Big news! Blacknight has come on board as a sponsor for the upcoming Galway Cartoon Festival, a celebration of the comic arts taking place at the Galway City Museum in October from the 1st to the 9th. We at Blacknight are huge supporters of the creative arts (and are proud to host many great Irish artists and studioes on our infrastructure). It’s been a tough year for jobbing artists like cartoonists as COVID restrictions have kept them away from weddings, events, busking, and public arts festivals. The Galway Cartoon Festival hopes to hit a big reset button and draw attention to the arts as Ireland continues to re-0pen.
Here are the full details:
From art trails to workshops, caricatures to spanish comics, the 2021 festival is sure to delight!
‘At Large’ the flagship exhibition for this year’s Cartoon Festival, will be a humorous look at how the world has coped with the restrictions of the past year and a half – featuring works from top Irish and International cartoonists, held at the 2020 Hub at the Corn Store.
With a growing expectation that we will be able to emerge from our Covid-cocoons over the next year, this year’s programme will see cartoonists consider what happens to the metaphorical butterfly when it hasn’t had a social life for 18 months. Will the world be scary and incomprehensible? Will we be overwhelmed when we have to talk to people? Or will we be more patient? Friendlier? Will our chins feel cold without the masks? Show us what a post-Covid world of freedom looks like! The Corn Store Hub will also showcase an exhibition titled ‘Expo Comic ‘ 20 years of Comic Art from Spain’ in association with Instituto Cervantes.
The Galway City Museum will play host to the works created in Galway by the famous British artist Augustus John. Alongside the museum will feature an exhibition of ‘Iconic Galway Characters’, caricatures of contemporary faces about town by local and international artists.
The featured artist of the festival is Brian O’Toole whose works will go on display at the Town Hall Theatre Foyer. An exhibition of weird and wonderful cartoons and caricatures by the late Liverpool-based artist, most of Brian’s work was published in Irish publications.
In the wider county, the festival will showcase a celebration of cartoon art in the Irish language in ‘Tarrain E I nGaeilge’ (‘Draw it in Irish’) which will take place at The Corn Store and Aras Eanna (Irish Orr).
The festival will also host a series of events across various bars, restaurants and hotels throughout the city. ‘Meet the Cartoonists’ is a chance to meet some of the visiting cartoonists and caricaturists, see them in action and perhaps receive a great drawing. The festival’s annual ‘Draw on the Wall’ will see several blank wall spaces provided throughout the city to encourage people to draw and discover their inner cartoonist.
There will be visiting cartoonists and local caricaturist Allan Cavanagh will be available to draw your caricature, as well as an art trail and historic walk where a number of shops and business premises throughout the city will be featuring mini exhibitions of cartoons in their shop windows. In association with the Augustus John exhibition, a History Walk dedicated to the artist’s life and work will take place across the city. As well as a workshop by Fabrice Matray, a chance to learn the techniques and secrets of cartooning from a top French cartoonist.
You can find out more details about the festival at the official website here. They’re also continuing to raise funds to make sure the festival is a success – check that out on GoFundMe.
About the Author: Jonathan Thomas
