KILKENNY, recently established as a major location on the international comedy calendar with the Cat Laughs festival, has long been home to a summer Arts' Week, which began its sometimes distinguished existence 24 years ago, when events like Galway Arts Festival had not been dreamt of.
While maintaining a strong classical music programme, the Arts Week's overall profile has often dipped over the last decade. The last three years have seen some positive innovations, but more needs to done. Last July, the Arts Week board invited two outside advisers to meet them and assess the festival. Frank Dunlop, who directed the Edinburgh Festival in the 1980s, and Sheila Colvin, director of the Aldeburgh Festival, say the Arts Week has "the potential to become an international festival of stature", according to an Arts Week press release.
The board, chaired by Dr Mary Mooney, has "ambitious" plans to realise this potential. A first step will be the appointment of a full time director next month. Perhaps the most remarkable thing is that the Arts Week has survived at all without one.
Meanwhile, this year's programme gets underway next Saturday week and runs until August 25th. Highlights of the first weekend include concerts by the European Baroque Orchestra and Boris Berezovsky, readings by Paul Muldoon and Jennifer Johnson, and a wide variety of visual arts shows. And, hot from its success in New York, the Gate's production of Waiting for Godot opens at the Watergate Theatre before the Festival proper, on Friday 16th. Information from 056 52175. There is also a vigourous Fringe programme, ranging from a Scottish samba band to Jack L and the Black Romantics. Fringe information from 056 70276.
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