Cork festival aims to help people connect with art

Each year, students on UCC’s MA course, Arts Management and Creative Producing, undertake the ambitious task of producing a live festival, this year culminating in the Retrospect Arts Festival, set to take place on March 31 at Cork Opera House.

Aisling Knox is one of the students involved in the festival and is one of three festival ambassadors. She explains why it is important that each MA class produces its own unique festival.

“Having a clean slate is important for us, because it means, when we come into the course, it’s up to us what we want to do.

“We have creative control over what we want, and we can create that identity ourselves as a cohort,” said Knox.

“As artists, this has been a good opportunity to step onto the other side of production and put on the producing hat.

“It’s been a really fun challenge to create events that aren’t about our own artistic work, to step aside and look at what is the best way we can go about this, and what is needed.”

There are six performance spaces throughout the Cork Opera House, featuring literary, visual, and music installations. Knox says Hearth is the first installation attendees will encounter when they enter the city venue.

“It is a music event and a poetry event all in one. Several artists will perform throughout the day, followed by an open mic.

“There is an opportunity for audiences to come and watch in the first half of the day, and then in the second half of the day, they can step onto the stage and make their own performance.”

‘Out Of The Attic’ is a literary event held in the green room of the Opera House. Knox explains that this installation centres on the power and diversity of the written word.

“There will be letters displayed that were created during a creative writing session in February,” she explained.

“What is really exciting about that is that several of the letters that were produced at that session were written by people who wouldn’t normally identify as creative writers.

“Some of the writers are up-and-coming creatives in Cork city. It’s a really good opportunity to access work that might not necessarily be available in the mainstream. We will also have poets.”

‘Memory Lane’ is a series of art installations featuring Cork-based visual artists, and ‘Collective Moments’ is a community art project taking place on the Opera House stage.

“ ‘Collective Moments’ is mostly textile-based with mixed media as well, and that gives audiences the opportunity to directly engage with the process of making and the creative process,” said Knox.

“The last theme is ‘Sonder’, another installation that is more audiovisual, taking place on the building’s first floor throughout the day.”

The final event of the day is a modern take on traditional music.

“All of our day events will end around 7pm, and then the evening event is the ‘Trisco’, which is a trad music disco, a fusion of old and new with traditional music juxtaposed alongside a live DJ.”

Knox emphasises that accessibility was a priority from the very beginning of the festival’s planning. As a class, they were committed to making the festival as inclusive and welcoming as possible for all members of society.

“From our very early discussions on the festival and on our programming, before we even knew what the festival was going to be about, it was really important for us to try and build accessibility into our practice where we can.

“We’ve got the amazing opportunity of presenting this festival in the Opera House, but of course, as an old building, there are accessibility issues with that. As a group, we’ve done our best to make the festival as accessible as possible, and we have ensured that there are physically accessible routes to most of the spaces”

Knox says they have also considered how to make the event accessible for people with hearing impairments, ensuring they can fully experience and enjoy it.

“We have worked with Bridge Interpreters, and alongside our ushers, ISL interpreters will be present to explain our events in more detail to any audience members who need it.

“We have also received a lot of support from Ray Greene, a brilliant Cork-based interpreter. She has been amazing, helping us figure out how to build accessibility into our programme and how to make our festival as available and accessible to as many people as possible.”

The course includes students from Ireland, Spain, Romania, South America, and other countries. Knox notes this diversity of backgrounds increases their awareness of the need for accessibility.

“The students on our course have come from different walks of life and are sharing their knowledge and experience. For so many people, they may have never considered building accessibility into practice before, but we have really learned from each other, brought our cultural backpacks into the space, and been able to discuss accessibility. That we are such a diverse group has really facilitated peer-to-peer learning, which has been amazing.”

Knox says she and her team hope the festival will bring people together to experience joy and creativity.

“I hope that people can leave our festival experience feeling hopeful, happy, and content. There is a lot of negativity in the world now, and something that we all feel passionately about is not adding to that and giving people space to reconnect with art, reconnect with themselves and just provide a nice, joyous, creative day out.”

The Retrospect Arts Festival takes place on March 31 at Cork Opera House. https://www.retrospectartsfestival.ie @retrospectartsfestival.