Arts Festival for Kylemore outing

Kylemore Abbey in Letterfrack is the venue for a special event from Galway Arts Festival on Sunday, April 12.

This First Thought gathering will feature a series of talks, discussions and debate culminating in a live performance by Julie Feeney in Kylemore Abbey’s tiny Gothic Church.  There are just 80 places available.

The day will begin with Look Up! in the company of Gavin Pretor-Pinney founder of The Cloud Appreciation Society,  and author of The Cloudspotter’s Guide and The Cloud Collector’s Handbook. He will lead an exploration of the skyscape of Connemara and beyond.

That will be followed by Capturing Beauty when renowned artist Hughie O’Donoghue will join Dr Marie Bourke from the National Gallery of Ireland to discuss how the landscape of the West of Ireland has both inspired and confounded visual artists.

Poet Vona Groarke and architect Niall McCullough will then discuss art, landscape and memory in Eye of the Beholder. Meanwhile Miracles of Development: From Irish Pigs to Celtic Tigers with Dr Sarah L. Townsend, from the University of South Dakota, will examine stereotypes in Pat McCabe’s The Butcher Boy and Enda Walsh’s Disco Pigs as a critique of Irish gentrification of recent years. Galway’s own Julie Feeney will then take to the stage to perform in the the Abbey’s Gothic Church.

Broadcaster and astronomy buff Leo Enright will give people a tour of the night sky in The Celtic Cosmos. This will also mark Yuri Night, the annual celebration of Yuri Gagarin, the first man to travel in space, which takes place worldwide every April 12.

First Thought @Kylemore will also include a photographic exhibition of Nils-Udo’s remarkable environmental installations created on the spectacular Inverin bog Clochar na gCon.

There are just 80 tickets available priced at €50 for all of these events can be booked at www.giaf.ie. Kylemore Café will be open for the event.