A Day of Music in Aid of Sirius Arts Centre - Saturday 18 October

SIRIUS ARTS CENTRE
Presents
COBH MUSIC AND SONG MARATHON
In aid of Sirius Arts Centre
Saturday 18 October 10am – 5pm
In the Promenade, Cobh Town Centre

Like many community organisations, Sirius Arts Centre is feeling the pinch of the changing economic climate. We have the opportunities ahead of us that will make our listed heritage building more accessible to the public and allow us to develop projects, creating partnerships between many different community organisations with us in the year ahead, providing interesting and engaging activities for young people and our local community in Cobh and East Cork. But we need your help!

We have a challenging year ahead of us in order to realise and expand our potential. In order to meet our financial targets, Sirius Arts Centre will organise a number of major fundraisers from now and into the year ahead, continuing to bring interesting and engaging arts and cultural activities through our creative programming.

To kick off our efforts for much needed fundraising, the staff of Sirius are organising the Cobh Music and Song Marathon as part of our annual flag-day collection illustrating the opportunities we can provide the local community through engagement in the arts.

A host of local some of the finest singer songwriters from Cobh and beyond will perform in the bandstand in Kennedy Park on Saturday 18 October from 10AM – 5PM, along with many free activities for young people, including face painting and other arts and craft events.

We invite you to come down and celebrate a fabulous collection of local musical talent and colourful events with us! Throughout the day volunteers will be collecting much needed funds to assist Sirius Arts Centre in all its future programmes and running costs.

Bands performing on the day include:
Pete Courtney, Sarah Horgan, Lynda Cullen, The Banter Band, Suede Halo, Feed Back, Luasca, Annie and Isaac, Sian Brown, Kevin & Niamh Murphy, Yvonne O’Grady, Andy Wilson and DJ Ruadhri Aherne.

MORE DETAILS TO FOLLOW!!!

If you’d like to help or would like to make a donation in advance please contact our offices at

021 481 3790 or via email at: cobharts@iol.ie
Special thanks to Cobh and Harbour Chamber of Commerce.

Sirius Arts Centre presents an Evening with Brendan and Declan Murphy from the 4 of Us.

Saturday 11 November 8pm (Doors 7:45) - Tickets €15
For more information contact Sirius Arts Centre at information listed left

Formed in Newry in the late 1980s by brothers Brendan, Declan and Paul Murphy, The 4 Of Us appeared out of nowhere with the huge radio hit Mary taken from their debut album Songs For the Tempted in 1989, which helped them sweep the boards at the following year’s Hot Press awards. The slick commercial gloss of Mary belied the fact that it was a grim little snapshot of a deeply flawed relationship. The gimlet-eyed observations of Brendan Murphy’s lyrics demonstrated that this was a band who were always going to do it their own way.

Wary of the transient nature of pop, the band’s follow-up Man Alive in 1992 was a more rock driven album, featuring She Hits Me, a top 30 hit in the UK. The RTE Guide enthused ‘It's brash, fast, catchy, dangerous and covered in sin, lust and anything else The 4 Of Us can get their hands on’, and it was nominated in Q magazine’s Top 50 Albums of that year.

The band then retreated into the studio where they spent three years working on their next record, only to do what most bands would consider unthinkable. Perfectionists to the core, they looked at the results and decided it just wasn’t good enough, tore up the blueprints and started over again.

At this point The 4 Of Us effectively became Brendan and Declan, as brother Paul left to pursue a more normal existence. Knuckling down to the task at hand, the band saw their perfectionist streak pay off when they emerged with 1999’s Classified Personal, a masterful record peopled by characters who went on blind dates, made a final stab at patching things up, promised not to mess up again and ultimately held it together. It was a record that saw the band emerge from the studio fitter, older and wiser and it raised the bar even higher for them.

In 2003’s Heaven & Earth the focus becomes more universal, with songs that hint at the turmoil that was to accompany 9/11. Sitting alongside the euphoria of U Make Me Feel and the unsteady nerviness of Breakdown or No Guarantees, the massive radio hit Sunlight reminded everyone that the Murphys can write world-class songs.

Again unwilling to simply repeat a formula, the band set to work on the album that would eventually become Fingerprints. Having spent a good deal of the previous three years co-writing with a very varied set of collaborators, Brendan knew that there would never be a better opportunity to deliver a great record, and from the chiming bouzoukis of What’s To Come to the shimmering strings of Flesh and Bone, this album combines the band’s strongest ever material with its most assured performances.

For band news and information check out:
http://www.the4ofus.com/ and
www.myspace.com/thefourofus

Sirius Arts Centre Presents Cork Harbour Project, Beyond the Myths. Opening Saturday 13 September

Exhibition & Public Seminar 13th September 2008

Cork Harbour Project, Beyond the Myths is a dynamic exhibition including a public seminar, a site specific installation, walking tour and schools project was developed through a series of interactive meetings and workshops/laboratories supported by Sirius Arts Centre’s artist in residence programme. International and local artists, community groups, experts in natural history and representatives from the local authority were brought together with the aim of raising awareness about this unique Irish natural habitat. Cork Harbour Beyond the Myths is the first phase of projects drawn from these laboratories. The resulting projects are a reflection of unique partnerships formed during the 2007 laboratories.

Cork Harbour is in the process of change, a vital natural resource which offers a remarkable opportunity for investigation. The size and unique mixture of environments provide a perfect source to develop a project of this type. The natural places of Cork Harbour hold great significance for the people of Cork as well as visitors from beyond the boundaries of Cork in terms of industry, agriculture, fishing and other maritime enterprise, and leisure activities.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seminar Saturday 13th September / 2-5.30pm
Sirius Arts Centre, Cobh, Co. Cork €5 (booking required)

On Saturday 13th September at 2pm, Sirius will hold a seminar exploring how the art work in this resulting exhibition evolved and how unique partnerships created through this project affected the artists and experts involved.

The seminar, hosted by Sarah Iremonger, will involve case studies from some of the lab participants including Lieutenant Commander Cormac Rynne from Haulbowline Naval Base and exhibiting artists, Martin Sims from Australia and Danny McCarthy from Cork. Community engagement activities evolving from the Harbour Project by Cork Greenmap and Middleton artists, John McHarg & Ned Cotter with Windy Lane Puppet Theatre will also give presentations. Allan Giddy will discuss his Sonic Wells installation in Cobh followed by an open public discussion.

For more information contact Sarah Iremonger at:
Tel: 00353 (0)21 4813790
email: cobharts@iol.ie
www.siriusartscentre.ie

Sonic Wells Site Specific Installation Opening 13 September 8:30pm Ryan’s Pub, Casement Square

Wells, water holes, hot springs and billabongs were until recently central meeting points for communities worldwide. For this installation Australian artist, Allen Giddy will construct two sonic wells: one in Cobh, County Cork, Ireland and the other in Sydney, Australia, creating a virtual hole (12,720km long) through the earth connecting Ireland with Australia.

Each well will collect ambient sounds which, transmitted live, will be emitted from its sister well. Thus for instance, people near the well in Cobh will hear live audio from its sister well in Sydney and vice versa!

The aim of this project is to create a contemporary gathering place that mirrors both the history of wells and expand its potential by connecting geographically separate but related communities through collective soundscapes. An additional aim is to highlight the immigration patterns between Ireland and Australia and its special significance to Cobh.

Each well will be relatively small and will be constructed to compliment the local architecture (see simulated site images below) the wells will integrate with the aesthetics of each site whilst incorporating a minimal aesthetic reference to the site of the sister well. The aesthetic of the wells is currently being determined through consultation with local stone masons and will be designed to complement and merge with the overall site aesthetic.

Installation runs until 5 October

Sirius Arts Centre Travels to China Pingyao International Photography Festival with Three Irish Photographers.

Peggy Sue Amison, Director of Sirius Arts Centre in Cobh, County Cork, has been invited by China Pingyao International Photography Festival (http://www.pipphoto.com/) and the European Photography Festival Union (http://www.festivalunion.com/) to present the work of three Irish Photographers at this prestigious festival taking place from 19 – 26 September. Additional support from Culture Ireland has helped to make this presentation of Irish photography in China possible.

Founded in 2001, the China Pingyao International Photography Festival is the world’s largest photography exhibition. Past editions of this festival have hosted many well known contemporary photographers such as Robert Frank, Annie Leibowitz and Don McCullen.
Exhibited at the festival will be works by three Irish photographers: David Farrell, Mark Curran and Seán Hillen. This will be the first exhibition of their works in China.

In addition, Peggy will give a presentation about photography in Ireland and will discuss issues affecting international curators of photography in a one day workshop along with representatives from China, England, Greece, Finland, Bratislava, Poland and other members of the European Photo Festival Union..

Exhibited at this year’s festival will be selected works of photomontages by Seán Hillen, images from Mark Curran’s well known projects including “The Breathing Factory ”and “Southern Cross” and a selection of David Farrell’s images from works “Innocent Landscapes” and “Né Vicino Né Lontano. A Lugo”.

In addition to the exhibition of Irish work, Ms. Amison has also curated a slide presentation in partnership with the European Photography Festival Union featuring work by International artists who have participated in the Artist in Residency Programme at Sirius Arts Centre. The presentation will include works from, “Tide” by South African photograph Michelle Sank, works from a documentary project in progress on fishing by French photographer Gilles Perrin and additional images by David Farrell.

Peggy Sue Amison, Artistic Director of Sirius Arts Centre said, “I am really pleased to be invited to promote Irish photographers to a whole new audience. It’s a great opportunity both for the Irish photographers and for Sirius Arts Centre.”

Travelling to China with Peggy Amison will be artist Séan Hillen. For more information on the artists please visit their websites at:

Séan Hillen: http://www.seanhillen.com/

David Farrell: http://www.davidfarrell.org/

Mark Curran: http://www.belfastexposed.org/exhibitions/index.php?exhibition=2&year=2006&show=past

For more information contact Sirius Arts Centre at +353 21 481 3790