'Over here...' American Arts mini-festival launched |
05/03/2008
The Arts Council of Northern Ireland unveiled a line up of creative events taking place from 10th-14th March, as part of Over here…A mini-festival of American arts in Northern Ireland.
Last year, 'Over there', the Rediscover Northern Ireland programme and Smithsonian Folklife Festival put Northern Ireland on the arts map of Washington. Now Northern Ireland has a chance to sample a little taste of America’s arts and artists in this five day event organized by the Arts Council in association with the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure and Rediscover Northern Ireland.
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Speaking at the launch at Parliament Buildings, Rosemary Kelly, Chairman of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, commented, “Over here has been a truly collaborative effort with colleagues from Washington D.C. We welcome this great opportunity to build on the Rediscover Northern Ireland and Smithsonian legacy which promotes Northern Ireland’s arts and culture on the world stage. Art is an essential part of our lives, and this creative programme offers events that stimulate and inspire the imagination of everyone involved.”
Welcoming the participants of the ‘Over Here’ festival to Parliament Buildings, Arts Minister, Edwin Poots, MLA said: “For five months last year the US enjoyed a feast of Northern Ireland arts and cultural events in Washington DC through the Rediscover Northern Ireland programme and at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.
“Our artists and arts organisations formed strong partnerships with people in the US through both programmes and the ‘Over Here’ festival aims to ensure we build and extend those relationships.”
Northern Ireland’s arts organizations have partnered with some of their American counterparts to produce a creative programme of 11 major events from photography and poetry to music and film, to include, Anacostia to Belfast at Belfast Exposed Gallery, Washington Opera Masterclasses at the Down Arts Centre, Downpatrick and the Grand Opera House Belfast and American Poets Abroad at the Verbal Arts Centre, Londonderry, University of Ulster, Coleraine and Queen’s University, Belfast.
To view the Over Here programme click Flyer 1, Flyer 2, Poster
OVER HERE PROGRAMME DETAILS
Print DC
29th February – 30th April 2008.
Belfast Print Workshop, Cotton Court and Seacourt Print Workshop Gallery, Bangor Homebase Store.
A residency by printmaker Gretchen Schermerhorn, from Pyramid Atlantic Print Workshop in Washington and the original prints of twenty American artists, are represented in a dual exhibition that displays the breadth of contemporary, graphic arts as practiced in Washington D.C. The exhibition is hosted by Belfast Print Workshop and Seacourt Print Workshop, both of which participated in last year’s Rediscover Northern Ireland programme.
Bangor Exhibition Mon-Sun normal Homebase store opening times.
Seacourt Print Workshop: Tel 02891 460595.
Belfast Exhibition 10am – 4pm Mon-Fri Belfast Print Workshop: Tel 02890 231323
America at the Movies
10th – 14th March
Queen’s Film Theatre, Belfast
This week of American film at QFT features a Bette Davis retrospective including Mr.Skeffington, Dark Victory, The Letter, and Little Foxes. Also programmed at QFT during “Over here…” is the contemporary American film In the Valley of Elah, highlighting the legacy of Hollywood and the current trends in American film making.
QFT Booking Line 02890 971097
An American Literary Light
11th March, 7.00pm
Linenhall Library, Belfast
American writer Richard Bausch has been called “a virtuoso of language and literary grace.” He is the author of eleven critically acclaimed novels and seven collections of short stories, but it is for his award-winning short-fiction that he is perhaps most admired. Richard will visit Belfast for a day of literary events hosted by the Creative Writers Network as part of “Over here…” In the morning he will be speaking to creative writing students and in the afternoon he will give a workshop with local short-story writers. In the evening he appears at the Linen Hall Library as part of their Between Words Festival to discuss his approach to writing, his joy of teaching and the art of the short-story.
Experimental American Film
11th-13th March
Studio Cinema
Donegall Street, Belfast
• 11th March 7.00p.m. Miranda July Videoworks Tribulation
• 12th March 7.00p.m. Dog Star Man
• 13th March 7.00p.m. Anxious Animation
In partnership with Belfast Film Festival, “Over here…” will bring to Belfast an array of contemporary video art, over a period of three evenings at the Studio Cinema in Donegall Street. This selection of works will explore the experimental and the avant garde, revealing an American artform which ranges from the absurd to the surrealistic.
Young Musicians from America
Two students from The Peabody Institute
From visits by Peter Tchaikovsky to Leonard Bernstein, to lectures by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Igor Stravinsky, the Peabody Institute in Baltimore has seen some of history’s most revered talent walk through its doors. But the most inspiring talents are the students who traverse the Institute’s corridors and perform in its concert halls everyday. As part of “Over here…” Queen’s University and the University of Ulster welcome two students in an early evening “drive time” recital in Belfast and a lunch time recital in Derry – Michael Berkovsky (piano) and Sonya Chung (violin). They will also engage with students at the City of Belfast School of Music on Wednesday evening.
Washington Opera Masterclasses
• 12th March, Down Arts Centre, Downpatrick,
• 13th March, The Grand Opera House, Belfast. Lunchtime performance
Under the leadership of Plácido Domingo, Washington National Opera’s Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Programme supports the artistic development of talented young opera singers, coach-accompanists, directors and conductors from around the world. Opera Fringe Northern Ireland has created a partnership between this highly distinguished institution and its own Artist Development Programme, and has invited Ken Weiss, Principal Coach on the Domingo-Cafritz faculty, to spend time in Northern Ireland working with some of our most promising young singers.
For further details please contact info@operafringe.com or visit www.operafringe.com
American Poets Abroad: Alicia Stallings & Chris Agee
• Wednesday, 12th March: Reading and Masterclass, Verbal Arts Centre, Derry 2:00p.m.
• Thursday, 13th March: Reading , Room H215, Central Building, UU, Coleraine 8:00p.m.
• Friday, 14th March: Reading, Harty Room, QUB, Belfast 7.30p.m.
Part of the Candle & Mirror Series in association with Poetry Ireland.
A. E. Stallings was born in 1968 and raised in Decatur, Georgia. She is the author of two collections of poems, Hapax (2006) and Archaic Smile. Since 1999, she has lived in Athens, Greece.
Chris Agee was born in 1956 and raised in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New York. He is the author of two collections of poems, First Light (2003) and In the New Hampshire Woods. Since 1979 he has lived in Belfast, where he now edits Irish Pages, a journal of contemporary writing.
Appalachian Music and Dance
12th March, 8.00pm
The Black Box, Hill Street, Belfast
Ira Bernstein and Riley Baugus live in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina and perform all over the US and throughout Europe and Asia. Ira is the world’s leading authority on, and exponent of, traditional Appalachian flatfooting, which he began studying as a college student, alongside the fiddle, back in 1978. Riley is an Appalachian singer and banjo virtuoso, who is the singing voice of Brendan Gleeson in the Oscar winning film, Cold Mountain.
Anacostia to Belfast
An evening of Photography and the Spoken Word
Thursday 13th March, 7-9pm
Belfast Exposed Gallery, 23 Donegall St, Belfast
The evening includes an exhibition of photographs taken by Mervyn Smyth as part of last summer’s residency with ARCH in Anacostia, Washington DC. Alongside work made in Belfast by members of St Peter’s Immaculata Youth Group, Greater Shankill Alternatives and members of the Afro-Community Support Organisation and in Anacostia by individuals from the local community. There will also be readings by the Belfast Poets, accompanied by Jazz musicians and special guest Anacostia poet Fred Joiner.
For more information please contact Sarah Thorne at Belfast Exposed, 02890 230965 or visit www.belfastexposed.org
Musical Postcards from America
Friday 14th March, 7.45pm
Ulster Orchestra, Waterfront Hall, Belfast
Revel in three American musical postcards – views of pre-Castro Havana, brimming with the distinctive rhythms of Cuban dances and plenty of percussion colour. Copland Danzon cubano Lecuona arr. Gould Malaguena Gershwin Cuban Overture.
Tickets: £8 - £23.50
Booking: Ulster Orchestra Box Office Tel 02890 668798 or online at www.ulster-orchestra.org.uk
American dramas and dance
• Friday 14th March, OMAC, College Square North, Belfast 1.00 – 2.30p.m Swing State Cabaret commissions
• Foyle Arts Centre, Lawrence Hill, Derry 15th March, 10.00a.m – 2.00p.m Contemporary Dance Masterclass
• 16th March 10.00a.m– 4.00p.m. Collaboration with Sandie Fisher/Assault Events
Melanie Stewart, founder and Director of the nEW Festival in Philadelphia, on her weekend visit to the “Over here…” mini-festival, will launch a unique collaborative venture involving theatre companies Tinderbox (Belfast) and Solas Nua (Washington DC): two US and two Northern Irish playwrights will be commissioned to write short pieces, each capturing an aspect of the US Presidential election, and all premiering as part of Swing State Cabaret, which will be performed on both sides of the Atlantic as the election campaign reaches its climax in November. Moving to Derry on Saturday, Melanie will lead a Master Class for contemporary dance artists and students, before running a full-day rehearsal with choreographer Sandie Fisher and her Assault Events company for their new show Liasion on Sunday.
