CULTURE Night 2021 will take place this year on Friday 17th September, and artists and cultural organisations across Limerick have announced a stellar lineup of events and activities!
Limerick City and County Council Arts Office are delighted to be able to present a programme of events, taking place both live and digitally to showcase the wealth of culture that Limerick has to offer. It is a night to celebrate the cultural, artistic and creative communities of our city and county by inviting existing and new audiences into our galleries, museums, workshops and studios.
In light of the Covid-19 outbreak and the resulting restrictions, some changes were made to Culture Night for 2021. As a result, the programme announced is a mixture of live, self-guided and digital events. This year’s event will be smaller in scale with focused outdoor live and digital events in Limerick city and county towns.
At the centre of the programme are two live outdoor hubs of activity, the Hunt Museum and Milk Market, which will host an evening of live events.
The Hunt Museum plays host to a Children’s Speaker Corner in the front courtyard with young people invited to tell us what they would do “If I were Mayor of Limerick”.
A showcase of Limerick design, fashion and millinery is on display with a fashion show in the newly launched sculpture garden, in association with Celia Holman Lee.
There will also be an evening of discussion, networking and music in association with Gorm Media entitled ‘Beyond Blackness’ – an exploration of the contemporary Black experience in Ireland and the conflation of ‘race’ and ethnicity in discussions of cultural diversity in the Irish landscape.
The Milk Market will host the Limerick Food Group who will launch their Pigtown Culture & Food Series with a display of their Giant Pig and recently commissioned family pig floats. They will also host a Mask Making Demonstration for kids and families.
There will be live music from the Downtown Dixieland Band, a display and talk by the Limerick Beekeepers Association and close up magic by Illusionist Steve Spade.
At King John’s Castle there will be a live music event featuring the best of Limerick’s Hip Hop Scene. Enda Gallery is headlining and will be joined by Citrus Fresh, 40 Hurtz and Post Punk Podge. Enda Gallery released his debut album ‘The Journey to Zero’ in April 2020 under his old name delush. He has already collaborated with the likes of Kid Simius, Dead Rabbit, Nobody’s Face and written/produced for Tolü Makay, Willzee and Strange Boy. Some of Enda’s greatest work has been the collaborations with Limerick Hip Hop Stars Willzee and Strange Boy, strengthening Enda’s already great roots in the city. This event is being produced in association with King Johns Castle, the SIONNA Festival and Give Us The Night for Culture Night.
The University Concert Hall is also hosting a live event, in celebration of the recent renovation of their Compton Organ, with world-renowned organist Richard Hill accompanying a screening of Charlie Chaplin’s silent movie The Pawnshop. There will be concerts at 1.00 pm and 7.30 pm on the day.
Other events planned for the night include a series of guided and self-guided walking tours taking in the ecological and historical landscape of the city. OpenHouse Limerick will host a guided walking tour of the city’s medieval quarter. There will also be a walking tour in association with Clean Coasts and the Think Before You Flush campaign titled ‘Sanitation in the City which will discuss the history of Sanitation and raise awareness of the impact of what we flush on our inland and coastal waters.
Across the city and county will be a number of Self-Guided Tours which are available for the public to engage within the run-up to, and the days after, Culture Night. These include two very special interactions with youth groups in Newcastle West, Kilmallock and Kilfinane, generously supported by the JP McManus Benevolent Fund. They include the recently installed Street Art Tour in Newcastle West, installed by the local Foroige Group celebrating the history of the town and its people and installed on sites provided by the ESB, including a gate mural celebrating the life of Limerick’s Leading aviatrix Sophie Pierce, also known as Lady Mary Heath. In Kilmallock and Kilfinane, local young people will work with Street Art Company LUMEN Street Theatre, designing and installing drain art across the two towns. Keep a lookout for these colourful drain monsters while out and about!
Other self-guided trails include the Limerick Street Art Trail, The Women of Limerick App Guided Trail and the Shannon River Treasure Trail.
Digitally, the County Limerick Youth Theatre, Limerick Youth Theatre and Emerging Limerick Filmmakers will launch their co-funded MEADÚ project of 4 short films online on the evening. Sliabh Luachra will live stream an evening of music and song with artists from Limerick, Kerry and Cork and there will be a Human Geography project that explores the lives of those living on Jesuit Lane in a podcast available to download or listen to on Limerick City Community Radio.
Speaking about the launch of the Culture Night programme for Limerick, Mayor of Limerick city and county, Cllr Daniel Butler said;
‘We welcome Culture Night, especially this year as we reconnect and come together again, in person, at venues around the city and county, to celebrate creativity and culture. This is an opportunity to support our creative communities and artists by participating in and enjoying the programme. You can book tickets for live events, log on, or take self-guided tours in your own time. This year’s programme includes history, heritage, screenings, live music, fashion and art and it’s a super evening with so much for all the family to enjoy.”
Dr Pippa Little, Arts Officer, Limerick City and County Council said Limerick Arts Office welcomes the opportunity to work with many partners, including venues, community groups and artists, to highlight the work of creatives.
“Never has it been more important for an event like Culture Night to take place as it presents the opportunity for our creative community to work in partnership to nurture the cultural life of our region and support our audiences as they adjust to a new social and cultural environment within their communities,” she said. “Culture Night 2021 will represent the best of those collaborations between our artists and cultural institutions in the city. Information on all of these events and more can be found on the websites www.culturenight.ie and www.limerick.ie/culturenight.”
Culture Night 2021 is funded by The Arts Council and Limerick City and County Council.
