September 2010 - December 2010

www.gbshawtheatre.ieOld Dublin Road, CarlowT. 059 917 2400

PERFORMING ARTSJanuary 2012 - April 2012

September 2010 - December 2010

VISUAL ARTSJanuary 2012 - April 2012

www.visualcarlow.ieOld Dublin Road, CarlowT. 059 917 2400

Brochure Guide

The brochure is divided into two parts; from one side you can read the TheatreProgramme, if you turn the brochure around and upside down you can look up the Visual Arts Programme, the Community Strand and the Outreach & Education Programme.

Between the Theatre events section of the brochure and the section containingthe Visual Arts Programme, the Community Strand and the Outreach & EducationProgramme you can see our quick find calendar of events, information about ourfriends scheme, booking tickets, restaurant, how to join our mail list.

VISUAL - Centre for Contemporary Art and the George Bernard Shaw Theatre is aCarlow Local Authorities project, located on a site generously donated by theTrustees of Carlow College and developed with the support of a grant of €3.17million by the Department of Arts, Sport & Tourism under the ACCESS Programme.

STAFFDirector Carissa FarrellCuratorial Fellow Emma-Lucy O’ BrienTheatre Manager Róisín McGarrProgramme Co-Ordinator Michelle de ForgeTechnical Manager Joe FlavinSales, Marketing and Press Manager Miriam RocheMarketing Intern Des LeeBox Office & Reception Manager Caroline O’ BrienBox Office & Reception Assistant Brigid DeeringFinancial Accountant Suzanne Morrisey FordeCaretakers John Delaney/John Doyle

Front of House Team Robbie Allen, Caroline Byrne, Saidhbhín Gibson, Mary Foley, JonathanCasey, Janice de Broithe, Vanessa Fitzpatrick and Jacinta Haughey

Technical Support Anthony Walsh, Brian Sheil, Tadhg McSweeney, Daniel Craig and Emmet Jones

Office Volunteers David Kirwan, Ciara Duggan and Allison Baker

Gallery Volunteers Jacinta Haughey (gallery volunteer co-ordinator), Aedeen O’ Hagen,Anastasia Cody, Betty O’Gorman, Claudia Pieri, Eilís O'Neill, Eilish Langton, Emma Walker,Ellen Walsh, Frances O’Connor, Kay Cullen, Peg Harding, Mary Cannon, Mary Keating,Maura O’ Halloran, Maureen Egerton, Maya Hanley, Megan Ryan, Olwyn Grogan, NiamhDundon, Philomena Lyttleton, Renee Stafford, Sinead Gisel, Sharon Gamez and Tony Maher

Theatre Volunteers Alison Byrne, Caitríona Connolly, Emma Delaney, Olwyn Grogan, MaryHutton, Katie McGloin, Sandrine Ndaniro, Michaela Nolan, Edita Vozgirde, Emma Walkerand Róisín Whelan

Design & Production: dynamite design, kilkenny www.dynamite.ieCover Image: Eileen MacDonagh, Icohsahedron SeriesPhotography: Backgrounds by Helen Binet

Theatre Manager’s Foreword

Every season we welcome to The GB Shaw Theatre stage performersof all ages and backgrounds with Carlow schoolchildren and CarlowActive Retired groups treading the same boards as the best nationaland international performing artists in Ireland.

This Spring 2012 season is no different, with another great mix oftheatre, music, dance, comedy and art-house film from the bestlocal, national and international performing artists on tour in Irelandto entertain and inspire you.

We’re extending a warm welcome back to some of our regular localgroups with Carlow Lunchtime Storytellers, Carlow Little Theatre,Dance Republic, Spotlight Stage School and Seamus O’Rourke’sSchools Music Extravaganza all returning with their latest shows.

The wide range of professional theatre offerings include some of the greats of the dramatic canon; Shakespeare’s MacBeth, SamuelBeckett’s Rough for Theatre, That Timeand Rockabye, and Mozart’sOpera The Magic Flute, alongside Aidan Dooley’s award winningone-man play Tom Crean; Antarctic Explorer, and Blue Raincoat’s wildand absurd production of Rhinoceros by Eugène Ionesco and the hilarious The Wheelchair on My Facefrom Sonja Kelly. We’re also really looking forward to the improvised musical hilarity promisedby Showstopper The Musicalon tour from the UK.

We have plenty of music ranging from Derek Ryan, Tommy Fleming,Frankie Gavin & De Dannan, to Christy Leahy and guests, blues guitarist Rusty McCarthy and Gemma Hayes, as well as classical guitar music from Redmond O’Toole in the VISUAL galleries for a veryspecial listening experience.

We’re also delighted to host a very special weekend of Irish languagedrama in March from groups around Ireland as well as the officiallaunch of the Pan Celtic Festival 2012. See local press for further information.

From all the team here in The GB Shaw Theatre, we look forward toseeing you at some of the great events on offer.

Róisín McGarr

Thank you to all our patrons for making 2011 such a positive year for VISUALCentre for Contemporary Art & The George Bernard Shaw Theatre. We aredelighted to welcome you again in 2012 and can promise you a dynamicand exciting programme, which we are sure you will enjoy!

For the Spring Season VISUAL hosts local artist and acclaimed sculptorEileen MacDonagh’s large scale exhibition LithoSphere. MacDonagh wascommissioned in 2008 through the Percent for Art Scheme to produce an external work for VISUAL; as a result the Medusa Tree was created. This impressive sculpture, blending the ancient symbol of a tree with contemporary fabrication, stops viewers in their tracks. MacDonagh has re-imagined this tree, not alone but within the family of a forest, filling the Main Gallery for her new exhibition. Throughout her career MacDonagh has worked in stone from the miniature to the monumental,with a common thread continually apparent - her interest in geometricforms. This exhibition showcases a diverse range of sculpture by MacDonagh,much of which has never been shown in Irish Galleries before.

The Lobby Gallery finds a new function this spring with The Glass Box Project, which will host artists, groups and researchers with the aim ofopening up dialogues about art, culture and communities. The Glass BoxProject is an initiative of Emma Lucy O’Brien, Shinnors Curatorial Fellow at VISUAL.

VISUAL are delighted to continue our Community Exhibition Programmein 2012, starting with a photographic exhibition from Plan Ireland celebrating their 75th Anniversary, which demonstrates the importantwork this charity does supporting children in developing countries througha series of colourful and poignant photographs.

Following on the success of Family Days, Parent & Toddler Group andArtist-led Workshops, VISUAL is continuing to offer these activities alongwith new educational opportunities such as Portfolio Preparation Courseand Young Writers Competition in spring 2012.

We hope our exciting programme of exhibitions and events will havesomething to interest all the family this New Year!

Carissa FarrellDirector

Director’s Foreword

Eileen MacDonaghLithoSphere

Described at the inaugural stages of VISUALCentre for Contemporary Art and The GBShaw Theatre as a new symbol for Carlow,Eileen MacDonagh’s 11 metre high MedusaTree (2009) stands prominently in the forecourt of VISUAL and St Patricks College.Surprisingly this ambitious sculpture wasoriginally conceived, not alone, but as part ofa forest of trees that would scale to the loftyheights of the Main Gallery. Instated as a single tree and an outdoor permanent sculpture; The Medusa Tree is an enduringsymbol of artistic growth and potential.

LithoSphere marks a return to MacDonagh’sinitial vision for the Main Gallery. Departingfrom more immutable works in stone andsteel the artist has created a transient

labyrinth of precisely finished 8 metre highpaper-pulp trees. This is one of the most ambitious installations to command thespace to date.

Outside of the main gallery’s towering forestthis exhibition surveys a career dedicated to the tender command of stone, timber and geometric compositions. Combined these elements confront the viewer with apresentness that the weight and density ofstone commands. Multifaceted and perfectlypoised polyhedrons rest in varying tones and sizes, older works from the early 90’s illustrate enquiries into composition, weight and balance.

MAIN, LINK, STUDIO & DIGITAL GALLERIES

5th February - 7th May 2012

Opening Reception on Sunday 5th February at 3pm

Medusa Tree, stainless steel, 2009

Eileen MacDonagh ( b. Sligo, 1956) has beenworking as a sculptor for over thirty years.She has participated in Sculpture Symposia all over the world and has completed almost20 public art commissions around Ireland. In2004 she was elected to the Aosdána andstands as one of the countries preeminentartists working with stone. MacDonagh livesand works in Athy, Co Kildare.

A casebound catalogue supports this exhibition with essay by John Grande, eminent art critic, writer, lecturer based in Canada and Jenny Haughton, Public Art Advisor for the Arts Council.

Eileen MacDonagh will discuss her work inthe galleries on Sunday the 19th of February.This is a ticketed event and reservations must be made through the box office.

5th February - 7th May 2012

The Glass Box Project

The Glass Box Project is designed as a platform for independent groups and researchers to discuss and present ongoing projects. It hasbeen put in place to support an open dialogueabout culture, education and art in the publicand to foster emerging visual art projects. TheGlass Box Project seeks to gather and makeavailable information about the visual arts incommunities. The facility is a public one and for the use of all those interested.

Acting as an archive of information The GlassBox is also an active space for developmentand the harvesting of new art projects. Its scope is broad and hope is to make

visible the potential of contemporary art initiatives and the place of the arts in contemporary culture.

January to May 2012 in the Lobby Gallery at VISUAL.

Windows, 2011

LOBBY GALLERY 30th January- 7th May 2012

JAN 9th - FEB 5th

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D Plan Ireland 75th AnniversaryPhoto ExhibitionLaunch on Thursday 26th January at 6.30pm

Plan Ireland is celebrating its 75th anniversary and hasproduced a set of canvas prints to mark the occasion.Taken from a variety of projects in countries wherePlan operates, the photographs reflect the diversity andpositivity of Plan’s work with children in fifty countriesin the developing world. From musicians in Haiti tosmiling schoolgirls in Myanmar and traditional dancersin Ghana, the photographs offer an insight into thepositive impact that Plan has on the lives of some ofthe poorest children in the world, thanks to its childsponsorship programme.

Date:Mon 9th January - Sun 5th February

Myanmar, Warisara Sornpet, 2011

MAR 6th - APR 2nd

An Exhibition of Local LaceCelebrating the tradition of lace and its local enthusiastsVISUAL and the GB Shaw Theatre are delighted to be exhibiting work by some of Carlow county’s expert lacemakers. As a traditional craft, lace found its origins in Ireland in the 19th century during the famine. Its beginnings were rooted in Irish poverty and craft workers trained through examples of european stylesfor a new and unfortunately short lived enterprise.

As industrialisation quickly took hold the lace industryreceded into the luxury market we understand it astoday. This exhibition illustrates some fine examples of contemporary Irish lace and includes works by lacemakers Mary O’ Neill, The Lace Gallery, Kilbride and Ena Atkinson , Ardrattin, Carlow.

This exhibition has been gathered to reflect on the tradition of lace making in the county.

Date: Tues 6th March - Mon 2nd April

Fantasia II, Mary O’ Neill, Special Commission. Image courtesy Mary O’ Neill

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FEB 19th

LithoSphereEileen MacDonagh discusses her exhibition at VISUALEileen MacDonagh discusses LithoSphere,encompassing new and older work; thislarge scale exhibition surveys the artist’scareer to date. This talk specifically focuseson the work exhibited in the Galleries at VISUAL.

Sculpture in the LandscapeMaking Large Scale work

Artist Talk: Eileen MacDonagh

Artist Eileen MacDonagh has worked inlarge scale sculpture for over 20 years inwood, stone, metal and most recently inpolystyrene and Paper-Pulp. Choosing towork in monumental scale often rules out Gallery exhibitions and so the workmust be situated outside. In this talkMacDonagh discusses the nature ofworking in the large scale and specificallythe considerations of making work whichwill be situated in exterior environments.

Sculpture in the Landscape refers to site-specific commissions; self initiated constructions;sculpture parks or works moved to exterior locations for exhibition. In addition the term landscape can be interpreted as Rural or Urban environments.

Date: Sat 24th March Time: 3pm Price: €5

ARTISTS TALKS

Date: Sun 19th February Time: 3pm Price: €5

Detail from Lunar Landscape, Centre Culturel des Irelandais, Paris, 2008

MAR 24th

Boora Pyramid, Lough Boora, Offaly, 2002

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Young Audience’s at VISUALWe are happy to announce the launch of a new range of activity sheets for young audiencesat VISUAL. These have been co-ordinated to relate to the exhibitions and offer some facts on the artists, interesting questions to think about and space to sketch ideas. These worksheets have been coordinated for the age groups 3+, 6+ and 10 + and will be available from the reception desk or from our invigilators in the galleries.

JAN 7th

Portfolio CourseThis 8 week course has been designed to assist thosepreparing a portfolio for third level studies in Art andDesign. The course is prepared and facilitated by practicing artists and third level art educators. It includes modules on life drawing, painting, sculpture,print and note book studies. The course is open to allthose preparing for entrance to art college in 2012 and2013. Please note the early submission dates for somecolleges may coincide with this course for 2012 entries.

A detailed list of materials will be provided when booking at box office on 059 9172400.

Dates: Beginning Sat 7th January (for 8 weeks) Time: 11am - 2pmPrice: €130 (materials not included)

Schools Art Writing Competition

In relation to this season’s programme of visual art, VISUAL will be running an art writing competitionin conjunction with second level schools. This competition asks students to describe their trip to oneor all of the current season’s exhibitions in 500 words. The winning entry will receive a National BookToken and have their winning entry published on the new VISUAL website. All entries will be availableto read in the foyer of VISUAL and the George Bernard Shaw theatre for the month of May. Guidelinesare available from the box office and on the VISUAL website.

Entries should be returned to box office by Wednesday 18th April at 5.30pm.

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expandanceWorkshopFor Over 50sAlicia Christofi-Walshe of expandance is back leading our over 50s dance group, Ré Órga, in aseries of dance classes and new choreographies. These popular sessions encourage, inspire,and motivate people to get dancing! Classes with Ré Órga emphasize maintaining flexibility,strength, balance, and co-ordination all in a social and relaxed environment. Learn new socialdances and be part of new contemporary choreography, all abilities welcome. Come along tomeet new people and make new dances!

www.expandance.blogspot.com

Date: Beginnng Wed 8th Feb Time: 11am - 1pm Price: €5 (per session)

Image by Mary Hutton

Date:Wed 1st Feb - Fri 3rd Feb Time: 1pm Tickets: €18

Second Age Theatre Company

MacbethStudents and schools in Carlow are in fora real treat. Second Age’s production ofMacBeth oozes high-voltage physicality, a sumptuous design, and the highest calibre actors you'll find on any stage.

Shakespeare and boring will never beused in the same sentence again. Students attending on Thursday the 2nd February performance will have the opportunity to meet members of the cast after the show.

WORKSHOP

WORKSHOP

Family Art WorkshopsFollowing on from the success of last season’s family days, VISUAL will continue its Family Art Workshops in the gallery this season welcoming parents and grandparents to come with their children and grandchildren and get creative. Facilitated by artists and based in the galleries, thesefamily fun days are guaranteed to add the sparkle of imagination to any Sunday afternoon. Suitable for children up to the age of 12 years. Patrons should note that this is a family workshop and parents/guardians must remain with their children throughout.

Parent & Toddler Group Parents, guardians and childminders and preschool agechildren come along to VISUAL for a morning of art and fun.Facilitated by an artist this group offers an opportunity foryour toddler to meet up and play with other children, takepart in an art activity and for you to have a tea or coffeewith other parents. Parent and Toddler meets on Wednesday mornings at 11am.

This is a popular gathering so If you would like to come along please contactthe Box Office on 059 9172400 to register your interest in advance.

Image: Saidhbhín Gibson, P&T facilitator

Following from the success of last year’s Creative Print classes,Mary Cullen has devised a new course From Drawing to Print.Over 3 sessions, drawing elements will be explored in order tocreate a single-plate print on an etching press. The format ofthe workshops will be a step-by-step exploration of texture,light/shade and composition using drawing and printing materials. The workshops are suitable for those starting out or with prior experience of drawing/print, who wish to exploredrawing techniques and to have the opportunity to experienceprintmaking using a zinc/perspex plate on an etching press.This workshop will be run over three Tuesday evenings.

Date: Tuesday 6th, 13th, 20th March Time: 6.30pm - 8.30pm Price: €65 (Places Limited, please book through the box office)

From Drawing to Print with Mary Cullen

Date: Sun 26th Feb, Sun 11th Mar & Sun 22nd Apr Time: 2pm - 3.30pm Price: €6 (per family/up to 3 members) Booking through the box office

Date: Wednesdays from 14th January Time: 11am Price: €3 (per family)

maryscreative.blogspot.com

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T: 059 917 9245 E: eat@lennons.ie www.lennons.ie

At Lennons we are committed to providing good honest food produced with passion and attention to detail while using only the finest Irish meat and locally sourced ingredients. Our intention is to provide a restaurant that will suit all preferences and dietary needs with a carefully chosen menu including gluten free, vegetarian & healthy options.

• An independent restaurant offering the best of local ingredients and produce for morning coffee, lunch & dinner• A seating capacity for 70 people with additional sun terrace • Friendly and casual environment• Pre-theatre supper and dinner menu• Value for money wines with particular care given to wine by the glass• Post theatre sharing boards• Ready-made meals to take home• Catering for private & corporate functions• Ideal location for corporate functions, parties & product launches

Opening Times:• Monday - Saturday 10.30am - 5.00pm• Thursday - Saturday 6.00pm - 9.30pm *last orders Join us on facebook• Sunday Brunch 12.00pm - 4.00pm

*We will also be open for additional evening service in conjunction with theatre events please enquire for more details

What Lennons @ VISUAL can offer: