Friday, September 30, 2011

Positive Ageing Week Photo Exhibition in Ballybane Library

Positive Ageing Week is a festival which highlights the positive aspects of ageing and celebrates the contribution older people have made and continue to make to their communities. Age Action Ireland coordinates Positive Ageing Week.

The central aim of Positive Ageing Week is to dispel the many negative perceptions that surround ageing and to transform attitudes towards ageing and older people. We need to

An exhibition of photographs which will challenge negative public perceptions of ageing and older people is currently touring Ireland.
celebrate the fact that we are living longer, that ageing is not a burden but an opportunity.
The exhibition features the winning images and some of the other images from Age Action’s Positive Ageing Week Photographic Competition that has been held over the past four years.

“If, for example, you fear ageing and believe it will be a time of poor health or isolation, then we would urge you to drop in and view these images of ordinary older people continue to enjoy their lives into their 60s, 70s, 80s and beyond,” Age Action chief executive Robin Webster said.

The exhibition will be on view in Ballybane Library during Positive Ageing Week, which runs from September 23 to October 1.

Top Picture: Kevin Molloy - ESB, Hildegard Naughton, Pete Mullineaux – Journeys Creative writing
Bottom PictureKevin: Molloy - ESB, Hildegard Naughton, Anna Marie Byrne – Age Action West

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

September Over The Edge -Open Reading Thursday, September 29th, 6.30pm-8pm Galway City Library


Featured Readers are Aileen Armstrong, Davnet Heery and Moyra Donaldson. The evening will also see the announcement of the winners of this year’s Over The Edge New Writer of the Year. The competition judge is Elaine Feeney.

Moyra Donaldson was born and brought up in Co Down and has been described as one of the country’s most distinctive and accomplished writers: a poet whose voice is full of integrity and mystery. Her first full collection of poems Snakeskin Stilettos was published in 1998, followed by Beneath the Ice in 2001, both from Lagan Press. She has received four awards from the Arts Council NI, most recently, the Artist Career Enhancement Award. Moyra’s poems have featured on radio and television, including the Channel 4 production, Poems to Fall in Love With. Horse’s Nest, was published by Lagan Press in 2006 and described in Poetry Ireland Review as ‘one of the most enjoyable poetry books of the last few years.’ Her most recent collection, Miracle Fruit, was published by Lagan Press in November 2010.

Aileen Armstrong’s writing has appeared in the Stinging Fly, Three Times Daily, Some Blind Alleys, and Cuadrivio (in Spanish translation). In 2009, she graduated from the M.A. in Writing programme at NUIG, and in 2010, she received a literature bursary award from the Arts Council of Ireland. She lives in Co. Galway, and is currently working on a collection of short stories.

A long-time resident of Cois Fharraige, Connemara, Davnet Heery enjoys solitary walks along the shore and on the bog, day-dreaming. Recently graduated from the MA in Writing at NUIG she has had a giddy summer reading at literary festivals countrywide for the launch of the class anthology Bicycles with Umbrellas. Primarily a poet (she has been grant aided by Galway Co.Co. to work towards a collection Camellia) she also enjoys writing plays. Her short story The Little Girl in Pink was short-listed for The Francis Mc Manus award, 2011.

There will be an open-mic when the Featured Readers have finished. This is open to anyone who has a poem or story to share. New readers are always especially welcome. The MC for the evening will be Susan Millar DuMars.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Arts Festival opens in Clifden Library

The opening event of the Arts Festival in Clifden Library on thursday 15th September saw poet and short story writer Susan Millar DuMars read from her first collection of short stories, Lights in the Distance.

Poet and writer Susan Lindsay who lives in Galway gave a reading. Whispering the Secrets is her first collection of poetry.

Tim Mullarkey, fiction writer, psychotherapist and teacher gave a reading of his work.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

'Connections' Exhibition in Ballybane Library


‘Connections’ is an Art exhibition presently on display in Ballybane Library painted by the Service Users from St. Kevins of the John Paul Centre, Ballybane. It was launched by James Harold


Saturday, September 10, 2011

Oranmore Library Knitting Club




Oranmore library had a very creative summer with the children’s knitting club which ran every Tuesday during the summer holidays. The children loved trying out new things like knitting with straw, making pom poms, knitting with beads and 7 cord braiding.
They had a wonderful collection of bags, headbands, hats and teddybears to show off at the end of the 8 weeks and were very proud of all their hard work.



Thursday, September 08, 2011

Man Booker Shortlist 2011

The Man Booker Prize 2011 shortlist has been released, overlooking Alan Hollinghurst, the early favourite to scoop the prize when the longlist was announced in July.

Previous nominee Julian Barnes makes the cut, alongside debut authors AD Miller, for Snowdrops, and Stephen Kelman with Pigeon English, also longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award.

They are joined by Carol Birch (Jamrach's Menagerie), Patrick deWitt (The Sisters Brothers) and Esi Edugyan (Half Blood Blues).

Last year the Booker was won by Howard Jacobson for his comic novel The Finkler Question.

The winner of the 2011 Man Booker Prize for Fiction will be announced on Tuesday 18 October at a dinner at London’s Guildhall and will be broadcast on the BBC.
The winner will receive £50,000 and each of the six shortlisted authors, including the winner, will receive £2,500 and a designer bound edition of their book.

Tuesday, September 06, 2011

Janis Ian makes interesting speech on libraries

Janis Ian the songwriter, performer, and author with 9 Grammy Nominations and who had a big international hit with "At Seventeen" in 1975 made an interesting speech on libraries to School Librarians in Nashville Public Schools August 9th 2011.

“We artists have a great affinity with you librarians, for many reasons, not the least of which is that we exist in large part to educate, and to protect. To make order out of chaos, and to teach others to do the same. To keep the dreams of a nation, of a people, safe for future generations. To make those dreams available to everyone – not just the wealthy or beautiful, not just the people of one race or one colour or one religion – but available to everyone who dares to dream of something bigger than themselves.

At school, when I looked around at my schoolmates, I didn’t see anyone remotely like me. I longed for friends, people I could talk to about things that were important to me, but I met none. A librarian, Mrs. Anna Baker, was my first true friend – someone who listened carefully, responded truthfully, and gave me every scrap of knowledge she could muster through the books she controlled.

I lived at the library. I lived there because no one judged me. I lived there because there, and only there, did I feel free to explore myself.

The library taught me that somewhere out there were others like me. The library promised that one day, when I was old enough, I would meet them at last. An artist is a citizen of the world, bound by no convention, tied by no borders. We are homeless from the start; we do not have the refuge of conformity, of predictability. Artists need a place of refuge, just as children need a place of refuge… and the world needs its artists, just as it needs its children.

Books leave their language on our souls. They remind us of ourselves at our best, and teach us what we can be. They carry our longing for the stars, and point us toward them when we are too earthbound to do it ourselves.

I hope that every librarian is as kind as Mrs. Baker, who corresponded with me regularly until her death, and whose last letter to me recommended several books she’d recently read.”


The full text of what Janis Ian had to say is at:

http://www.mnps.org/Page84016.aspx.

www.janisian.com,

Saturday, September 03, 2011

Tuam Arts Festival Exhibitions in the Library




Stephen Quinn is an artist working in metal for over a decade in the West of Ireland. He views iron as a functional bridge between natural and functional forms, drawing from influences in European Nouveau style and the contemporary landscape around him.










"In Arthur Danto's book Nietzsche as Philosopher he discusses the idea of idem potency, the idea that every cell in the body, not just the brain, retains memories, both individual and collective."
The artist creates cell like structures and incorporates found objects in these organic felted vessels. Texture, colour and detail play an important part in these pieces.











Jim Kavanagh is a London born, Galway based artist. He has had numerous successful shows both in the U.K. and Ireland.
Jim's paintings are formed using techniques (scumbling and glazing)of the old masters Rembrandt and Turner. He creates his own responses to landscapes and skyscapes, creating timeless images invoking a sense of place both real and imaginary.