’s Church of Ireland in Roscommon town. The programme centred on the works of European composers inspired by the music of Ireland and the works of contemporary Irish composer AJ Potter. Amongst those performing were vocal quartet Acceso, Organist Sean Hanily, Cellist Donal Wallace and Soprano Katie Maher.

For Culture Night, Strokestown House hosted three special candlelit tours of the house at 7.00pm, 8.00pm & 9.00pm celebrating the history of one of Ireland’s finest Georgian mansions and its previous inhabitants re-enacting their daily lives room by room.

Black Hole Studios (Frenchpark) and the Cruachan Ai Centre (Tulsk) are located in the middle of one of the most significant mythological and archaeological regions of Ireland – the source of Queen Maeve and the Táin, the O Conor High Kings and Oweynagat Cave – the entrance to the underworld. For Culture Night, they presented 'Piseog' – a group exhibition spanning the two venues exploring various aspects of Irish cultural identity, mythology and superstition. Artists featured included Damian Byrne, Ursula Bourke, Margo McNulty, Mary Duignan and David Pierce amongst others.

Castlecoote House

A tour of one of Roscommon’s finest Great Houses was followed by a rare screening of The Last Troubadour, the only feature length biographical film on the life of Percy French. Refreshments served

Alter/native presented the work of national and international video artists at King House. Aengus Martin provided tours of the Boyle Civic Collection of contemporary Irish painting featuring the work of 200 of Ireland’s leading visual artists including Charles Brady; Eithne Carr; Paddy Graham; John Kingerlee; Tony O'Malley; John Shinnors and Barbara Warren amongst others.

Exhibition: Daniel Chester Successful Flaws - As part of the 2010 Culture Night celebrations, artist Daniel Chester gave an informal talk on his practice and the elements of research that go into his work. He also discussed the role of forming interest groups such as the Alter/native group, and how these groups can benefit an artist living within the rural settings of Leitrim, Roscommon, Sligo and Cavan.

Show 2010

An exhibition of established and emerging Roscommon based visual artists including work by artists participating on the 2010 art@work artist’s residency programme. Artists exhibiting include Angie Duignan, Amy Stevens, Noel Molloy and Niamh O’Connor amongst others.

Following the fantastic night of céilís, studio visits, readings and exhibitions around the county on Culture Night in 2009, Roscommon County Council in association with the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism and Temple Bar Cultural Trust was delighted to host Culture Night 2010 on Friday the 24th September 2010 when County Roscommon once again celebrated its artistic, creative and cultural capital through a variety of free events open to the public.

The idea behind the creation of Culture Night is to bring cultural institutions together to increase public awareness, access and participation in cultural activities and can include a variety of organisations such as galleries, theatres and historic houses as well as organisations coordinating events in churches, museums or in public spaces. Events have been anything from exhibitions, outdoor films, readings, talks, workshops, performances, tours etc. the possibilities are endless.