Portumna’s Shorelines Arts Festival, Sept 17 to the 20th, now in its 8th year, is recognised as East Galway’s premier boutique arts festival. As well as nurturing local talent and providing a platform for performance and exhibition, Shorelines stages the best of Irish theatre, music, art, film and literature.Shorelines 2015 will feature readings by authors
Joseph O’Connor and
Paul Kingsnorth. They will be joined by poets
Grace Wells,
Louis dePaor and poet and writer
John MacKenna and a feast of words is guaranteed. Grace and John will both facilitate
writing workshops in poetry and prose.A special Yeats event to celebrate
Yeats 150 will include a lecture from well known poet and scholar,
Bernard O’Donoghue. You are also invited to nominate your
Shorelines Yeats Poem for the Yeats 150 event. A selection of those nominated will be featured at the festival.For music fans, Shorelines plans to stage performances from renowned
Mary Coughlan, the up and coming
Lost Brothers. Local musicians and songwriters will feature too. Shorelines welcome
RTE Radio 1 to the 2015 festival where a live recording of the much loved
Sunday Miscellany is scheduled featuring voices and talents of local and not so local talent.Drama comes from
Fishamble’s new show
Underneath as well as
Curlew’s show
The Muse & Mister Yeats. Local drama group
The Half-Day Thursday Group will stage Kent R. Brown’s
Seduction of Chaos.For the family, events include a 2-day programme of Street Theatre from
Circus Outside The Box, Creative Writing with
Betsy Cornwell, The Barbara Kennedy
Writing Awards, a Flea Circus from PigNut Productions, Face Painting, Story Telling and
Little Gem Puppets.
Shorelines will also feature a Minecraft/Lego Workshop during the festival. And young singer/songwriters and musicians will take part in café sessions and recitals throughout the weekend as the festival enjoys giving emerging talent a platform to perform.The Gallery at the Workhouse will again host visiting and local artists at the Shorelines Arts Exhibition. Among the talks and demonstrations planned are talks with artist Aideen Monaghan and photographer Mark Granier and a bead making demonstration with Mags Mannion. Exhibitions from invited artists include, to date: Galway Print Studio, John Brennan, Aideen Monaghan, Mark Granier and Frank O’Sullivan.Heritage Boats of Ireland also plan to visit Portumna during Shorelines 2015. They will bring 30 heritage boats to Portumna’s Lough Derg, adding colour and atmosphere to the festival.Shorelines Shorts 2015 will feature a loop of short drama films on the theme of Childhood and a loop of documentaries on Changing Ireland. All are guaranteed to entertain and delight.
Other regular events include the annual Nicholas Treacy Recitation Competition, which will test the reciting skills of the entrants who must learn a recitation written prior to 1937.New programme additions include early morning sessions of Yoga, titled:
Golden Apples of the Sun and a workshop on
Botanical Art. Local archaeologist,
Christy Cunniffe will launch a photo exhibition based on medieval carved heads.
Portumna Vintage Club are planning a day at the Festival too. Finally, all of the businesses in the town are invited to decorate their windows to complement the festival.
Check out our Facebook page for further updates: www.facebook.com/shorelinesartsfestival
