September 2015 NUI Galway Launch ‘Arts in Action’ Programme for 2015/2016

Former Director General of RTÉ and founding Director of TG4, Cathal Goan has launched NUI Galway’s 2015/2016 Arts in Action Programme. The programme is a collaboration between the University’s Arts in Action Office and the James Hardiman Library, and invites students to engage with the creative arts, offering free access to a variety of professional performances of an international-standard throughout the academic year and a range of rare archival material housed at the Library.

The Arts in Action programme is packed with rich and diverse performances focusing on emerging and established artists from Northern Ireland in the first semester. For the second semester the focus will be on a range of bespoke events, including performances that have been put in place as part of the 1916/2016 commemorative programme for NUI Galway.

Embracing the Arts from Northern Ireland is significant and offers the students and staff at NUI Galway a rare opportunity to celebrate the rich content that prevails, literature, theatre and the traditional arts. Arts in Action also offers and promotes arts events that are directly linked to the period 1900 to 1920 incorporating specific elements that commemorate and celebrate the writers that were also leaders of the 1916 Uprising, through music, song and the spoken word.

Launching the new programme, Cathal Goan said: “This is an initiative of which NUI Galway can be truly proud. Through it, the community that is NUI Galway gets the opportunity to experience a range artistic endeavour that is rich in its diversity and deep in its wealth of talent. Any Arts Festival would be happy to announce a programme of activities such as those on offer to the University’s community free of charge. This is an enlightened blessing for all involved.” 

Arts in Action is in continuous development for over five years to support specific undergraduate and postgraduate modules, as well as having a significant input into programmes for international students.

Mary Mc Partlan, Traditional Artist-in-Residence at the Centre for Theatre and Performance and Artistic Director of Arts in Action at NUI Galway, said: “This year’s programme marks the ultimate goal and objective of embedding the creative arts into academic modules, creating a full programme in such a sustained and significant way that fulfils all the aims and outcomes for credit bearing modules, available to all students across the campus, with structured, bespoke space opportunities for visiting students to immerse in Irish Traditional Culture.”

All events are free to attend and will take place mostly at The Cube and Bailey Allen Hall in Áras Na Mac Léinn, NUI Galway. The programme will commence on Thursday, 1 October and run until the end of March 2016.

For programme details please see http://www.nuigalway.ie/arts/artsinaction.html, or visit the Arts in Action Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/ArtsinActionNUIGalway.

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