MOST people put the piece of paper in the bin, admits Cork Regional Technical College lecturer and Cork RTC Arts Fest director, Pat Ahearn. Pat Kelleher, the college's director, had asked staff to think of a way of marking the coming together of the School of Music and the Crawford College of Art and Design under the RTC umbrella.
The fiddler, Mall Cranitch, didn't bin the memo, however, and RTC Arts Fest, the fourth of which runs from tomorrow for a week, was his idea. "It drew together the three strands from which the RTC developed," explains Ahearn.
The fascinating thing about the festival is how it has fertilised the college's creative roots. In response to the feeling that, as Pat Ahearn puts it, "life is not one dimensional", the college this year employed an Arts Officer, Tricia Harrington, and this is the first such appointment in an RTC. Her arrival has given the festival a shove into the limelight.
On Tuesday the President, Mrs Robinson, will officially open Cork RTC Arts Fest. It is a major coup for a festival which is only in its fourth year. This is not a frills and trimmings festival, however, and its roots go far into Cork's creative soil. The Arts Fest exhibition in RTC's Large Exam Hall features work by the staff of the country's art colleges, including Jane Pierce, Dermot Seymour and Samuel Walsh. Cork Community Art Link have made a 3D mural in the RTC main foyer. Music groups from Ballincollig, Caintairi Mhuscrai and the Ballincollig Concert Band, play on Tuesday in the West Atrium at 8 p.m.
The most popular event is likely to be the Oiche Cheoil, with traditional musicians including Frankie Gavin, Mairtin O'Connor and Mary Bergin, while stellar traditional singer Maighread Ni Dhomhnaill gives a lecture on the sources and influences on the traditional singer tomorrow at 5 p.m. in the Triskel Arts Centre.
Other interesting events are the Arts Fest Spectacular, with King Masco, a two hour extravaganza of music from west Africa (Cork Opera House tomorrow, 8 p.m.), the mini French film festival (Monday to Thursday), John A. Murphy's lecture entitled "History and politics as art forms" (Tuesday, RTC Theatre, 3.30 p.m., admission free), Cwmni Ballet Gwent with Red Riding Hood and the Company of Wolves (Wednesday, Firkin Crane, 8 p.m.), the Lambert Puppet Theatre (Saturday 23rd, RTC Theatre, 12 p.m.), and a recital of Mozart piano concertos by pianist Hugh Tinney with the orchestra of St Cecilia (Sunday 24th, Aula Maxima UCC, 8 p.m.).