Celebration of Irish links to Liverpool

Jul 30 2008 by Vicky Anderson, Liverpool Daily Post

Birkdale artist Derek Culley _320

A NEW exhibition described as a celebration of Irish culture and an exploration of the links between Ireland and Liverpool is now on in the city.

Fis 2008 – Gaelic for vision – is taking place at the Novas Contemporary Urban Centre on Greenland Street, comprising a visual arts exhibition, film screenings and talks.

It is already proving popular, with more than 400 people attending a private viewing last week.

It all came about after Dublin- born and Birkdale-based artist Derek Culley was featured in the Liverpool Daily Post last year after winning a prestigious Pollock- Krasner foundation grant for his work.

From there, the story was picked up by a Gaelic language website, where it was seen by up and coming Irish artist Martin Campbell.

Intrigued by what he saw, Mr Campbell contacted Mr Culley with a view to putting on a two-man show, and Novas – a national charity which has worked for years with displaced Irish in Britain – suggested they widen the project to make it a wider cultural event.

Fis 2008 is the result.

"If I tried to plan this, I wouldn’t have done it. It’s a wonderful accident. We got this together in about eight months, when exhibitions like this usually take about two years," said Mr Culley, whose own work features in the gallery alongside recent JMU graduate Anna Marie Quinn and Raymond Watson, whose work is inspired by Irish prisons including the Maze.

Mr Culley raided his contacts book to find a broad range of Irish artists willing to get involved.

"There’s 12 artists, six female, six male, some are emerging, some are established, it’s a good mix of North and South. This really is an artist-led initiative. It’s a celebration of culture, of what’s happening in Ireland today, and with the Irish arts at home and abroad."

"I think this is one of the best shows in town this year, with such good artists," he said.

There are two special events this weekend – on Saturday (August 2), Nead an Dreolín, a collection of short films exploring the poetry of six living Irish language poets, and 1920 Irish classic In the Days of Saint Patrick will be shown back to back – the latter accompanied by renowned Irish harpist Cormac de Barra who will play music specially composed for the silent film.

One of the highlight of the festival is a screening of the major new award-winning Irish film, Kings, starring Colm Meaney.

It will be shown on Sunday August 3 at 2pm, following a talk by Patrick Fitzgerald of The Centre For Migration Studies in Omagh who will chronicle the history of migration between north west England and Ireland.

Phil Redmond, cultural director of the Culture Company, said: "Fis 2008 explores the Irish connections with Liverpool 's modern evolution to become European Capital of Culture.

"It contributes to and helps broaden the wider exhibition of contemporary art works being staged in Liverpool during the city's 2008 celebrations."

Fis 2008 runs daily, from 10am to 6pm, until September 7. Call 0151 708 3517 for further details.

vickyanderson@dailypost.co.uk