Limerick City of Culture 2014

pigtown

Some major talk of designating the city as a city of culture for 2014 in todays Leader (not online yet). I don't think it's an official EU designation like Cork in 2005, rather like Derry this year which is a UK city of culture.

Obviously no details yet but I think this could be a great thing for Limerick. We already have a large cultural infrastructure and I see a new theatre in Mary I, the Lime Tree Theatre, is opening soon. I would imagine a lot of touring National productions from Opera Ireland, the Abbey Theatre and possibly collections from the National Gallery and National Museums would be involved (well they would be if I was in charge). A largescale advertising campaign could then really change people's perception of the city.

So what do people think?

aaronjumper

Not to be a buzzkill but I think it would take more than a theatre and an ad campaign to change how people view our fine city.

Non Limerick people seem to think we are all knife wielding psychos.
If this is the start of something bigger though, then it could be looking up for us.

The Snipe

aaronjumper wrote: »

Non Limerick people seem to think we are all knife wielding psychos.

You mean we aren't anymore..? *puts knife back in drawer*

bazz26

Until the disease that is the current city centre is cured I see this as nothing more than lip service. Pointless drawing vistors to the likes of the Hunt Museum when all they have to greet them outside is vacant retail units, boarded up buildings and abandoned developments.

eclectichoney

I have to say, I don't find Limerick great for culture tbh. Sorry

I was really disappointed with how small the new gallery is - it's tiny! And there is no proper arthouse cinema like the IFI or Kino. I think there are a lot of other things that Limerick could accentuate - like the fashion and design courses seem to be getting a great rep for example.

xsiborg

drop another load of lorry containers into arthurs quay park, sure t'will be grand... :rolleyes:

pigtown

No takers for a city of culture then?

marienbad

pigtown wrote: »

No takers for a city of culture then?

We are not a city of culture and to call ourselves such is just ridiculous.

Attendance at anything even marginally off the mainstream is unbelievably low.

And the few assets we do have are either poorly maintained or poorly used .

pilate 1

i can feel the love all. "limerick is a loud proud unbowed ****er of a town" and should be celebrated as such!why not city of culture? city full of stuff going on just make an effort to look and encourage/support.(pigtown/lms/rappers/local bands etc etc etc:cool:

Taco Chips

No offense to anyone but this is not the type of event Limerick should be angling for. There is little to no proper or interesting cultural events going on in the city and the ones that are happening as has been said are practically empty for lack of interest.

The areas that Limerick does well in is sport/food. So they should be organising more promotions based on these. In fact Limerick is probably better off specialising in these areas because they do a lot to build communities.

Limerick City has no business being called a city of culture.

xsiborg

Taco Chips wrote: »

Limerick City has no business being called a city of culture.

well, we do have the, ahem, "festival" at the end of the month celebrating AMERICAN culture... :rolleyes:

though how badly organised that'll be is anyone's guess, after the farce that was the "decades" festival.

i went to an art exhibition last week in support of a charity, and aside from the organisers there, there were hardly any members of the general public that were interested, no media attention because it wasnt one of limerick's socially elite, and not even the mayor could be ársed to turn up to such a worthy cause. no, the office sent along the deputy mayor instead.

not even officially recognised as officially as a city of culture, sounds just more like an excuse of an attempt to try and say something positive about limerick again, but going about it completely árseways and ending up as usual with egg on their faces, making limerick look worse than it actually is and making us look like the country's laughing stock.

mikemac1

Sorry but this seems to be something Galway could do better

However could Limerick attract a sports tournament over? City of sport after all

Rugby 7's maybe?
This was held in Edinburgh a few years ago and lots of fans from all over travelled to it.
Could be a success for the city, lots of attention and lots of money to be spent by visitors from many different countries.

krudler

mikemac1 wrote: »

Sorry but this seems to be something Galway could do better

However could Limerick attract a sports tournament over? City of sport after all

Rugby 7's maybe?
This was held in Edinburgh a few years ago and lots of fans from all over travelled to it.
Could be a success for the city, lots of attention and lots of money to be spent by visitors from many different countries.

Thomond Park needs to be utilised more, no concerts this year so far (was there?) that usually bring a big crowd into the city, christ can they not put a proper band in there or a bunch of smaller bands?

LeViat

I see the Pig 'n' Porter Festival is over two days this year, engaging sport and food (and drink). There are teams from Australia entering this year..

http://www.australiantimes.co.uk/sport/tag-rugby-london/aussies-dominate-tag-rugby-international-cup.htm

This is great positive exposure for Limerick and seems to me to be an event worth supporting!

The Snipe

krudler wrote: »

Thomond Park needs to be utilised more, no concerts this year so far (was there?) that usually bring a big crowd into the city, christ can they not put a proper band in there or a bunch of smaller bands?

They can't host concerts. They have no contracts anymore for them.

krudler

The Snipe wrote: »

They can't host concerts. They have no contracts anymore for them.

serisously, ffs we have one great outdoor venue for big shows outside Dublin and they can't use it.

marienbad

krudler wrote: »

serisously, ffs we have one great outdoor venue for big shows outside Dublin and they can't use it.

And we have King's Johns Castle , which could be another brilliant outdoor venue/theatre , as it would be in any European or British town .

Go down there on a brilliant summers day and all you will find a couple of Polish lads and their girlfriends and the grandparents with the kids.

Sleepy is the only way to describe. Can't even have a snack there .

phog

marienbad wrote: »

And we have King's Johns Castle , which could be another brilliant outdoor venue/theatre , as it would be in any European or British town .

Go down there on a brilliant summers day and all you will find a couple of Polish lads and their girlfriends and the grandparents with the kids.
Sleepy is the only way to describe. Can't even have a snack there .

What's the issue with Polish lads and their families visiting the castle or any other amenity for that matter.?

Kess73

phog wrote: »

What's the issue with Polish lads and their families visiting the castle or any other amenity for that matter.?

I think the poster was passing comment on the lack of numbers at what is often decrcibed as one of the biggest attraction in the city rather than on the nationality of those that were seen by the poster.

If that is the point the poster was making, then it is a valid one. The so called cultural amenities/attractions in Limerick are hardly well attended by locals on a regular basis save for the odd big attraction, and the idea that being called the City of Culture for a particular year would make Limerick into a cultural hotspot rather than actual cultural attraction/amenties/traditions that get actual numbers going to them on a regular basis is somewhere between laughable and cringeworthy.

Not saying that you or anyone else on this thread made that claim for Limerick, but those that run the city have quite the track record for saying that the city is booming/full of one attraction/on the verge of being huge etc etc without ever doing anything save for the lip service that gets them inches in some paper or another.

Limerick is, for me, a city/town that really does not embrace or celebrate in any big way it's many cultural amenties/locations both past and present.

I am curious as to how Limerick would be in the running for the title in the year(s) mentioned in this thread though. I thought the various countries whose cities that will hold the title duringr the next 7 years have already been chosen and listed? If it is only a self given title, then it is pretty worthless to start with.

pigtown

Wow it's no wonder Limerick has problems when even the suggestion of a new initiative is shot down.

aaronjumper wrote: »

Not to be a buzzkill but I think it would take more than a theatre and an ad campaign to change how people view our fine city.

Obviously one initiative isn't going to fix the problem but it could be a very worthy start.

bazz26 wrote: »

Until the disease that is the current city centre is cured I see this as nothing more than lip service. Pointless drawing vistors to the likes of the Hunt Museum when all they have to greet them outside is vacant retail units, boarded up buildings and abandoned developments.

Going by this logic there is no point organising anything in the city until the recession is over and we have money to fix buildings. It doesn't seem to be a problem for rugby supporters so why would it be different for anyone else?

eclectichoney wrote: »

I have to say, I don't find Limerick great for culture tbh. Sorry

I was really disappointed with how small the new gallery is - it's tiny! And there is no proper arthouse cinema like the IFI or Kino. I think there are a lot of other things that Limerick could accentuate - like the fashion and design courses seem to be getting a great rep for example.

Kino has been closed since 2009 I think. The Belltable have screenings every week and there are plans to develop the old cinema on Cecil Street into something similar.
http://www.limerickleader.ie/lifestyle/entertainment/limerick-vec-in-plan-to-develop-cultural-centre-and-cinema-at-theatre-royal-site-1-2549076
There's no reason why the fashion and design courses couldn't be celebrated in a city of culture. I'd imagine LSAD would have a very promanent role in such a scenario.

Taco Chips wrote: »

Limerick City has no business being called a city of culture.

Limerick has plenty of cultural infrastructure.
It's got the first purpose built concert hall in Ireland (UCH, 1000 capacity), the redeveloped Belltable arts centre which includes an art gallery, the same digital cinema equipment used in IFI in Dublin, and a capacity of 220. There's also the Millenium Theatre (350), Lime Tree Theatre (510), Tower Theatre (80) and Sionna Theatre (200).
Then there's the Bourne Vincent Gallery in UL, the LCGA, Limerick Printmakers, The Gallery on Bedford Row, Ormston House, and others run by artists themselves that I can't remember the name of.
Other venues and attractions include Istabraq Hall, The Gallery in LSAD, Limerick City Museum, Munster Rugby Museum, Frank McCourt Museum, Hunt Museum, King Johns Castle, The Gerard Hartman Exhibition, The Georgian house and Gardens, The Bishops Palace, St. Marys Cathedral and Dagdha Space.
Not all of these venues have pemanent exhibits but with a bit of investment the city could house many lively and interesting displays.
Some of the events that could be worked on and developed include EVA, Limerick Choral Festival, Kate O'Brien Weekend, Sionna Music Festival, Cuisle Poetry Festival, CatDig, Fresh Film Fest amongst others. Yes none of these are major festivals but with a big push from the arts council etc they could be big draws.

mikemac1 wrote: »

Sorry but this seems to be something Galway could do better

However could Limerick attract a sports tournament over? City of sport after all

Rugby 7's maybe?
This was held in Edinburgh a few years ago and lots of fans from all over travelled to it.
Could be a success for the city, lots of attention and lots of money to be spent by visitors from many different countries.

Maybe Galway could do it better. Does that mean we shouldn't try? Lots of suggestions that we would be better off with a sport festival. I'm sure such a thing would be quite successful but why can't we do both? This is a bit of a generalisation but I'd imagine the two would have seperate audiences and wouldn't be in competition with each other.

pigtown

Kess73 wrote: »

I think the poster was passing comment on the lack of numbers at what is often decrcibed as one of the biggest attraction in the city rather than on the nationality of those that were seen by the poster.

If that is the point the poster was making, then it is a valid one. The so called cultural amenities/attractions in Limerick are hardly well attended by locals on a regular basis save for the odd big attraction, and the idea that being called the City of Culture for a particular year would make Limerick into a cultural hotspot rather than actual cultural attraction/amenties/traditions that get actual numbers going to them on a regular basis is somewhere between laughable and cringeworthy.

Not saying that you or anyone else on this thread made that claim for Limerick, but those that run the city have quite the track record for saying that the city is booming/full of one attraction/on the verge of being huge etc etc without ever doing anything save for the lip service that gets them inches in some paper or another.

Limerick is, for me, a city/town that really does not embrace or celebrate in any big way it's many cultural amenties/locations both past and present.

I am curious as to how Limerick would be in the running for the title in the year(s) mentioned in this thread though. I thought the various countries whose cities that will hold the title duringr the next 7 years have already been chosen and listed? If it is only a self given title, then it is pretty worthless to start with.

I'm only going from what I read in the Leader but it appears that it's not an official EU city of culture, more an Irish initiative simlar to Derry's status as UK city of culture next year. It was suggested that the existing arts budget would be manipulated in order to fund the new events in Limerick. Sure it's a self given (as in government) title but if they follow up with funding and expertise through the department and various arts bodies then what's the problem?

aaronjumper

I have nothing against it and I said as much in my post.
My point was if this is the start of something bigger then that's good, whereas if people are hoping to solve the problem with one new addition to the city and an ad campaign they will be sorely disappointed.

Reputations can be ruined in seconds but can take years to build up.

Kess73

pigtown wrote: »

I'm only going from what I read in the Leader but it appears that it's not an official EU city of culture, more an Irish initiative simlar to Derry's status as UK city of culture next year. It was suggested that the existing arts budget would be manipulated in order to fund the new events in Limerick. Sure it's a self given (as in government) title but if they follow up with funding and expertise through the department and various arts bodies then what's the problem?

If it was followed up with genuine funding and genuine expertise then it would have a chance, but it is was just the type lip service, that happens more often than not in Limerick, claiming to be something great but without any substance then it would be nowt but a joke.

But there would still remain the problem of Limerick not really being the kind of city that has a population that traditionally attends things, in any great numbers, on a regular basis that would fall under a cultural banner.

I know that there was a foreign film festival not too long ago that was holding screenings in Limerick, Dublin, Cork, Galway and a number of other locations and I was very excited as I love Asian cinema. but Limerick ended up not getting the same screenings due to lower anticipated turn outs (which in reality ended up being even lower again) but when I drove to one of the other cities (not Dublin) to try and catch a screening or two there was a much better turn out and far more local interest and advertising.

Same thing happens at times regardings plays, I often end up heading to Galway or Cork when Limerick gets bypassed.

I would love to be able to see in Limerick some of what I travel to see, but the numbers just don't seem to be there on a regular basis here in Limerick.Would be much handier to be able to wander into the city centre than to have to go to Galway or Cork and staying overnight if I wanted to have a drink.

pigtown

I understand your point Kess but the way I see it is two government ministers (Michael Noonan and Jimmy Deenihan) appear to want to hold a government sponsored festival in Limerick. Now say what you will about the government but I can't see this being a bad thing. Also maybe this could be a launchpad for the arts in Limerick and an opportunity to get the locals more interested in the area.

eclectichoney

I think the point is that Culture just is not Limerick's strong point but you can't be good at everything! Like the way sport is not Galway's strong poinht for example. Instead Limerick should concentrate on something it can be the best at in ireland - food and dining as someone suggested is a great idea. Accentuating and building on the existing strengths is a better idea than trying trying to create something out of well, not very much.

marienbad

phog wrote: »

What's the issue with Polish lads and their families visiting the castle or any other amenity for that matter.?

Apologies, I did'nt make my self clear. No problem whatsoever with the Polish lads and families, they are at huge benefit to the city and country (imho) . I was just making the point the Limerick people just do not support their own amenities.

No matter how many facilities we have - UL concert hall/LIT/ Belltable etc it seems to make no difference.

Just look at the listings for those venues and you will find they are unused 60 % of the time and not for want of trying . And if it is not mainstream - not a chance.

What was it they said in Field Of Dreams ? ''If you build it they will come''- well sadly not in Limerick it seems . It could turn out to be an embarrassment , we won't even turn up in great numbers for Magners league games even though in many cases we have already paid for the tickets !

seachto7

mikemac1 wrote: »

Rugby 7's maybe?
This was held in Edinburgh a few years ago and lots of fans from all over travelled to it.

add in the fact that Edinburgh is a beautiful city and you can see why the 7s was a success. We would have to consider the fact that Limerick is just not a pretty city. Would people travel here for the 7s?

LeViat

If not 7s then maybe 10s

xsiborg

marienbad wrote:

What was it they said in Field Of Dreams ? ''If you build it they will come''- well sadly not in Limerick it seems . It could turn out to be an embarrassment , we won't even turn up in great numbers for Magners league games even though in many cases we have already paid for the tickets !

what they forgot to say is if you build it, you have to market it, promote it, make it accessible to the masses, make it affordable... take the upcoming 4th of july festival for example, i've heard nothing about that around town, except for a few mentions here on boards. the people behind it have done little or nothing to promote the event, so how are people supposed to know its even taking place?

the recent africa day celebrations down in the park, i only happened upon them by chance! you cant run an event, expect to keep it all to yourself, and then bemoan the people that didnt turn up!

i see very little promotion of the belltable, the hunt museum is just 'there', and i dont recognise half the places in pigtowns post, simply because i've never heard of them before now!

leakyboots

Taco Chips wrote: »

No offense to anyone but this is not the type of event Limerick should be angling for. There is little to no proper or interesting cultural events going on in the city and the ones that are happening as has been said are practically empty for lack of interest.

The areas that Limerick does well in is sport/food. So they should be organising more promotions based on these. In fact Limerick is probably better off specialising in these areas because they do a lot to build communities.

Limerick City has no business being called a city of culture.

Complete bollocks. Limerick does culture very well.

It has a quite varied (new, expanding electronic festivals like Bump!, house music in Bentleys, the metal festival in Dolans, Micronite, plenty of trad, plenty of original music nights in pubs, rumours of a Limerick Jazz Festival starting soon too) music scene.

I'd go as far to say that Limerick's music scene is the envy of most of Ireland - fellas are moving from Cork and Galway to be a part of it, there are some serious musicians in this town. Different types of music on 7 nights a week in all sorts of venues. The Milk Market is now a major venue to add along with Dolans (same ownership but still), it can and will pull in big and interesting names (Trinity Orchestra doing Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon?)

As for 'building communities', go look up the work of the Limerick Learning Hub. http://www.learninghub.ie/

I'm sure others can speak in more detail about other aspects of culture but you're off to a bad start with "little to no proper or interesting cultural events" when all of this is happening underneath your nose.

Your last line beggars belief.

Insect Overlord

Honourable mentions also to the Limerick Writers' Centre, the White House's Poetry Revival, and Riddler's for hosting the monthly "On The Nail" literary gatherings.