We are celebrating Bealtaine Festival 2024 here at Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre!
Coordinated by Age and Opportunity, Bealtaine Festival is an annual celebration of the arts and creativity as we age. Taking place each May, the festival involves thousands of participants, community groups, and organisations throughout Ireland.
We have a jam-packed schedule with free events at Uillinn, online, and across West Cork. Check out what’s on below:
Bealtaine Exhibition at Uillinn
1 – 31 May, Uillinn Stairwell and Corridor Galleries
Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre, Monday to Saturday, 10am – 4:45pm
This year’s Bealtaine Festival Exhibition features work from Arts for an Active Mind and Arts for Health participants in West Cork Community Hospitals and Day Care Centres. Keep an eye on our social media for more information on the exhibition pieces!
Bealtaine Artist in Residence at Uillinn
1 – 31 May with Open Studio on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday, 10am – 4pm
No booking necessary but do call ahead if travelling from a distance.
Each year Cork County Council partner with Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre to invite an artist over 50 years old to take part in a month long residency at Uillinn. This year the Bealtaine Festival Artist in Residence is Fiona Boniwell.
Running to a Pause is a multidisciplinary visual art project. Fiona Boniwell seeks to examine the theme of physical movement and her changing relationship with it as it relates to her own body over time. Fiona has always been physically active, recently focusing on martial arts in tandem with her visual arts practice. During her residency, Fiona will explore this theme through studio-based drawing sessions with a view to creating a new body of work arising from the research and collaborative studio sessions at Uillinn.
In the Picture on tour for 2024!
1 May, The Maritime Hotel, Bantry, 11am – 1pm
Contact Catherina on 087 9103036 for further details
Bantry’s Memory Café will host ‘In the Picture – on tour’ this May! In the Picture is an Arts for Health Partnership Programme initiative that usually takes place in Uillinn Galleries. Attendees will have the unique opportunity to engage in conversation around the ideas brought forward by looking at and exploring the selected artworks. Facilitated by Sarah Ruttle, the session will feature artwork from a major retrospective exhibition by Brian Lalor.
The Retrospective Exhibition of the Work of Brian Lalor, 27 July to 12 October 2024, will include prints, publications, watercolours, drawings, sculpture, photographs, objects, artifacts and audio-visual presentations, curated by art historian Vera Ryan.
Dance into Spring!
With Flavie Chimenes in Uillinn Dance Studio
Saturday 4 May, 10:30am – 11:30am, €5 booking fee
Book on Eventbrite here: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/bealtaine-2024-dance-into-spring-tickets-891578965687?aff=ebdsoporgprofile
A once off dance session to get the body moving into spring. A gentle, low intensity and easy to follow dance class, ideal for older active people. It is a great way to improve flexibility, balance, heart health, circulation, coordination and general wellbeing. It is a lovely way to meet other like minded people and be part of a community.
Running to a Pause – Gestural Drawing Workshop
Saturday 11 May, 10am – 2pm, €10 booking fee
Book on Eventbrite here: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/bealtaine-2024-running-to-a-pausegestural-drawing-workshop-tickets-888295173777
Fiona Boniwell, will facilitate a gestural life drawing workshop in Gallery II with models performing martial art forms.
‘I am eager to work with members of the public of all ages, to hear about their experiences, thoughts and feelings on the subject of physical movement as it pertains to them.’
An Evening of Grá at Uillinn
Friday 24 May, 6pm, Free
All LGBTQ+ community welcome, no booking required
Salt and Pepper, Uillinn’s creative collective for older LGBTQ+, invite the wider rainbow community to an evening of ‘Grá’.
From February through to May, regular Salt and Pepper sessions have taken place at Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre, and in Cork city. Members of the collective are collaboratively curating a new body of work from the Crawford Gallery Collection. The curated collection celebrates LGBTQ+ community and culture.
Facilitated by artist Toma McCullim the collective will be inviting all ages to join them in an evening of ideas, plans, and dreams for their 2025 exhibition at Uillinn.
As Toma describes, ‘we will be sharing some of the ways we have engaged with the collection throughout our curation project. We hope we will be inspiring all colours of the rainbow spectrum to a vibrant older age.’
We will be sharing more details on our Bealtaine Festival events as the month progresses. Check back on our News page, or follow us on social media to keep up to date!