Arts Festival flies Galway flag in Big Apple

Galway International Arts Festival is in New York this week presenting two works by playwright Enda Walsh.

Meanwhile, the Festival also staged its debut US First Thought Talk which featured Galway adventurer and solo trans-Atlantic rower, Gavan Hennigan.

The 2016 Festival production Arlington, co-produced with Landmark Productions, opened at St Ann’s Warehouse, Brooklyn, on Sunday, when guests included author John Grisham, actors Nick Sandow from Orange is the New Black, Paul Reid and Lisa Dwan; and Irish artist John Gerrard who exhibits during the Arts Festival and whose new solo show opened at the Simon Preston Gallery in New York this week. Pianist John O’Conor was in New York to support his son Hugh who performs in Arlington. Guests also included poet Paul Muldoon and Consul General of Ireland Barbara Jones, as well as Joe Mellilo from the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and composers Mikel Rouse and Philip Glass. Arlington runs in New York until May 28.

Enda Walsh’s Rooms, an Arts Festival production, opened on Monday night at Cybert Tire, in a collaboration with the Irish Arts Center in New York. It will also run until May 28.

Earlier in the week, Irish Consul General, Barbara Jones, hosted the Festival’s first ever US First Thought Talk when Gavan Hennigan was in conversation with award-winning author and journalist, Belinda McKeon.

Walsh, a Festival favourite, returns to Galway this July with a world premiere of The Second Violinist a new opera co-written with Donnacha Dennehy .

This year’s Arts Festival runs from July 17-30. Tickets now on sale through www.giaf.ie.