The Cork Institute of Technology Arts Fest kicks off tomorrow and will run until November 20th. Big acts to play the festival this year include Mary Chapin Carpenter on Thursday, Picture House on Friday and Desford Colliery on November 19th.
This is the seventh year of the festival, which was set up by Cork IT to promote student performance in music, theatre and art. On campus there will be lunchtime performances everyday by students and, on November 10th and 17th, four college bands will perform in venues off campus.
Films by students in the schools of arts and the department of media and communication will be shown. The college theatre group have organised a performance which will consist of extracts from plays. There will also be a number of exhibitions by college art students some of which will be housed on campus.
Cork Institute of Technology is to receive £10 million for a new building for its music school. It is hoped that the new building will be ready by the start of the academic year in September 2001.
The new facility will meet the needs of students of music, speech and drama at all levels of education, from primary schools to postgraduates.
The numbers of students attending the school are expected to rise and a new degree in speech and drama is being planned.
At present the CIT school of music operates out of a number of different buildings and provides a primary degree in music, a master's degree in performance, in-service training for primary and second-level school teachers and community-based projects.
