Culture Night Offers A Chance For Citizens To Vote For Arts & Culture

Culture Night Takes Place this Friday 25^th September Across 11 Towns, Cities & Counties 

Temple Bar Cultural Trust (TBCT) today reminded people of all ages to enjoy and experience the variety of cultural treasures and talent the country has to offer, for free, on Culture Night 2009, Friday 25^th September.

With attendance figures expected to reach over half a million across the 11 participating regions, organisers Temple Bar Cultural Trust and its CEO Dermot McLaughlin envisage that by 2011, Ireland could be the first country in the world to showcase itself through an All-Ireland Culture Night if everybody, not only Government, plays their role in helping arts and culture to survive.

“Culture Night is the largest platform to showcase the country’s cultural offering and represents an extremely powerful and positive image of the immense contribution culture can make to our society.  Despite the difficult economic climate and with culture appearing to be an easy target, we are expecting people young and old and families, including grandparents and children, to vote with their feet and come out to sample the country’s cultural offering for free this Friday.”

Commenting on the economic impact of Culture, he said; “If even half of Culture Night attendees purchased a ticket for an arts event between now and the end of the year, this would put approx €4.2 million back into the economy.  As was highlighted at last weekend’s Global Irish Economic Forum in Farmleigh many leading figures pointed out that our culture and our arts have an irreplaceable value for Ireland globally.  It’s important that we encourage our own citizens to help the arts and culture survive and that we continue to support events like Culture Night that showcase the amazing talent and cultural offering flourishing in this country”.

Martin Cullen TD, Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism said: “Culture Night is an ideal opportunity for participating towns and cities to highlight the best of their artistic and cultural heritage and facilities. Events like Culture Night also have an important role to play in opening up arts and entertainment to new audiences. The extended opening hours provide a unique opportunity for people to discover and enjoy the wealth of our culture in a relaxed and inviting atmosphere. The exciting programme of free exhibitions, workshops and performances planned by the participating eleven towns and cities will further increase the appeal of the event amongst locals and visitors alike. I would encourage people to celebrate Ireland’s artistic and cultural heritage by participating in Culture Night this coming Friday.”

A typical Culture Night scene includes the streets packed with parents pushing buggies through the doors of galleries and museums; senior citizens enjoying their city by night; young children making films, art and music; queues of people lining up to see the Book of Kells and Leinster House, families and friends of African, India, Latin and Japanese communities as they bring their culture onto the streets.

Dublin, Cork, Galway, Letterkenny, Limerick, Mayo, Roscommon, Sligo, Tralee, Waterford, Wexford will be transformed into accessible cultural wonderlands presenting culture and talent in various and unusual forms including visual art, architecture, dancing, family fun, music, poetry, street performance, painting, talks, theatre and traditional forms of culture.  From live animals in the Dead Zoo in Dublin to a Lord Mayor’s Tea Dance in Cork; Theatrical Entertainment in Galway to An Cosán Glas sculpture trail in Letterkenny; a tour of a thousand years of art and antiquities in the Hunt Museum in Limerick to an Altered Images exhibition in Ballina, Mayo; a tour of Artists Studios in Boyle and Roscommon to a bag of culture on the culture trail in Sligo;  Dancing In The Green in Tralee to late night at the Waterford Museum of Treasures at the Granary in Waterford and the illumination of Wexford Opera House, in Wexford.  Culture Night will also take place in the Cathedral Quarter of Belfast this year.

In Dublin a record 124 cultural venues will open their doors for Culture Night including St Stephen’s Green Park, the National Museum of Ireland, the Science Gallery Trinity College, The Revenue Museum, Guinness Storehouse, Dublin Castle State Apartments, Gallery Zozimus, James Joyce House of the Dead, a Francis Street Treasure Hunt, The Ark Cultural Centre for Children and much more. 

To help visitors move around Dublin City on the night, Dublin Bus is providing free buses along three culture trails from 6pm to 11pm.  Buses will leave every 20 minutes from bus stops at Bachelor’s Walk, Aston Quay and Trinity College transporting visitors to outermost venues. LUAS are also offering 50 free, return tickets for the night.  Dublin City BID Ambassadors will be positioned on the streets of the BID area to provide directions to venues and free city maps from 6pm to 9.30pm.

This year Dublin Culture Night will see Temple Bar Cultural Trust working in partnership with the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism, Dublin City Council, Fáilte Ireland, Dublin Tourism,  Dublin Bus, DART and LUAS an the regional arts offices and local authorities.

The full programme of events and participating venues for Culture Night 2009 is available on www.culturenight.ie

Eleven Counties To “See All Sorts” of Culture For One Night – Full programme of events available from Tuesday August 18th

Temple Bar Cultural Trust has announced that Culture Night 2009 will take place on Friday 25^th September, expand to 11 cities, towns and counties nationwide and feature a new look ‘see all sorts’ logo.

Now in its 4^th year, Culture Night 2009 looks set to be the biggest and best yet with museums, cathedrals, galleries, theatres, artist studios and other cultural venues opening late, many until midnight,  welcoming visitors of all ages in for a taste of free culture for one night.

Last year’s Culture Night was an overwhelming success and saw the event go National for the first time with the cultural venues in Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford participating.  Over 100,000 people alone attended Dublin Culture Night in 2008.  This year with the addition of Tralee, Sligo, Letterkenny, Mayo, Wexford and Roscommon, we are expecting attendance to exceed our 100,000 mark in Dublin.

Martin Cullen TD, Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism said: “Culture Night is an ideal opportunity for participating towns and cities to showcase the best of their artistic and cultural heritage and facilities.  The exciting programme of exhibitions, workshops, performances and activities being planned by all those involved in hosting Culture Night 2009 will further increase the appeal of the event amongst locals and visitors alike. My Department is pleased to provide support to Temple Bar Cultural Trust towards Culture Night 2009 and I am delighted that this year, additional towns are participating with a view to further developing the success of the event and supporting cultural tourism.”

“The further expansion of Culture Night this year to a total of 11 cities and towns across Ireland will ensure that thousands of people of all ages and from all backgrounds will have a unique opportunity to experience the impressive range of cultural facilities that this country has to offer.  When we launched Culture Night in 2006 the aim was to provide a new and imaginative way for people to participate in cultural life in all its diversity, free from time pressures or financial constraints, and with hundreds of venues opening their doors and events taking place across the country we expect a huge public turnout on Friday September 25^th” Grainne Millar, Head of Cultural Development, Temple Bar Cultural Trust.

A brand new Culture Night logo, designed by Maeve Keane from DIT, Mountjoy Square was also unveiled and will be used across promotional material for all 11 Culture Nights.  Maeve was the winner of a competition organized by Temple Bar Cultural Trust that called on students to present a logo design for Culture Night nationwide. With more than 30 entries received Maeve’s logo ‘See all Sorts’ will appear on Culture Night promotional print and online material for all participating towns and cities.

In Dublin over 120 cultural venues have been confirmed for Culture Night including Christ Church Cathedral, the National Museum of Ireland, the Science Gallery Trinity College, The Guinness Storehouse, the Light House Cinema, The Ark, A Cultural Centre for Children, the Chester Beatty Library Dublin Castle and many more. 

Culture Night is a hugely important event on the cultural calendar providing people with the opportunity to discover and enjoy the rich cultural offering of the country’s cultural venues at night. This year Dublin Culture Night will see Temple Bar Cultural Trust working in partnership with the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism, Dublin City Council, CNCI, OPW, Dublin Tourism, Fáilte Ireland, Dublin Bus, DART and LUAS.

The Culture Night National initiative is co-ordinated by Temple Bar Cultural Trust and supported by the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism in partnership with the local authorities of the participating towns and cities.

Culture Night will also take place in the Cathedral Quarter of Belfast this year on Friday September 25th  

A FULL PROGRAMME OF DUBLIN CULTURE NIGHT EVENTS WILL BE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT WWW.CULTURENIGHT.IE AND TO PICK UP AT THE TEMPLE BAR CULTURAL INFORMATION CENTRE AT 12 EAST ESSEX STREET, TEMPLE BAR, DUBLIN 2 FROM THE AFTERNOON OF TUESDAY AUGUST 18^TH.  THIS PROGRAMME WILL ALSO BE AVAILABLE FROM ALL 124 PARTICIPATING VENUES AND OTHER INFORMATION POINTS FROM MONDAY AUGUST 24^TH. 

Eleven Counties To “See All Sorts” of Culture For One Night

Temple Bar Cultural Trust today announced Culture Night 2009 will take place on Friday 25^th September, expand to 11 cities and towns nationwide and feature a new look ‘See All Sorts’ logo.

Now in its 4^th year, Culture Night 2009 looks set to be the biggest and best yet with museums, cathedrals, galleries, theatres, artist studios and other cultural venues opening late, many until midnight,  welcoming visitors of all ages in for a taste of free culture for one night.

Last year’s Culture Night was an overwhelming success and saw the event go National for the first time with the cultural venues in Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford participating.  Over 100,000 people alone attended Dublin Culture Night in 2008.  This year with the addition of Tralee, Sligo, Letterkenny, Mayo, Wexford and Roscommon, we are expecting attendance to exceed our 100,000 mark in Dublin.

Martin Cullen TD, Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism said: “Culture Night is an ideal opportunity for participating towns and cities to showcase the best of their artistic and cultural heritage and facilities.  The exciting programme of exhibitions, workshops, performances and activities being planned by all those involved in hosting Culture Night 2009 will further increase the appeal of the event amongst locals and visitors alike. My Department is pleased to provide support to Temple Bar Cultural Trust towards Culture Night 2009 and I am delighted that this year, additional towns are participating with a view to further developing the success of the event and supporting cultural tourism.”

“The further expansion of Culture Night this year to a total of 11 cities and towns across Ireland will ensure that thousands of people of all ages and from all backgrounds will have a unique opportunity to experience the impressive range of cultural facilities that this country has to offer.  When we launched Culture Night in 2006 the aim was to provide a new and imaginative way for people to participate in cultural life in all its diversity, free from time pressures or financial constraints, and with hundreds of venues opening their doors and events taking place across the country we expect a huge public turnout on Friday September 25^th” Grainne Millar, Head of Cultural Development, Temple Bar Cultural Trust.

A brand new Culture Night logo, designed by Maeve Keane from DIT, Mountjoy Square was also unveiled today.  Maeve was the winner of a competition organized by Temple Bar Cultural Trust that called on students to present a logo design for Culture Night nationwide. With more than 30 entries received Maeve’s logo ‘See all Sorts’ will appear on Culture Night promotional print and online material for all participating towns and cities.

In Dublin over 120 cultural venues have been confirmed for Culture Night including Christ Church Cathedral, the National Museum of Ireland, the Science Gallery Trinity College, The Guinness Storehouse, the Light House Cinema, The Ark, A Cultural Centre for Children, the Chester Beatty Library Dublin Castle and much more. 

Culture Night is a hugely important event on the cultural calendar providing people with the opportunity to discover and enjoy the rich cultural offering of the country’s cultural venues at night. This year Dublin Culture Night will see Temple Bar Cultural Trust working in partnership with the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism, Dublin City Council, Dublin Tourism, Fáilte Ireland, Dublin Bus, DART and LUAS.

The Culture Night National initiative is co-ordinated by Temple Bar Cultural Trust and supported by the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism in partnership with the local authorities of the participating towns and cities

* The full programme of events and participating venues for Culture Night 2009 will be announced on www.culturenight.ie from 18^thAugust or by calling organisers Temple Bar Cultural Trust on 01 888 3610.

Culture Night will also take place in the Cathedral Quarter of Belfast this year on Friday September 25th (www.culturenightbelfast.com)