Making space for local Cork culture
Jack O'Rourke on Spike Island
On the eve of Culture night, where more arts spaces are accessible to the general public than normal, it’s worth looking at the state of play in 2023.
In Cork City bands, singers, rappers, DJs and other acts will face the same problems many face worldwide.
The cost of living situation is not unique to Cork, and there are far worse places to live, but many of the challenges faced finding creative spaces are echoed throughout the world.
Rent remains one of the big ones, and it’s obvious that renting spaces to create is gonna be more difficult in a world where many people can’t afford to even rent a place to live. There have been a few positive developments with regarding existing creative spaces, which I will come to, but everything from practice rooms to spare rooms and garages have become more scarce in recent years. The expense of it has also increased.
We do thankfully have a gig economy that runs for seven days a week but it remains difficult to run things in a financially viable way for venues, promoters, artists and the like.
Writing in peak student season, the city may seem more packed than ever, but this often leads to a more generic music experience, where the clubs just try to pack them in rather than develop something more creative.
It’s understandable in some ways, but sometimes it does lead to some friction, and many in Cork’s LGBTQI community took to the streets last Thursday protesting the decision of the Chambers bar to sideline them in favour of Freshers events. It brought some interesting topics to the fore, as many in that community had seen the venue as one of their few safe spaces in the city. We sometimes underestimate the importance of these nighttime spaces which remain very important, and which have historically been important for communities who have struggled for such spaces throughout the decades.
That controversy brought the lack of spaces to the forefront of our minds once again. Tomorrow the city opens up, and more established artistic spaces such as the Crawford Gallery and the City Hall will become more accessible to artists who would rarely get a chance to perform there. This is a welcome development which will find the Electronic music council programme techno and other music in the Cork City Hall, while the likes of Trick Mist and Elaine Howley will perform live in the Crawford, where their will also be lectures, conversations and poetry.
The recent After Hours at the Museum grant scheme is funding a bunch of events at such venues in the coming months and I’m looking forward to DJing at the Glucksman on the grounds of UCC next Thursday evening as part of it. The Glucksman has always proved to be a welcoming space for many different communities in Cork and they have actively developed numerous programmes with migrants and Travellers over the year.
It is great when a space opens its doors and engages with the wider community and in my opinion art galleries should be doing this type of active engagement as regularly as the Glucksman do it.
The progress thankfully isn’t confined just to Culture night and to these grant schemes though. The Good Room, always innovative in their music and arts programming, just ran three nights on Spike Island, and I was lucky enough to attend last Sunday’s event featuring Jack O’Rourke and friends. Ferried to and from the event from Cobh, this was a beautiful way to experience a live show, and timings of ferries also meant their was ample time to go and check out the museum and other facilities on Spike Island, which has amazing views to match its amazing history.
I was impressed by the way they kept everything open late on a Sunday and I was blown away by the progress they have made on the Island since my last visit, ahead of their redevelopment a number of years ago. The gig itself was excellent too, and as I returned to the mainland, I couldn’t help but imagine the possibilities we have when interested parties co-operate for such shows!
