Galway Arts Festival and NUI Galway announced details of their 2012 partnership on Monday, 2 July. This is the second year of the partnership and will focus on several different initiatives.

NUI Galway will partner the 35^th Galway Arts Festival’s Volunteer Programme where the University is one of the leaders in the field of volunteerism through its ALIVE programme.

SELECTED is an artist development strand of the Festival for emerging artists and producers developed by NUI Galway and the Festival in 2011. The programme will be expanded and developed in 2012 and will see six students from the MA in Drama and Theatre Studies at NUI Galway take part in the initiative, which will allow them full access to every aspect of the Festival.  The programme will offer the students the opportunity to see how a Festival of this magnitude is put together while also attending shows, post-show talks and getting a hands-on experience from performers and organisers. The students will also have the opportunity to meet with visiting international Festival Directors.

Commenting on the SELECTED Programme, Galway Arts Festival's Artistic Director, Paul Fahy said, "SELECTED is amongst the most exciting of initiatives that the Festival has introduced in the past few years. It affords participants a brilliant opportunity to see a wide variety of the programme on offer and to gain insight through a series of seminars with world leading producers, curators, directors and artists of the professional arts world. Taking part in these seminars are key executives from Edinburgh Festival, London’s National Theatre and leading Irish artists and producers amongst many others.”

NUI Galway’s Dr Patrick Longergan added, “NUI Galway is delighted to be involved in the SELECTED programme again this year. SELECTED gives our students the opportunity to meet with some of the world's great artists in one of the world's great arts festivals. That involvement has a massive impact, not only on our students' education but also on their future careers as writers, directors, producers and so on. SELECTED is one of the key examples of how our drama and theatre programmes set out to blend excellent academic tuition with world-class practical experiences. It is also one of the major ways in which NUI Galway is involved in the Galway Arts Festival - allowing us to play our part in making Galway Ireland's cultural capital, and in developing future generations of Irish artists.”

In 2012 NUI Galway will also partner with the Festival on a new strand of programming called First Thought Talks. This new initiative will feature a series of lectures, talks and “in conversations with” on the subject of creativity and will take place during this year’s Festival.

Festival Chief Executive, John Crumlish commented, "The Festival is delighted that NUI Galway will once again be partnering the Festival on a number of initiatives. The continuing support for both the Festival Volunteer and SELECTED programmes is very important and also very exciting while the new partnership focused on The First Thought Talks will permit this new strand of programming to develop significantly over the next number of years.”

For further information on the festival, bookings and GAFTV previews and exclusive interviews visit www.galwayartsfestival.com

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