Arts & Culture

MILTOWN Malbay concertina player Edel Fox has never over-analysed how a traditional music session evolves. The best of them appear to sprout organically but once they’re over, that’s it. There’s no need for a post-mortem. However, Edel has had to be more forensic of late, having eyed a session from behind the camera.“I’m looking at it as a producer and a director so I’m looking at it much more critically, although I can never remember sitting back after a night in Friel’s or The Blonde’s in  Miltown and critically analysing a session,” she laughed.Recently, students of the higher diploma in television production at Waterford IT and Nemeton Productions screened their productions to family, friends, industry professionals and media journalists in the SGC cinema, Dungarvan.One of the programmes screened was a pilot music programme for TG4 directed, produced and presented by Edel, who is now based in Ferrybank, Waterford, where she also teaches traditional music classes. Edel is a former recipient …

THIS weekend, the Galway One World Centre will host the sixth Galway African Film Festival (GAFF).Kinvara-resident Trisha Buddin is one of the organisers and has been involved in the festival since the beginning. The festival will present a series of contemporary African feature films, shorts and documentaries, all of which will be free of charge.“I work for Galway One World Centre and six years ago, as part of Africa Day celebrations which take place on May 25 each year, we decided that we would do something a bit different and celebrate Africa as a whole and the countries of Africa,” Trisha explained.With greater cultural diversity in Galway’s towns and villages, Trisha believes the festival helps to break down stereotypes about the continent and its people.“We would like to open people’s minds a bit more and balance out the negative publicity. We want to bring a more positive side of African culture and people than people get to see and hear …

CONNECTIONS will be made in Mountshannon over the next two weeks as this year’s annual Iniscealtra Festival of Arts gets underway with a host of events taking place across the 11 days. This year’s festival theme is ‘Connections’. Sheila Pratschke is the special guest and she will open the festival at the Church of Ireland Mountshannon on Saturday at 8pm.Sheila grew up in Limerick and was a teacher in both Ireland and Africa before taking on the arts. She has been director of the Irish Film Institute and director of the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, the artists’ retreat at Annaghmakerrig and is presently the director of the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris. Dermot Byrne and Florian Blancke will also be on hand to perform as part of the festival launch. Fishbowl Youth Club is celebrating 10 years this year and will hold a display of their creative young talent at the Fishbowl Café on Friday from 8pm. The youth group has …

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THE 10th annual Embrace exhibition is at Glór until the end of the month, showcasing the work of those who have participated in the Clare Arts Office initiative to help local people with disabilities access the arts.

HERMITAGE Green have won a fairly sizeable following lately and the uninitiated in Clare are getting plenty of chances to see them.

A FEATURE-length documentary, The Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy 40th Anniversary, will premiere at the Armada Hotel, Spanish Point next weekend.

DAVOC Rynne’s album The Humours of Ennistymon will be relaunched on Friday evening in the Guru Teahouse.